Mike Reilley
1st Class Member
Escondido, Ca
Conductor
Posts:534
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 | | 10/29/2008 12:11 AM |
| | Microsoft announced that Windows 7 was to be released soon...and that it would eclipse Vista. Normally, Microsoft supports the current OS and one version back with patches. I run with Vista (ugh) but a lot of my friends and business acquaintances still run XP. Has anyone heard whether MS is going to continue to support XP?
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ShadsTrains
Moderator
West Jordan, UT
Conductor
Posts:595
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| | 10/29/2008 1:06 AM |
| | End of support for Windows XP with service pack 3 is in 2014... Plenty of time to upgrade.. | |
Shad Pulley
Webmaster
www.mylargescale.com
As Abe Lincoln once said: "You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." | |
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TonyWalsham
Melbourne Vic Australia
Foreman
Posts:368
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| | 10/29/2008 2:45 AM |
| I have a newish lap top (May 2008) that was "downgraded"? to XP from Vista.
It was a bit flaky on start up at times until service pack 3 was installed. Now it works flawlessly. Touch wood!!!
Jen will be buying a low cost full size lap top thsi week whilst the prices are low and it will have XP fitted from the get go. So it is good news to me that XP will be supported until 2014. | |
Best wishes,
Tony Walsham
Remote Control Systems. www.rcs-rc.com/
Evolution Radio Control. www.evo-rc.net/
The primary problems of the planet arise not from the poor, for whom education is the answer. They arise from the well educated - for whom self interest is the problem. William Sloane Coffin. | |
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thespottedcat
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:11
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| | 10/29/2008 4:25 AM |
| The official release date for 7 is still 2010. I wouldn't hold your breath, the dates tend to slip, and they need to get this right.
Buy a Mac, or Vista Pro/ business, which you can downgrade to XP.
Stan
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Scottychaos
1st Class Member
Rochester, NY
Foreman
Posts:275
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| | 10/29/2008 5:39 AM |
| So you can still (in reality) upgrade a Vista system by (officially) downgrading it to XP? 
good to know!
I might be looking for a new home PC soon..in the next year or so..
I would definately want to go with XP..
is XP still available on new machines?
thanks,
Scot
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Scot Lawrence
Rochester, NY USA
SA #2089 | |
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TonyWalsham
Melbourne Vic Australia
Foreman
Posts:368
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| | 10/29/2008 6:32 AM |
| It is here in Australia.
Most netbooks come with with XP Pro as do some full size laptops and desktops.
You do have to shop around. | |
Best wishes,
Tony Walsham
Remote Control Systems. www.rcs-rc.com/
Evolution Radio Control. www.evo-rc.net/
The primary problems of the planet arise not from the poor, for whom education is the answer. They arise from the well educated - for whom self interest is the problem. William Sloane Coffin. | |
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Esppe Pete
Brakeman
Posts:16
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| | 10/29/2008 8:10 AM |
| | Apple is Pounding Vista with TV adds, I would not be surprised if the Launch a new Windows OS sooner than 2010. | | | |
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Pete Thornton
1st Class Member
Annapolis, MD
Conductor
Posts:626
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| | 10/29/2008 8:52 AM |
| Posted By Scottychaos on 10/29/2008 5:39 AM
So you can still (in reality) upgrade a Vista system by (officially) downgrading it to XP? ![<img src=]() " src="http://www.mylargescale.com/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wink.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" />
good to know!
I might be looking for a new home PC soon..in the next year or so..
I would definately want to go with XP..
is XP still available on new machines?
thanks,
Scot
Scot,
I believe Microsoft continued to supply XP until July this year, and there is a deal with Dell (and others?) that allows you to buy a machine with Vista Business or Professional and 'downgrade' it to XP. I don't believe XP is available on new machines, and Microsoft has this really irritating habit of recalling all copies of their older product off the retailer shelves - so you can't buy XP CDs at a store. If you can get a legal XP CD (some retailers kept them and sell them - try your local computer show) then the instructions for the downgrade are online. Just reformat your hard drive, get the right disk drivers, and away you go... | |
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pimanjc
1st Class Member
Jim Carter - Wichita, KS
Conductor
Posts:509
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| | 10/29/2008 9:04 AM |
| SP3 was installed on my XP Mediacenter laptop. Now I have drag and drop problems to FTP web sites like the MLS webspace, from my networked storrage drives. To date, Microsoft has not found a solution to the problem. JimC. | |
"Never promise more than you can give. Always give more than you promise." ~JC
"You don't stop laughing because you grow old, You grow old because you stop laughing." ~AU
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paintjockey
Smalltown oHIo
Foreman
Posts:216
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| | 10/29/2008 10:42 AM |
| | What is the problem with vista? I honestly don't know. I have it, but must not use it enough to see the problems. So far to me, other than moving the butons around it seems just like XP, which seemed just like '98 which seemed just like '97....... The biggest bummer for me was that some of my video games quit working and there is no patch anymore. | |
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
-Ben Franklin
There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking.
-Ben Franklin
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're goining to feel all day.
-Frank Sinatra | |
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ohioriverrailway
1st Class Member
Pittsburgh, PA
Foreman
Posts:177
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| | 10/29/2008 2:15 PM |
| | http://www.3btech.net/ offers PCs with XP. I've had pretty good experiences with these folks, both in getting parts and in having them build PCs for me. | |
Rick Hannegan
Gen'l Supt.
Ohio River Electric Rwy. | |
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peter bunce
Moderator
near manchester, England
Foreman
Posts:365
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| | 10/29/2008 2:46 PM |
| Hi,
XP is likely to be around fort a while: Microsoft has increased the length of its 'support' - it was till 2010; now its 2014 as has been mentioned.
Microsoft had (in the UK) insisted on computers sellers bundling Vista with everything, that was modified to a possible choice of an alternative of XP supplied but NOT loaded (as my new computer and guess what it was loaded with XP pronto!). That has changed and there are a few (UK) computer makers now offering XP instead of Vista (which has/had(?) very poor sales).
The latest is that Microsoft (for the last 4 years ) are looking at 'cloud computing' (download or use web based programs, not' bought' programs - think of Google apps) and also the supposed Windows 7 is in effect a 'spares bin' fixup- the centre engines of Vista, with the drivers etc of Windows 2000 wrapped around it. (Using Vista, if you can't get drivers for your old equipment try a windows 2000 driver - it may work!).
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Peter Bunce.
my website is part of my daughters website at www.musiccorner.co.uk', under the G scale sections on the left hand side. | |
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Mike Reilley
1st Class Member
Escondido, Ca
Conductor
Posts:534
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| | 10/29/2008 4:37 PM |
| Posted By paintjockey on 10/29/2008 10:42 AM
What is the problem with vista? I honestly don't know. I have it, but must not use it enough to see the problems. So far to me, other than moving the butons around it seems just like XP, which seemed just like '98 which seemed just like '97....... The biggest bummer for me was that some of my video games quit working and there is no patch anymore.
Simply stated...compared to the previous versions of Windows....Window's Vista sucks from a USER perspective.
a. It's biggest problem...it's SLOW!!!! It takes much longer to boot a machine up from a cold start than other Windows versions. Same is true for a start from the Hibernate mode. It's also a HUGE memory hog...I added 1G of memory to my computer (now at it's 2G max) and it runs a lot better. With only 1G of RAM, it ran unacceptably slow...swapping stuff on and off the hard drive. b. It has an indexer (I shut it off) that allows you to search for stuff faster....problem is, the indexer runs all the time and slows the machine down further. If you run Google Desktop (which I do), the Vista indexer and the Google Desktop indexer fight for processor services...and the machine just flat crawls. c. It uses a NEW interface for images...and older image interfaces (e.g. TWAIN interfaces to scanners or cameras) that you have become a crap shoot on whether they will work. In my case, NONE of my TWAIN interfaced devices will talk to the computer...two cameras and a scanner. d If you have older versions of programs, you'll find the Windows Update function drives you nuts each time you boot up with it telling you an update is available for your old program...except the update that it finds is NOT compatible with Vista....and there's no way to turn that off (for that program). e. Mine, and others I've spoken with, has this irritating issue where at startup, it logs onto my network, then drops the login, the restarts it automatically. Why I don't know. But, if you open you email program, or go to a web site, you get 404 errors all the time...until it figures out to re-login. f. It's a crap shoot when you load and old program for it to work. Several of my GRR programs, one good one that rescaled photos, do NOT work under Vista...and the maker of the program won't upgrade the program to make it Vista compatible. | |
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Bill Swindell
1st Class Member
Martinez, CA
Foreman
Posts:235
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| | 10/29/2008 4:47 PM |
| | As usual, Microsoft changed everything around. I think they do it just to upset the users and make more money. There was nothing wrong with the user interface on WIndows 98. Why can't they leave the stupid thing alone. I have my XP machine set up to look like Windows 98 and it works fine. I saw an ad the other day for the OEM version of XP Professional for $139. | |
Bill Swindell
Martinez, CA | |
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thespottedcat
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:11
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| | 10/30/2008 4:36 AM |
| I think what MS has done with XP varies country. Here in Aust, you can legally downgrade Vista Business to XP pro. The HP's I have bought recently come with Vista installed, but with a disc to downgrade to XP. Painless, but time consuming.
You can still buy XP loaded on the sub 10" screen netbooks, (Asus EEE Pc's etc...) plus some HP laptops for some reasons
I main beefs with Vista is that it a memory hog, and that it's not very backwards compatible. I have one dell with Vista in the fleet that has 4gb of ram to run, and that is with every "cool" feature turned off. Drivers for old printers are pigs as well.
For the average home user Vista is fine, but for business, it's very expensive to implement. The cost of re-writing our custom applications is prohibative, and I won't be doing it unless I have to.
If you dislike Vista so much, try a Mac. A third of my fleet are Macs, and I can't get the users to switch from Mac to PC. They are very stable and well built. I'm developing a soft spot for them. Long live XP
Stan
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John J
Moderator
Conductor
Posts:906
Send Message
| | 10/30/2008 6:07 AM |
| While we are on the subject of irritating things. Have you guys seen the TV commercial with Seinfeld and Gates? They are in a shoe store. It is so stupid and annoying I don't even remember what is about. | |
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Torby
1st Class Member
North Chicago 'burbs.
Engineer
Posts:1908
Send Message
| | 10/30/2008 6:57 AM |
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 One king held the frankincense,
One king held the myrrh,
One king held the purest gold,
One King held the hope of the world.
-- Point of Grace | |
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paintjockey
Smalltown oHIo
Foreman
Posts:216
Send Message
| | 10/30/2008 9:20 AM |
| Torby, that is tooo funny.
I guess i dont know enough about computers to notice the problems you guys mentioned. My vista seems to work fine for me. And yes JJ those are about the dumbest commercials I have ever seen. | |
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
-Ben Franklin
There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking.
-Ben Franklin
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're goining to feel all day.
-Frank Sinatra | |
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armorsmith
Brakeman
Posts:18
Send Message
| | 10/30/2008 1:30 PM |
| Try one of the Linux distributions.
A good portion of the Mac OS is Linux based (some directly utilized).
Most of the Linux distributions come with Open Office (word processor, spreadsheet, etc), Gimp (Photoshop) and other good software included.
Bob | | | |
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Hagen
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:31
Send Message
| | 11/01/2008 10:24 AM |
| Dell still ships computers with XP-pro, officially they are installed with Vista Business, but if you order with Xp, you get XP.
They are just not allowed to advertise for XP anymore.
I got a phonecall from M$ yesterday actually, asking me why our business does not run Vista. I asked "Do you run Vista on yours?", "ehm, yes?", "Then you know why"  " align="absmiddle" border="0" />
Got to give it to them though, Server 2008 is phenomenally user friendly, crap is you need a license for every person connected to the damn thing...
Server 20000
OS (2008), 7000
Cost of client access licenses 30000
Look on M$ reps face when you boot Fedora on the server: priceless
(ooops, values are local currency, but the meaning is there " align="absmiddle" border="0" />) | | | |
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