If you love Windows XP, you’ll hate Windows 7
My colleague Jason Perlow has been playing with Windows 7, and he hates it. The sad thing is, all the things he hates are improvements, in my opinion, which just goes to show that you really can’t please everyone. But what’s sad to see is that every setting Jason describes as broken is in fact easily customizable so it works the way he wants it.
The crux of Jason’s complaint is simple: “I learned how to use Windows in 1998. Don’t change a thing.” Here’s his main argument in a nutshell:
Microsoft extends Windows XP lifespan yet again
Windows XP is turning out to be the operating system that just won’t die. Microsoft has stopped offering retail copies of the operating system.
The company had planned to tell computer makers to stop preloading the software on new notebook and desktop systems earlier this year. But Microsoft has issued several stays of execution so far — and this week the company did it again. Windows XP was scheduled to go gently into that good night on January 31, 2009. But now computer makers are allowed to continue shipping machines with Windows XP through 2009.
Microsoft claims success with Vista security
Microsoft has claimed in its fifth Security Intelligence Report that Windows Vista is giving hackers a much harder time.
Using data collected from computers worldwide, the company found that when it comes to browser attacks - the most common type - only six per cent targeted the Vista operating system, compared to 42 per cent with Windows XP.
“We have seen significant improvements in Vista with vulnerabilities,” Bret Arsenault, general manager of the National Security Team at Microsoft, told vnunet.com. “We are seeing very good improvements with the newer software. These results show just how good it is, particularly as the data has been normalised between the two operating systems in light of the installed base.”
Microsoft patches potential ‘worm hole’
On Thursday, Microsoft issued a rare out-of-cycle patch for a vulnerability in the Windows Server service that handles remote procedure calls (RPC) that allows programmers to run code either locally or remotely. In issuing MS08-067, Microsoft warns “it is possible that this vulnerability could be used in the crafting of a wormable exploit.” Entitled “Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644)” the specific vulnerability has been assigned a National Vulnerability Database designation of CVE-2008-4250.
Microsoft rates this patch as critical for Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and important for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It also affects versions of Windows 7 pre-beta in limited release. The patch replaces MS06-040.
R.I.P. - Windows XP
I have now spent two weeks using Ubuntu 8.04 exclusively on my home PC. I have booted to XP only once, and that was to check a Photoshop 6 quirk I was getting in WINE. (As it turned out, it was a Photoshop quirk, not a WINE one.)
But I tell you what - that one boot to XP reminded me why I switched to Ubuntu in the first place. XP takes 5 minutes to load, 5 minutes to launch Firefox, and EVERY FRIGGING ACTION seems slow-motion compared to Ubuntu.
Windows XP gets another lifeline
Bowing to continued demand, Microsoft has again extended the life of Windows XP.
Three months after Microsoft stopped selling new copies of Windows XP, the software remains a top seller on Amazon.com.
Although the largest PC makers can’t sell XP anymore (except for ultra-low-cost machines), they can sell Vista Ultimate and Vista Business machines with XP discs in the box, or even Vista machines that are “factory downgraded” to Windows XP.
Build your own free security suite
Do-it-all suites are the name of the security game these days. Sure, you can gather free programs that cover the bases much as a suite would, but who wants to bother with finding out which apps work together and which ones might leave you pulling your hair out?
We do. And what’s more, we did — all so that you could have an easy-to-follow guide to building your own free suite.
We tested the following applications on Windows XP; not all of them work under Vista, but we’ve suggested replacements that you can consider if you’re on the newer OS. Bear in mind that these downloads are free only for home use.
IE 8 consumes more RAM than Windows XP
After evaluating Internet Explorer 8, the folks over at the exo.performance.network are declaring it to be one seriously bloated piece of software. Not only is it “fatter” than IE 7, it’s also more resource-intensive. Here are the stats in all their gruesome glory:
* 350-400MB memory footprint
* 150-200 concurrent execution threads
* 6 discrete iexplore.exe process instances
* Over 2x more demanding than Firefox
Microsoft to push XP SP3 via Auto Update on July 10
Microsoft is going to release Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 via its Automatic Update (AU) service on Thursday July 10, company officials confirmed this week.
The client team has been vague about when it planned to push the latest version of XP to users. “Early summer” and “sometime soon” were favorite comebacks when officials were asked for an AU timeframe for SP3.
Customers who have automatic updates turned on but who don’t want XP SP3 to be downloaded to user desktops this week — for whatever reasons — need to deploy the Microsoft Service Pack blocker toolkit to delay pushed-delivery of SP3. While Microsoft will begin pushing SP3 tomorrow, not all users will receive it immediatly, as the company will be staggering the rollout.
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Windows XP Departs: Good Riddance or Sad Farewell?
The forced retirement of Microsoft’s Windows XP is set–with some exceptions–for Monday. To quell XP separation anxiety and the rancor of seething Vista haters, Microsoft has agreed to offer Windows XP updates and security patches until April 2014.
However, PC retailers such as Dell have pretty much stopped selling computers preloaded with the venerable OS.
XP’s disappearance has stirred much conversation. In fact, more than 200,000 people signed a petition to keep XP–a campaign championed by our sibling publication InfoWorld. In the long run, though, Microsoft refused to yield to the entreaties of XP-philes.
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