Wednesday, April 9, 2014

XP Support ended Yesterday : What changes?

For many people nothing changes, the day Microsoft says they won't patch XP anymore.  However, if some major virus spreads like wildfire throughout the remaining XP system population on the internet, you can be Microsoft will release a "free" out of band patch for that vulnerability. It would be impossible for them not to.

For some people, and for some industries, XP really is dead.  My employer works in the healthcare market.  I believe that to operate a Windows XP machine in a healthcare setting, whether in a hospital, or a private clinic, would be tantamount to malpractice.  In the USA, and in Canada, there are laws about the steps you need to take to protect the privacy of your information.  You can not patch XP yourself, and you have no promises from Microsoft to ever patch any vulnerabilities in XP.  So, use of XP in a professional setting, especially in healthcare, would be, in my view, irresponsible at the least, and perhaps a violation of the law, in your country, if your laws protect patient privacy and hold those who fail to act responsibly to protect patients.  I am not saying anything bad WILL happen, but that something bad COULD happen, and it would be irresponsible for you to pretend that it couldn't.

XP really was a great operating system.  It was the first version of Windows that I really grew to like. The funny thing is that I can't stand operating on it any more.  I find it incredibly quirky and broken. I never liked Vista, and I loved Windows 7.  I know some people will think I'm crazy but I actually LIKE Windows 8.1 now. There are still some stupid things about it. The start "screen" and "metro" are stupid, and I hate them, but aside from the glaring stupidity of the metro crap,  Windows 8.1 is a pretty decent operating system.  I use it all day every day at work, and I like it.  I like client Hyper-V.  I like the responsiveness and overall speed of the system. When 8.1 Update 1 brings back a reasonable facsimile of the Windows 7 era start menu (non-full screen), I think many people will at last be willing to switch up from Windows 7.

As a Delphi developer,  I'm not sad to see XP go away.  It was a fantastic piece of technology in 2002, but like the machines that it ran in 2002, it belongs in a museum, not as a primary operating system on your home or work computer.  

XP introduced the desktop and home user to a fully Unicode compliant API, but true global Unicode features and functionality required installing a separate language pack for far-east language support.  XP introduced a fairly robust protected mode kernel, but ran your video drivers in ring zero, meaning that video card bugs would blue screen your system.   XP was actually really crappy, by comparison to windows 7, and in my opinion, windows 8.1 is just a tuned up kernel revision on windows 7, with a rather shabby new start menu, and a lame-duck "app store".   But below that lame layer, beats the heart of a pretty good operating system.   I find building apps in a modern Delphi version (XE5) on Windows 8.1 is pretty nice.  I like making my apps look like they belong on a modern computer in 2014.  Here are a few things I think need to die along with Windows XP:

- 16 x 16 toolbar icons.  This was a sensible choice when your laptop screen was 640x480. No more.

- Flat gray everywhere.  Give the clBtnFace look a rest, okay?

- Those stock bitmaps that shipped with Delphi 3.  Invest in some real art and icons, okay?

I suggest you celebrate the death of XP by moving your apps beyond that ancient classic windows look and feel, and into the 21st century.  XP is dead, long live Windows.

How are you all feeling about XP? Nostalgic? Still in love? Glad to see it go?  Planning to go down with the ship?