RIP Windows XP... Pour'n One Out for My Dead Homie

As the official Microsoft Windows XP End of Life deadline of April 8, 2014 fast approaches I sit here and reflect on how this Operating System impacted my life & career.   Back in the day there were fewer options regarding Operating Systems than there are today.  When Windows XP launched it was the badass OS that brought the best that Windows NT 4.0 & Windows 98 had to offer in one tight package.  XP really was the first full fledged plug & play OS that actually functioned out of the box on a plethora of platforms & supported a huge number of devices from jump street.

Window XP is over 13 years old & I find it amazing that Microsoft supported it for so long.  I reminisce about my days with the federal government and I remember the huge arguments that I used to have with management & co-workers urging them to stick with XP & not upgrade to that disaster of an OS called Windows Vista.  It wasn’t that I had any special emotional connection to either one of those Operating Systems I just realized that our lives would be easier if we just stuck with XP and waited for Windows 7 to be released.  I’m glad that we waited because I watched other organizations decide to deploy Windows Vista enterprise wide and it was a huge #FAIL.

I’ve built many applications on & for Windows XP and I will admit that the OS wasn’t at all bad.  It really did serve its purpose and it’s long service life speaks volumes.  I mean 13+ years of “support” is unheard of in technology and we’ll probably never see something like that again at least not from Microsoft anyway.

As the deadline approaches I seriously encourage all of you Window XP users to seriously look at Linux.  Any Linux OS will do at this point but if your running Windows XP that prob means your hardware is a bit older and if that is the case #! (Crunch Bang ) Linux is your best option.  Check my previous blog on #! here.  Retire your XP systems and migrate to an open sourced freely distributed operating system.


As for Windows XP,  on April 8, 2014 I'll be pouring a little something out of my forty.

RIP  Windows XP    2001 - 2014
Viva!!!   Linux


-a