<p>Now that there are so many vistas, 7s, Macs, ...etc</p>
<p>XP is cheap!</p>
<p>To all you college freshmen:
is XP good enough?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>10char</p>
<p>The computers my school owns run XP. Unless your school requires you to have Vista, then XP should be fine.</p>
<p>xp is getting phased out, it wouldn’t make sense to buy it now, go for W7 you can get it fairly cheap if you look around</p>
<p>Jump from XP to Windows 7 if you haven’t already. If you are building a new computer, you can get a new copy of Windows 7 OEM for less than 100.</p>
<p>Running an outdated OS has its share of issues. Consider that XP is almost 10 years old.</p>
<p>While it may be OK for now, you will find increasing amounts of issues in terms of security holes that cannot be patched, newer software that is incompatible with XP, and lack of drivers for any hardware you use with the system.</p>
<p>This usually translates to much more trouble than it’s worth. For example, the next generation iPod and corresponding iTunes might not support XP, or some websites you need to access only support certain (newer) versions of IE/Firefox and they happened to have dropped support for XP by that time. In either case, your only solution is to upgrade. Even having one incident will make the difference in price worth it.</p>
<p>As previously said, OEM editions of Win7 are cheap, and you may even find some academic discounts at your school. I know for sure that you can join IEEE as a student for $20/yr and get free copies of Microsoft software (inc’l Win 7 Pro) for “free” as part of the included MSDNAA.</p>
<p>Or, consider using Linux. If you think you may have trouble, why not download Ubuntu and give it a try? Since it comes in the form of a LiveCD, you don’t have to install it – just insert it, reboot, and see what it has to offer.</p>
<p>XP will be fine so long as you get all your updates before July of this year. I believe they are being phased out after this time. But with all the student discounts available to get Windows 7 I honestly do not see why anyone would run anything but. Unless you are like me then you run nothing but Linux. Cant argue with FREE :)</p>
<p>Thank you!!!
I am not so good with computers, but I will definitely try Linux Ubuntu out!</p>
<p>Thanks for your helpful comments</p>
<p>Almost EVERY new laptop you buy right now comes with windows 7 free/pre installed.</p>
<p>If you’re already using a laptop, XP is fine. Everything works on it. XP will last for a long time since many businesses use it.</p>
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<p>That’s true, but the problem is that XP <em>has</em> already lasted an extremely long time. Usually, it lasts for 6-7 years before everything gets phased out. However, XP lasted much longer because of Vista’s poor performance and late introduction.</p>
<p>Getting updates by July doesn’t mean much after July. New exploits will be found, and if the OS is not supported, your only remedy is an emergency upgrade.</p>
<p>In fact, at my campus, oudated, non-supported OSes will not be allowed to connect to the campus network. So, by the time MS stops supporting XP, all XP laptops will be banned from using any on-campus internet connections, including on-campus wifi and dorm internet. There are ways to easily detect that you have an outdated OS with a good amount of confidence. I’d imagine that most campuses will have similar policies to protect their networks and users.</p>
<p>The bigger issue is when Microsoft will stop providing support for the operating system at which point bugs and security holes are no longer fixed. Microsoft has moved the date out a few times and my guess is that they will continue to provide support for customers paying for a support contract because there are probably many companies out there that don’t want to upgrade because their applications work on XP but might not run on newer operating systems.</p>
<p>I have a six-year-old laptop on my desk running Windows XP and Windows XP x64 edition. I expect this laptop to be running six years from now. I’d guess that upgrading to Vista or Windows 7 wouldn’t be possible on this system due to lack of drivers (my x64 partition was hacked together).</p>
<p>Do colleges allow Linux? UPenn requires Windows 7 Professional/Enterprise/Ultimate/Premium and doesn’t support starter or home basic, so I would have to buy one of those, unless they also support Linux (not mentioned at all on their site).</p>
<p>You can have a computer that isn’t supported - they just might not help you out when you have a problem.</p>
<p>My college allows Linux. If you’re unsure about what your college requires, it’s probably best to contact their IT department.</p>
<p>Microsoft is terminating support for XP SP2 in July. They will continue to support SP3 for some time into the future. I don’t know the termination date for SP3. Those companies still on XP2 that have to remain on it for whatever reason are going to have some tough decisions to make.</p>
<p>I have Windows XP SP2 x64 edition. Microsoft never did an SP3 for x64 so I’m hosed.</p>
<p>lebron, don’t u have enough money 2 get win7 ???</p>
<p>No! My budget is 700 dollars!</p>
<p>Have you looked into The Ultimate Steal by Microsoft? I believe they offer Windows 7 for pretty cheap.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks P!</p>