Windows XP celebrates its 20th anniversary. Do you miss it?

[Redaktion]

In just three days, Windows XP will turn 20. Released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, Microsoft's (now ancient) operating system is still being used by millions of people today (although the market share is below 1 percent), just a few months away from the release of Windows 11.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-XP-celebrates-its-20th-anniversary-Do-you-miss-it.556323.0.html

[Hunter2020]

Still use it everyday as my MAIN OS (I have Windows 7/8.1 installed together with XP).  Why?  It's the fastest, least annoying MS OS.

All of my machines are generation Ivy Bridge (3rd gen core).  Can run everything up to Windows 10.  But I don't wanna touch 10.  Microsoft became NOT fun after they went crazy and turned their OS into hardcore data mining/gathering systems complete with the full set of NSA backdoors.  That's why I will be giving future business to Deepin Linux and possibly Harmony OS (when it comes out for desktops/laptops).

[Hunter2020]

I don't even know how ppl put up with this:

In Windows XP, the image viewer will play an animated GIF.  In Windows 7 and above, you get a static image of the first frame of the animation.

Even in Android, you can see the entire animation as thumbnails in the default file browser.

Way to go Microsoft!! It seemed everything about Windows regressed past/beyong Windows XP. 

[LL]

Oh Yeah! And  yes i miss it no BS OS.
Except it was not as good as today OS in recognizing devices, MS improved that but not much anything else.
In W7 search never worked properly, i did not even touch 8. W10 is a pest but i have to use it due to application compatibility.

[MartinPC]

Small Correction: Unless you're counting Windows NT proper, which wasn't really marketed to home and SMB users, I'm pretty sure Windows 2000 (based on Windows NT) was the first version of Windows that wasn't based on DOS with a Windows front end. XP was, however, the first such version that became very widely used. And to be honest, I still kind of miss it. It was straightforward and generally easy to administer. If you asked me what my favorite Microsoft OSes of all time were, I'd have to answer XP and 7 (until ca. spring 2015, when Microsoft's chickens from firing most of their in-house testing staff started coming home to roost).

[heffeque]

LOL@Hunter2020
Complaining about Win10's backdoors while using Swiss cheese XP.

[Erik]

Never particularly liked XP, 7 is my favourite. About the surviving XP users, quite a few of them are possibly embedded systems? I guess that running a cash register with XP is not exactly the safest thing to do, but the extended support for those actually ended "only" two years ago. The really bizarre case is the one Armenia, roughly half the systems in that country apparently still run Windows XP.

[Hunter2020]

If youre gonna use Windows, it doesnt make any sense to use anything other WinXP/7.  Theres no way Windows 10/11 can beat Deepin linux in user experience.  It already has things Windows 11 trying to emulate like centered taskbar and rounded corners.  Has things Windows prob doesnt have like auto dark theme at night.  Doesnt require new shiny hardware.  Runs faster because it doensnt have those data mining/indexing services running all the time in the background to make NSA have easier time snooping data on your PC.  So better experience overall.  Die hards use Windows XP because they already have something better than 10/11 multibooted on the same system.

[kek]

If youre gonna use Windows, it doesnt make any sense to use anything other WinXP/7.  Theres no way Windows 10/11 can beat Deepin linux in user experience.  It already has things Windows 11 trying to emulate like centered taskbar and rounded corners.  Has things Windows prob doesnt have like auto dark theme at night.  Doesnt require new shiny hardware.  Runs faster because it doensnt have those data mining/indexing services running all the time in the background to make NSA have easier time snooping data on your PC.  So better experience overall.  Die hards use Windows XP because they already have something better than 10/11 multibooted on the same system.

At first, I thought some comments in here were serious about Linux, but then I saw someone suggesting HarmonyOS (LOL) as an option.

That Deepin Linux seems good enough, but honestly, aside from the desktop skin, I really doubt it is any better than Debian/Ubuntu.

[SLW]

No.

[Hunter2020]

And what exactly is wrong with Harmony OS?  When China solves the microchip issue, youre gonna see Harmony OS loaded laptops running on ARM chips that will make even Apple drool.  Dont forget Harmony OS already in use to autopilot the car model Arcfox Alpha because of its super low latency.  Imagine how Apple and co will cry foul when Huawei fully applies such technology to work computers.

Deepin is good but it doesnt support ARM chips yet.  Harmony OS will headbutt with Apple in this niche category and excel at it.

[Hunter2020]

BTW guys, Deepin Linux is not a skin applied to Debian Linux.

Even program in the apps menu is written from scratch by the Deepin skin.  Whats makes Deepin so amazing is you could download torrents with the built in downloads manager.  Extract text from images with built in OCR, etc.

This kind of stuff makes Deepin so much more superior to Windows.  Does Windows have a builtin torrent downloader?  Can you cut and paste text found on images (without using a third party image editing suite?)

The thing that surprised me the most, Deepin even took the effort to build their own Chromium based browser.  Before the Deepin browser existed, you were forced to send personal (telemetry/data mining) thru one of these clients to their respective evil companies:. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera.  BUT now there is a sixth choice called Deepin browser which frees you from the grip of said evil companies when u go on the web.

[Codrut Nistor]

And what exactly is wrong with Harmony OS?  When China solves the microchip issue, youre gonna see Harmony OS loaded laptops running on ARM chips that will make even Apple drool.  Dont forget Harmony OS already in use to autopilot the car model Arcfox Alpha because of its super low latency.  Imagine how Apple and co will cry foul when Huawei fully applies such technology to work computers.

Deepin is good but it doesnt support ARM chips yet.  Harmony OS will headbutt with Apple in this niche category and excel at it.

I think that the "China" part might be a problem for some people. Can't say for sure, but some might enjoy more the idea of being spied upon by the US than China. :D P.S. Security freaks will obviously go with some Linux distro, while most people won't care much about being spied or not. As long as my operating system works well, I wouldn't have any problems if China, Russia, the US, and even the Taliban would take a peak at my stuff from time to time...

[xpclient]

Absolutely miss it. XP was the greatest Windows that didn't treat the user like a moron or slave who must adapt to whatever Microsoft does. It treated the user with respect by giving options and choices. It put usability first. XP was the last of the great Windows release. 7 was tolerable but flawed with its Taskbar, Explorer and Start menu All programs.

[T03]

I do not need to miss Windows XP, because I use it as my offline OS alongside Ubuntu Linux, which is my primary online OS now. To me, Windows XP is the final true Windows. After Windows XP, NTVDM became broken (32-bits) or non-working (64-bits), DirectX was cut off to support only version 8 and above, native hardware accelerated audio was cut off, original WinHelp and DirectInput were cut off... You name it. 16-bit support has always been part of 32-bit Windows versions, but it may be gone with Windows 11. Windows XP has it all, and compatibility is lacking for only  a small number of programs.

Windows 98 SE is still the best version of Windows, if thought from the viewpoint of compatibility; It can theoretically run every program designed for MS-DOS and Windows (not NT) from 1980 to ca. 2004. Those a few stubborn programs are possible to run on pure MS-DOS on 98 SE.

Many people blame hardware, but in fact the core compatibility problems lie within the operating system. If Windows 10, XP and 98 SE are installed alongsode on the most modern PC possible, Windows 98 SE and XP can still run the programs that are incompatible with Windows 10. For energy-efficient computing, we need to make a move back from emulators to NTVDM, as the Intel's processors can still run 16-bit code. Plus, NTVDM required about 10 times less power than emulation. Instead of dropping NTVDM, we should create a better NTVDM.