Still Using Xp??

[crosscourt]

To tlmiller, Win7 has never been crash prone in my experience and Ive had far more problems with Win8 and Win10 to be honest. I despise Win10 and will not switch to it and given its recent track record of bad updates and system killing problems Id stay with Win7 as long as I could.

To dai, Mint XFCE 18.3 would be my suggestion for a distro as its install is straightforward, its very Windows like and can do pretty much everything that can be done with XP. Second option would be to move to Win7 as its still supported into 2020 and honestly he should be able to still run it beyond that date with a better chance of maintaining security. Browser and anti-virus/firewall apps will continue to be available.

My guess is his system is probably already compromised and he doesnt even know it. Many apps sit within the system, invisible and cant be seen without up to date apps and who knows how good his hardware firewall is? Probably hasnt been updated in years using older firmware and completely vulnerable.

To each his own.

[tlmiller]

To tlmiller, Win7 has never been crash prone in my experience and Ive had far more problems with Win8 and Win10 to be honest. I despise Win10 and will not switch to it and given its recent track record of bad updates and system killing problems Id stay with Win7 as long as I could.

I wouldn't call Win7 crash prone, but it crashed more often than 10 has that I've seen. This is in my home machines and in the work machines that I support. The biggest comparison for me are my work system (optiplex 7040 that was running Win7 for the first year I worked there before upgrading to 10, so exact same hardware) and my old desktop (running win7 since it was built in 2009 and upgraded to Win10 when it was released), so running on the exact same hardware I've definitely seen better stability from 10 than I saw from 7. But yes, it's not like Win7 was crashing daily or anything, for Windows it was decent.

Windows 8 I really have nothing to compare, I've used it, but never to any extreme extent to get a proper idea of how stable it was. It was simply too hideous that I couldn't do it.

[dai_trying]

I had only a very minimal experience of both Win 7 & 8 so cannot compare at all, but I did find Win10 to be pretty responsive and less resource hungry that I expected. It ran fine for a while but after leaving it for a few months (maybe 3 or even 4) the updates really slowed the system down to being almost unusable until it had caught up (and rebooted of course which took 4 hours!!!) but afterwards it was again responsive and seemed pretty ok. I can only say that it is probably as good as Xp was back in the day and certainly better than Vista. I have had no crashes or lockups (other than the extended updates) so cannot see it as being particularly bad.
Obviously it is not a patch on Linux (IMO) and I can never see me running it as a daily OS but it is at least usable.

As for the guy using Xp, I would have thought if he had been compromised it would have some tell-tale signs either in cpu usage or in unusual applications appearing or doing something, maybe he has been lucky by using it very minimally and I think it is the business version as he was using it for his business before he retired, which could give him a slightly better chance at avoiding problems. But I stand by my recommendation to convert to Linux and avoid getting caught out one day.

Maybe I will get "the call" one day.

[crosscourt]

Thats assuming he actually notices any unusual resource usage but I dont know the person. With my clients it happens all the time.

To tlmiller, I was using 2006/2007 hardware for a long time before the Dell 7010 but all of this hardware is more compatible with Win7 versus Win10 so that may be why i see different behaviour. Ive never had a lot of crash issues going back to Vista, which I actually liked,

Agree Win8 is hideous but Im not wild about Win10 either. I prefer the classic loook of Win7 and in fact preferred Vista's looks even more.

[tlmiller]

I like the "classic" menu most of all. Everything after Win2K has had inferior menus IMO. However, I don't run classic look because the rest of everything is quite unattractive to me.

[crosscourt]

Loved Win2k and had it been improved and carried over, Id still be using it.

[CaptNoize]

You can leed a horse to water,but you can't make him drink.. Linux....

[crosscourt]

Its tough when people are so trapped in a single OS experience. The nature of computers and OS is change and you simply cant lag behind, sticking your head in the sand.

If he wants a stable, reassuring experience, pick a simple/good out of box experience like Mint XFCE and stick with it.

[dai_trying]

You can leed a horse to water,but you can't make him drink.. Linux....

Definitely agree, and this is the case here, I don't think he will take a drink but he is standing by the water so can make a choice

[CaptNoize]

I was fortunate to have good people like yourselves, nursemaid me thru the learning curve. Sometimes,people don't have the time,and that makes it more difficult to want to move on. But, like CC said, the World moves on. Those who lag,are left behind. If you own a business, you can't compete. If not, personal growth (intellectually) is stunted. This is a choice. To choose to stick with an OS that is obsolete, is foolish.