As a working tech I have customers using everything from Windows 98, to Vista Ultimate.
It won't be long till XP will go the route of 98 and ME. Out of date, No support and NO new drivers. The people writing new software and new hardware drivers for the current systems are NOT writing anything with XP in mind.
Why would they, since Vista is obviously here to stay?
For many PC's and Laptops on the dealers shelves today, there are NO XP drivers. Period. Not now, Not ever.
Probably more so with the Laptops than with the desktop PC's.
Now on the other side of the coin, there is a possible user base of millions of users still dependent on XP.
While, Vista is only being used by a very small percentage of the total PC users worldwide.
I have two SATA2 Drives on my MSI/AMD based system. Drive one has XP/Pro/SP3 on it and that's my main system. While drive two has Vista Ultimate/SP1 on it and it's my development and training system. My PC boots into XP by default. To get into Vista, I Press F11 at boot to get a boot menu, from which I can choose the Vista drive.
I've tweaked and tuned Vista to look and act as much like my XP/SP3 as possible. I've done the same for every new system I've set up since Vista was released.
If done properly, Vista can almost be an XP clone, albeit a lot larger on the HD.
I see no reason to remove it and try to get one of these new systems to accept XP.
That could be one heck of a job and basically UN-Productive.
Like XP, I'm sure that Vista can be stripped down to eliminate the fluff and clutter.
I've not had the time or patience yet, to start disabling Services, like I did when I first got XP. Some geeks are already working on it and I understand that they are making great headway.
Now, for the person with just a modicum of technical expertise, I'd suggest installing a second HD in the system and install XP on it and set up a dual boot system like mine. Then just see if you can find the drivers to make it work. Sorry, this won't work on a laptop, but only a tower with enough space for the second drive.
Then if worse comes to worse and the proper XP drivers cannot be found, format the XP drive and use it as Storage. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Anyone wanting to go back....has my deepest sympathy. I felt the same way about XP when it first came out. I really didn't want to give up 98/SE with all the goodies I had added. XP was like an 800 pound Gorilla in the room.
Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
The Shadow
