Using XP is like driving an unsafe car

Following your big (and entertaining) ‘Are XP users PC dinosaurs?’ debate, I predict you’re going to get a lot of emails from people still using it saying that they should be left alone to do what they want to do. I would agree with that, if using XP didn’t also affect everyone else. I’ve read lots of car metaphors in Computeractive about XP, so I hope you won’t mind me adding another one. Using XP in 2016

when the company that makes it has said it’s unsafe – is like zooming down the motorway at 100mph on a car that hasn’t passed an MOT in five years. It’s heading for a crash, and you can bet people in other cars will be injured too.

I do accept that it depends on how you use XP. If all you do on XP is fill in the odd spreadsheet, and never, ever go online (and I do really mean never), then you’ll probably be safe. But how can we guarantee that all those XP users will fight the temptation to go online? It’s simply too big a risk. I don’t think XP users are like dinosaurs – they are more like the comet that destroyed them. Their actions could be equally catastrophic.