I thoroughly enjoyed your
‘Are XP users PC dinosaurs?’
debate in Issue 470. It reminded me
of the good-humoured arguments
at my local computer club, often
accompanied by a pint or two down
the pub. I’ve always sat on the fence a
bit because I can see both points of
view. I would like to suggest a ‘third
way’ of looking at the issue
For me, the key aspect of computing
is security. If your PC is hacked beyond
repair, then it doesn’t matter what
operating system you’re using. That’s
why I upgraded one of my PCs from XP
to Windows 7 a month before Microsoft
ended support. The risk was too great.
But I kept XP installed on another PC,
intending never to use it to go online,
and to be very careful what I do on it.
I’ve stuck to that safety-first policy since.
I continue to use it precisely because I
enjoy being a PC ‘dinosaur’. I take great
pride in running old programs and
technology, not because I can’t be
bothered to upgrade, but because I am
curious about how they work.
And that’s why I sympathise with
my fellow XP stegosauruses and
brontosauruses. Their love for old
operating systems shows that they are
The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug!
just as interested in computing as
people who joined the Windows 10
bandwagon on day one.
I would never recommend that
anyone uses XP as their only
system. I think that would be acting
contrarily, almost like relying on
candles when a flick of the switch
gives us light. But nobody should be
made to feel out of touch, or stupid,
for wanting to stick with what they
know, as long as they do so safely
What’s wrong with dinosaurs,
anyway? OK, they didn’t see that
comet coming, but they did rule
for 165 million years. Not bad
for creatures that were stuck
on XP!
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