Quote:
Originally Posted by Rbneader
Let me put it this way:
Say you bought a car in 2001. At first you got regular oil checkups, etc. Then you thought "Why bother? It runs fine and is rock-solid".
Now it's years later. That car might still run fine, but there are serious problems developing that you won't know about until too late. It needs more than regular maintenance now. It needs brake replacement, etc. Same thing with your PC - eventually, it needs an OS upgrade.
Or let me try another way - you put on a coat when you go into freezing cold, and flush the toilet when you're done right? Upgrading the OS is the same kind of health-and-safety issue.
Yes, upgrades can suck as much as flossing regularly. And yes, it's tempting to skip it just like people skip flossing. But it's not just your PC that's the issue. It's that your old, out-dated PC is very probably part of a botnet that is being used to commit crimes and harm others. Unless it's not connected to the internet in any way - no WiFi, no land line - this is a very real possibility. There were hundreds of data breaches this year. Millions of people lost money and had to deal with identity theft. Major companies got taken offline repeatedly. Botnets and hijacked computers are significant part of the problem, and the vast majority are of them are made of old computers with old OSes like XP.
Old OSes like XP aren't safe anymore. They are fundamentally incapable of being safe now. I will be happy to discuss technical details if you want, but the inescapable point is this: Internet-connected computers that run XP are dangerous to their owners and make the internet less safe for everyone else.
There are free alternatives to Windows if money is the issue. There are many different options with different interfaces or designs if workflow is the issue. But whatever the issue is, it needs to stop outweighing basic health and safety.
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What about all those programs which will no longer work?
When my last XP machine died I lost the use of several programs which will not install on the newer operating systems.