yep had to happen, technology marches on

Even with a 10% hit XP is still faster than Vista

Yeah world of techology matches on. Someday the only way to run xp will be in emulators.

Oh my! A breath of fresh air--somebody actually told the truth for once You vote with your wallet, if you wanna keep making Bill Gates rich keep buying every little revision of his operating system he comes out with, I won't. I might add, hard drive technology's time is limited as well, I'm running XP very well off a 512 gb SSD drive and it's a lot faster than my son's windows 7 machine and runs better to boot.

    WG I don't know how long it's been since I saw the word "goobers"!  I didn't think anybody used it anymore

I've said it before and I'll say it again... XP looks like crap, behaves like crap, is crap.  Since the advent of Win 7, anyone still using XP is a froot loop and should be penalised.... except Webgizmos.  He has a peculiar and unfortunate mental condition and he can't afford the only meds that truly help control his wacky ideas, idiosyncracies and cravings for Fisher Price facsimilies (XP).  Anhow, we forgive him and hope one day his alternative choice of 'med' becomes legal  Howver, I digress.

So, back to the penalties for still using XP now that Win 7 is available.  First off, I think Windows Update for XP users should include pop up ads for Win 7... initially small ones from the taskbar and getting bigger as users click them off/ignore them.  If after a while the slightly bigger ads are ignored, then the next phase should be large ads popping up all over in Internet Explorer, Office applications and even Firefox, just in case.  The third stage would be at boot up... as in prior to Windows XP starting, they get a 30 minute infomercial on Win 7 by their most annoying TV/film personality.

But wait, there's more!!!  XP users who avoid the 30 minute infomercial by going to make a cup of coffee will be further penalised by constant Win 7 nag screens with their mother-in-law on it.

Except Webgizmos!!  His condition goes way beyond Lala land... and it's not his fault.  As a kid he fell into a toy box full of Fisher Price stuff and the lid slammed shut.  He's had a complex ever since, and now XP is his constant companion/comfort zone cos owning/cuddling Fisher Price toys at his age is too embarrassing. 

Seriously now...

Hardly a fair comparison/true indicator when your son's Win 7 is on a regular HDD.  It's like comparing apples and oranges! And then you have to consider the other hardware as well. I seriously doubt that your XP would put-perfom your son's Win 7 if both were put through their paces on SSD drives and the same or similar hardware (CPU RAM, etc). 

According to several industry experts/critics, Win 7 is up to 20% faster than XP... and at the same stage of development, considerably more stable and reliable.

@Starkers

I like Xp and Win 7  ... But Win 7 would be Better if I could have 3 things from XP

1) to move a file, folder, ect. where I want it, in the window a.k.a. the thumbnail Icons... I don't always want it to be alphabetized

    or have to hold down CTRL to highlight more then one item

2) space to the right of an open window... top and bottum of the Icons  

3) to be able to open .gif in Windows Photo Viewer and NOT Internet Explorer...

oh had to add a 4th one

4) to be able to change the boot skin

If anyone would tell me is their a program like Aida 32 that will work on 7 64bit...

But over all I WOULD NOT GIVE UP MY Win 7 but I still like XP pro  it's the 2nd best OS

If they are that old they need emulators....why use XP then?

Win 98....95....heck use the C64 if nostalgia is your thing.

OK, so I have DosBox on my Win7 ....to run some vintage tin..... but I've otherwise had precious few proggies that would work on XP but didn't on 7 64bit ....other than specifics of the 64bit.

Win 7 is the first OS MS has made that even has passing success at preventing me from breaking it.  2K was touted as 'rock solid'.....I broke that one on average 3 times a day.

It got that bad I used the hack of the BSOD to skin the bloody thing....saw it almost more than the damn GUI.....

Nobody rants about XP better than WebGizmos.

Nope.... cos he's so durned good at it!  It's his condition, you see... gives him a clear head-start over everyone else.

About the only people who come anywhere near close are Mac/OS-X fanbois... but that's only because Steve (Mr. Smug) Jobs has them brainwashed... into actually believing Mac stuff is far superior because: "We at Apple invented it"

Thing is, Webgizmos didn't need brainwashing!  Nope, he's a self-made man... and his psychosis is all his own work.

Um, there is one good reason to upgrade sooner... rather than later.  In our latter years (and I'm assuming with a 35 y/o son that you're in yours) our minds aren't as sharp as they once were... the longer you leave it the steeper the learning curve.

Then there's that "bugger it, I forgot what I just learned yesterday" feeling I know so well.  That's why I get in early with the betas of new OSes.... to get in a year of learning to be at the same place as the youngsters are the day after it comes out.

Interesting, my Father who was a casualty of said war would never have called a discussion by people of free will's, drivel. Infact he would have been proud to have fought for thier right to do so in a civil manner.