Much as I love computers and consider myself to be cool and up-to-date for such an old fogy (ha ha!), the computer world I inhabit is bordering on the archaic...... this because I am committing the unforgivable sin of still running Windows XP.
This grievous crime is not - I hasten to add - my own fault. I would love a new, shiny Windows 10 computer. My husband does not however feel the same: he never buys anything new until the old model has broken down with no hope of revival (which possibly accounts for the reason that he has not replaced me yet, in spite of the fact that after almost 42 years of marriage I am indisputably past my sell-by date!). My attempts at relaying to him the pitfalls of following such a treacherous path has fallen on deaf ears. So - dangers or not - I just have to wait until this computer finally succumbs to old age.
Meanwhile, I am trying to get our daughter - who bought herself a brand new Windows 10 laptop earlier this year - to clear all her files from her old Sony Vaio laptop so that I can take it over and see if it can be updated.. Unfortunately though, our daughter has been suffering from P.T.S.D. as a result of something really traumatic that happened to her back in January 2015 and getting her to do anything is akin to trying to move Mount Everest. So, until this computer blows up or suffers a similar fate, I am stuck with this old XP!
My computer - a Dell Dimension 9150 - is ten years old now and has been a really excellent computer. It has been especially well-behaved for the past couple of years since having a bit of a spring-clean back in 2014 (courtesy of an amazing amount of assistance I received from a computer forum). So my husband can possibly be forgiven for not wanting to get rid of it just yet.
I do however have a big problem with understanding why Microsoft have done this to XP users. I have read all the security warnings about the dire events which are threatened to happen to those of us still persisting in using this OS (apparently we are not supposed to use our computers to access the internet at all now) - and all these looming dangers are being brought about only because Microsoft have decided to stop issuing security updates for XP. How can this be right?
I look on a computer as being like a car. People with more money than sense replace their cars for newer models while they are still in perfect working order, just because they can! Others with considerably fewer pounds in their pockets go on using their cars for years, with the constant risk that problems can arise. The powers-that-be police this to ensure that people are not driving around in complete death traps by (here in the U.K and presumably elsewhere too) making it a legal requirement to have cars tested once a year. If a car does not pass that test, the owner is not given a M.O.T. certificate until the problem is fixed. Nobody says you cannot get the car fixed though. Nobody says that after x number of years on the road a car will stop being issued with M.O.T. certificates, regardless of the fact that it is still roadworthy. If a car has a problem - maybe a problem that could make it dangerous to use on the road - if the user wants to get it fixed, he can.
With XP, Microsoft know that there will be people like us who will go on using it. In my view, they are trying to scare and bully us into buying new operating systems (which in the case of a 10-year-old computer like ours would really mean buying a new computer too) by deliberately increasing the dangers of using it. Dangers that we cannot fix without their help.
I would love a new computer. I would love nothing more than to try out Windows 10 and see what it is like. If this old but much-loved computer continues to live on for much longer and I manage to get my daughter's computer up-and-running okay, I might eventually hand it to my husband for him to use and buy myself a brand new laptop. Then we could follow the recommendations of the tech experts and use this computer only for creating documents and for listening to music. One of the reasons I love this computer so much is because it has five speakers and the sound is quite good. I have a very varied digital music collection, so audio is one of the most important aspects of my computer life.
Meanwhile though, we remain inhabitants of the XP-using underworld......
Chris (channeal)
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