On Feb 3, 2008 10:42 PM, John Ferrell wrote: > Presumably XP will not always be with us. Yes and no. Yes you can use Windows XP for a long time. No XP support will not be there for long. > > ANY program that uses Windows Help files is suspect so I expect a great > fallout as I try to use more old applications. Microsoft offers download to solve this problem. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607 > I have had two 98SE machines in place for particular legacy applications > along with two XPPro machines (one is backup) that do the heavy lifting. I > converted the backup machine back to Linux SUSE 10 (change the cables on the > HD) so I can investigate moving all Internet activity to Linux. So you are all covered. > I am currently investigating Java for my personal programming language > because it is cross platform and readily available. I am not a programmer so I am not so sure here. Personally I feel Java will remain in the enterprise arena and not suitable for personal programming, that is especailly true if you want to use it for MCU interfacing. > How about sharing your experience so far and your plans (short & long term) > for the future? > > The situation may be a consultants dream come true! Lost of users are going > to need help to move to Vista and soon the move will not be optional... As far as I think, I will think Windows (Vista and beyond) and Linux will be the duo-poly in the future with Mac OS X remaining a niche. Of course some alternative OS (BSDs and Open Solaris) will have a very small percentage as well. Third-party support of Linux will get better in quite some fields. So Linux can be a viable alternative for quite some people. Windows will remain the dominate OS (but no longer with 90% share). I think Vista will be popular in year 2008 and be the main Windows OS for the business user in 2008/2009 time frame. As for my home computing, I will probably replace the XP desktop with a Vista machine (maybe a notebook since we do not have the luxury of owning a big house here in Singapore) in the future. And it will again be dual-boot (Vista + Linux distros. I'd like to follow the latest and the hence the "greatest". But take note I am not doing serious work at home. Xiaofan -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist