Skip to main content

Yeap, I´m still using Windows Xp in march 2020

I write this text for a single purpose only - maybe there are people out there who would also like to continue using Windows XP, but are terrified of Microsoft's warnings about the danger of Windows 7 and XP. My story is simple, I have an Agfa 1236s scanner which, despite being over twenty, is wonderful, works like new, is fast and is scsi, which forces me to connect it to a 2005 computer. The motherboard is the AsRock 775VM800, with 2 Gb of RAM (as much as possible), an integrated S3 graphics chip and a 250 GB disk. Like many people, I went through the experience with LINUX distributions that promised to be very light and fast but that all turned out to be slow as a sick snail. I tried Linux Mint XFCE, Zorin Lite, Lubuntu, etc. Although some are better than others, nothing could achieve the performance of Windows XP. In addition, every time you need to install a driver on LINUX, we have to go through a more boring learning process than reading the phone book.
I took my old Windows XP CD (yes, it really is a 580Mb occupied CD) and reinstalled this 21 year old operating system. The experience is strange these days, but I think it is easy to survive the outdated interface. The first challenge is to install a browser that works on Xp and that allows us to browse the internet of 2020. My suggestion is to choose MyPal or Slimjet (especially if you are interested in one based on Chromium). Then I installed Agfa Fotolook 3.60, which is much better than Linux's Xsane, in order to use the scanner properly. Other tools that work perfectly in this 32bit operating system are VLC (free), Polaris Office (free) and Panda Dome Antivirus (free).
The latter is really essential for overcoming the intense terror we feel when not using Windows 10, despite the fact that many people who know these issues, consider that the newer Windows reveals more holes ready to be exploited by hackers than this piece of computer archeology.
And that's all I wanted to tell the owners of old hardware that  are frightened and scared.