You are absolutely entitled to your opinion. My claim is that it is flawed, and I have no reason to abide by it. By extending downgrade rights, they are allowing consumers to go back to the operating system they prefer. You are free to use Windows XP. The goal of my message was to try to help you understand what happened from 2001-2006 in terms of Windows kernel development. Read more on SDL. You are distorting my message when you say that “Microsoft is promoting viruses” by allowing users to run Windows XP.
When someone is robbed late at night, you do not blame the victim for being out late at night. Similarly, in an ideal world, people would be able to continue to run Windows XP without the threat of virus. What you are describing is madness: You are claiming to run an unpatched copy of Windows XP and that this works for you. Therefore, we should acquiesce to this concept and join you in adopting those ideas.
For so many reasons, this is a bad idea for others to adopt. Windows XP is certainly a functional operating system, but has been systematically targeted over and over again. Windows 7 is the most stable Windows operating system that Microsoft has ever designed.
No one is going to stop you from running Windows XP, but I do object to you urging others to do the same. Making accusations that no security improvements have been made and that the operating system hasn’t changed since 2001 except “get bigger” is not only ridiculous – it simply holds no water. The OS is running a kernel that has gone through thousands of builds and compilations to make it better than Windows XP. It holds records as the fastest selling operating system and it will eclipse Windows XP.
With best practices (and this does not include keeping Windows XP unpatched and unattended), you can still squeeze by with this operating system. Fundamentally, however, it can be a prime target for abuse. The 3.5GB barrier should also be a concern for anyone talking about the need to multi-task. Windows XP 64-bit’s compatibility for 32-bit applications is horrendous.
A lot of time and money was spent on making Windows what it is today. This argument should remain intellectual and we should not resort to personal attacks. Even when Windows XP was released, die-hard Windows 2000 fans were admonishing it for its “fisher price” style interface and similar features to 2000. In reality, hundreds of thousands of lines of code had been re-written since 2000, the system had more stability and better memory handling, and crashed less than Windows 2000. You really are making the same argument here. Its just a different time and a different place.
If you want newer features, better native-level support for drivers, upgraded network stack, support for Windows Server 2008, and security hardening on your operating system, check out the last 2 Windows operating systems that came after Windows XP. Otherwise, stay with XP. It does have a reduced memory footprint, but thats because it doesn't utilize all of your memory properly. It sits there with unallocated memory while power is going to the modules instead of using pre-cache and pre-fetching of data. All I can really do is urge you to understand the development process that went into Vista and 7. Look at SDL, what they did with security, and understand that this is the best for most users.
Windows is used by 90% of the population. So yes, with UAC they did have to add a "yes or no" button. Experienced users hold the option of turning this off. Your other gripes don't hold water with me because they don't have to. You can keep running Windows XP forever, for all I care. Just don't try to advocate this as a reasonable idea for new computer users because its a recipe for disaster for most of them. Everyone can admire a '57 Chevy - that doesn't mean they own or drive one.