Windows XP SP3 Successfully Installed

Windows XP SP3 became available for download this week, so I decided to install it today.  It went rather smoothly.  Started downloading at 9:00pm, and around 9:20pm Windows was ready to restart to complete the installation.  So far, nothing to complain about.

Save the whales?

I realize the article I’m referencing is almost two weeks old, but I can’t let another day go by without mentioning it. Check out this headline from Download Squad:

Campaign launched to save Windows XP from retirement

[...]

So Microsoft, which had planned to stop selling Windows XP to users and computer manufacturers late last year extended that date until June 30th of this year.  But something tells us that if Microsoft follows through on this promise, there’s going to be a huge market for used copies of Windows XP.

That’s why we’re happy to see that InfoWorld has launched a “Save XP” campaign.  The goal is to get as many people as possible to sign an online petition. Your names, but not your email addresses will be sent to Microsoft in an attempt to change the company’s mind.

As a relative newcomer to XP, I’m not even considering using Vista any time soon.  I upgraded from Windows 98 to XP in 2006 (bypassing Windows ME and Windows 2000, that’s two entire operating systems).  Windows 7, the follow up to Vista, is on the distant horizon, so it’s too soon to tell how it will turn out.  The way I hang on to PCs, it will be another three or four years until I’m ready to build a new rig.  Perhaps by then, Vista will have shown some signs of improvement.

Now I’ve heard everything!

Here’s something to ponder as you sip on your New Year’s Eve martini (either shaken or stirred).  From Download Squad:

The ReactOS project has one simple goal: to create an Open Source implementation of Windows.

Huh???  “Open Source” and “Windows” don’t exactly go together, do they?  I mean… look at the screenshots on the ReactOS web site.  They made their own system registry!  I can navigate RegEdit as well as the next geek, but after a few program installations, it can get huge and unwieldy.  Why not create something… well… simpler?

Actually, they do explain why, and it all sounds like a very noble effort.  I suppose if the towers of Microsoft were to ever come crumbling down, and you really needed a Windows OS, you could use this one.