Windows XP
Has anyone else heard that Windows XP is reaching it's "end of life" on April 8th 2014. What I read was that Microsoft will no longer support WXP from that date on. This is the link http://www.komand...
Forum Discussion
Bwanshoom writes “You might want to double-check your OS history a bit. NT had nothing to do with OS/2 other than marketing. If anything it was closer to VMS because they were designed by the same person, Dave Cutler. The NT family and Windows family were entirely different. It wasn't until Windows 2000 that they merged.
(And I'm pretty sure OS/2 wasn't built on top of any other OS, it was entirely homegrown between Microsoft & IBM initially, later just Big Blue)”
I HAVE the facts straight, I lived those days of the early OS wars..
Here is a quick overview of O/S2 and how NT has “roots” from it..
O/S2 was initially a“joint” venture between MS AND IBM, then later was further “developed” by IBM exclusively after the falling out of MS and was initially released as OS/2 1.1 in 1987 as a command line OS (no GUI, later releases added GUI).
MS and IBM had a “Joint Development Agreement” from 1985 until 1990 when the agreement fell apart by MS introducing Windows 3.0 which was “bundled” with new Non IBM PCs and sold well. OS/2 was only available exclusively from IBM on select IBM computers and wasn’t selling.
OS/2 was intended to be a “protected mode” successor of “PC DOS” (PC DOS was ALSO a “joint venture” between MS and IBM by customizing MS DOS version slightly), basic systems calls modeled after DOS calls which created common “family mode” programs which could be used in both DOS and OS/2. Because of this O/S2 “shares” similarities between Unix, Xenix, AND WINDOWS NT in many ways..
1988 MS started working on their own version of OS/2 after MS developers became frustrated with the progress of IBMs programmers and the direction IBM was taking. MS own version of O/S2 was originally named NT O/S2 3.0 and later was renamed as Windows NT as its released name..
Interestingly enough Windows NT original release shared the same O/S2 file system “attributes” of O/S2 HPFS (High Performance File System) which MS renamed as NTFS (NT File System) and had the same DOS Fat16 limitations for partition sizes (that limitation followed NT up into early versions of NT4.0 NTFS).
If you don’t think that the Windows you are using today has no common “roots” with O/S2, think again..
“Also, XP was the first desktop Windows version to use a hybrid kernel or "macrokernel". So XP, Vista, Windows 7 & 8 are all hybrid kernels, as opposed to the older monolithic kernel used in Window 95 and all prior versions. The kernel architecture doesn't have to change to cause issues with driver compatibility. Microsoft has tried to improve their driver model with each new release (and anyone who's used Windows for more than 3 versions can attest it's gotten *so much better*.) But changes in their driver manager or requirements can cause older drivers to not work on newer versions. The kernel architecture is rarely the cause.”
Vista actually is the first implementation of “macrokernel” and was released AFTER XP. XP drivers do not work with Vista but yet you could in a pinch use Win2K drivers in XP rather successfully.
There IS a big difference between XP, Vista and Win7, so much so there is no direct “upgrade” from XP to Vista or XP to Win7. If you have XP and wanted to upgrade to Vista or Win7 you HAVE to do a from scratch install.
“Not all security issues reside in the kernel, as your post seems to allude. In fact, very few do. They exist mostly in user mode built on top and in that case there is much code shared between Windows XP and its successors.”
Most of the security patches that have been released strictly revolve around the kernel more so than anything else, IE browser patches are treated separately and technically are not really married to the version of OS it is on.. What you will find though is all IE versions of 6 or below will no longer be patched..
IE 6 is what shipped with XP, IE 7 was default browser shipped with Vista and IE 8 shipped with Win7. BUT you CAN upgrade IE from 6 to 7 or 8 and BOTH IE7 and 8 will run on XP.
Since Vista (with IE7) and Win7 (IE8) are STILL “supported” both IE7 AND IE8 will most likely still be patched..
Pretty much anyone who has XP WILL have been “forced” to upgrade IE to 7 or 8 years ago since 99.9% of the Internet sites now REQUIRE IE7 or higher to use..
This means that XP WITH UPGRADED IE7 or 8 will continue to get periodic IE7 or IE8 updates until the day the OS which they shipped with is no longer supported.. Get that?
“And don't forget that the browser is the #1 vector of security vulnerabilities - it has nothing to do with the kernel (directly) and will not be patched going forward. I'm willing to bet that a lot of people who continue to use XP after its end of support life will be running IE8.”
Which is why I am NOT scared to continue to use XP.. I don’t use IE6 or below (but who in the world can really use those versions now days, virtually no websites “support” below IE7.
No big deal, pretty simple actually to install FireFox and you get additional security which has been far better than IE with addons like Adblockplus, noscript and so on.. Not to mention that IE8 IS the “default” browser for Win7, if you have IE8 on XP, you should still get “updates” for that version..
The biggest security threat is the USER of the PC and MS has never written a patch to fix the USER issues.
I found out years ago that IE no matter how up to date the patches were, it is full of security holes..
It only took getting hit twice while browsing with malware with a virus payload to dump browsing with IE and install FireFox..
Stop the risks at the “front door” (IE the browser) and you will easily prevent the majority of unpatched kernel security holes from being used…
(And I'm pretty sure OS/2 wasn't built on top of any other OS, it was entirely homegrown between Microsoft & IBM initially, later just Big Blue)”
I HAVE the facts straight, I lived those days of the early OS wars..
Here is a quick overview of O/S2 and how NT has “roots” from it..
O/S2 was initially a“joint” venture between MS AND IBM, then later was further “developed” by IBM exclusively after the falling out of MS and was initially released as OS/2 1.1 in 1987 as a command line OS (no GUI, later releases added GUI).
MS and IBM had a “Joint Development Agreement” from 1985 until 1990 when the agreement fell apart by MS introducing Windows 3.0 which was “bundled” with new Non IBM PCs and sold well. OS/2 was only available exclusively from IBM on select IBM computers and wasn’t selling.
OS/2 was intended to be a “protected mode” successor of “PC DOS” (PC DOS was ALSO a “joint venture” between MS and IBM by customizing MS DOS version slightly), basic systems calls modeled after DOS calls which created common “family mode” programs which could be used in both DOS and OS/2. Because of this O/S2 “shares” similarities between Unix, Xenix, AND WINDOWS NT in many ways..
1988 MS started working on their own version of OS/2 after MS developers became frustrated with the progress of IBMs programmers and the direction IBM was taking. MS own version of O/S2 was originally named NT O/S2 3.0 and later was renamed as Windows NT as its released name..
Interestingly enough Windows NT original release shared the same O/S2 file system “attributes” of O/S2 HPFS (High Performance File System) which MS renamed as NTFS (NT File System) and had the same DOS Fat16 limitations for partition sizes (that limitation followed NT up into early versions of NT4.0 NTFS).
If you don’t think that the Windows you are using today has no common “roots” with O/S2, think again..
“Also, XP was the first desktop Windows version to use a hybrid kernel or "macrokernel". So XP, Vista, Windows 7 & 8 are all hybrid kernels, as opposed to the older monolithic kernel used in Window 95 and all prior versions. The kernel architecture doesn't have to change to cause issues with driver compatibility. Microsoft has tried to improve their driver model with each new release (and anyone who's used Windows for more than 3 versions can attest it's gotten *so much better*.) But changes in their driver manager or requirements can cause older drivers to not work on newer versions. The kernel architecture is rarely the cause.”
Vista actually is the first implementation of “macrokernel” and was released AFTER XP. XP drivers do not work with Vista but yet you could in a pinch use Win2K drivers in XP rather successfully.
There IS a big difference between XP, Vista and Win7, so much so there is no direct “upgrade” from XP to Vista or XP to Win7. If you have XP and wanted to upgrade to Vista or Win7 you HAVE to do a from scratch install.
“Not all security issues reside in the kernel, as your post seems to allude. In fact, very few do. They exist mostly in user mode built on top and in that case there is much code shared between Windows XP and its successors.”
Most of the security patches that have been released strictly revolve around the kernel more so than anything else, IE browser patches are treated separately and technically are not really married to the version of OS it is on.. What you will find though is all IE versions of 6 or below will no longer be patched..
IE 6 is what shipped with XP, IE 7 was default browser shipped with Vista and IE 8 shipped with Win7. BUT you CAN upgrade IE from 6 to 7 or 8 and BOTH IE7 and 8 will run on XP.
Since Vista (with IE7) and Win7 (IE8) are STILL “supported” both IE7 AND IE8 will most likely still be patched..
Pretty much anyone who has XP WILL have been “forced” to upgrade IE to 7 or 8 years ago since 99.9% of the Internet sites now REQUIRE IE7 or higher to use..
This means that XP WITH UPGRADED IE7 or 8 will continue to get periodic IE7 or IE8 updates until the day the OS which they shipped with is no longer supported.. Get that?
“And don't forget that the browser is the #1 vector of security vulnerabilities - it has nothing to do with the kernel (directly) and will not be patched going forward. I'm willing to bet that a lot of people who continue to use XP after its end of support life will be running IE8.”
Which is why I am NOT scared to continue to use XP.. I don’t use IE6 or below (but who in the world can really use those versions now days, virtually no websites “support” below IE7.
No big deal, pretty simple actually to install FireFox and you get additional security which has been far better than IE with addons like Adblockplus, noscript and so on.. Not to mention that IE8 IS the “default” browser for Win7, if you have IE8 on XP, you should still get “updates” for that version..
The biggest security threat is the USER of the PC and MS has never written a patch to fix the USER issues.
I found out years ago that IE no matter how up to date the patches were, it is full of security holes..
It only took getting hit twice while browsing with malware with a virus payload to dump browsing with IE and install FireFox..
Stop the risks at the “front door” (IE the browser) and you will easily prevent the majority of unpatched kernel security holes from being used…
