Scary Vista/XP news I read today

[Philip]

Our local newspaper has a tech section in Monday's paper that I read before looking at the sports. :-) Today the writer was talking about computers as holiday gifts and mentioned that "Microsoft will not won't provide updates and fixes for it's Windows XP operating system beginning next year".

Anyone know how soon in "next year" that will take place? How will that affect all us editors using NLEs (not just Edius) that just won't work properly in Vista. Will all the NLE companies have stable Vista versions ready before we are hung out to dry with XP?

Just curious if anyone has better information about this. I am sure Edius is working on a Vista version so I am not begging for it to work now...I know it will someday. :-) I just don't want to remain on XP when security fixes and stuff quit being updated as I do have to use my editing machines for internet access from time to time.

[GrassValley_BH]

I think things have changed...

If there really is an SP3 coming next year, then there are still fixes coming, and XP is still in high demand.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139911/article.html

As you have said, we are working on Vista compatibility.

[STORMDAVE]

I think SP3 just includes all the (Gazillion) fixes that MS has released for SP2...so it will be the last SP. I'm sure they will release security patches for IE7 and Windows Defender, but that's about it. XP Pro is pretty stable already.

[rando]

I uh no a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who is running SP3 and he doesnt see a real jump in speed but there IS a sp 3. BTW Edius runs fine on VISTA you just need a ton of memory.

[STORMDAVE]

BTW Edius runs fine on VISTA you just need a ton of memory.

Yep, 2GB minimum.

[THoff]

Companies like Dell and Toshiba still sell brand-new systems that come preloaded with Windows XP because there is still significant demand for it. They wouldn't do that if Microsoft was about to pull the plug on the OS.

[antonsvideo]

Yep, 2GB minimum.

what is the max Ram Vista 32 can use? I guess 2gb like XP?

if so, Photoshop would not run well if Vista on its own already eats 500mb

[STORMDAVE]

what is the max Ram Vista 32 can use? I guess 2gb like XP?

if so, Photoshop would not run well if Vista on its own already eats 500mb

Same thing as XP Pro 32bit. It can see up to 3GB (4GB max), but not all of it is utilized.

I have 9GB of RAM and can't even use more than 2GB under Windows XP (It should be 3, but blame Apple as there is no BIOS).

If you have Vista 64, I think the limit is something along the lines of 128GB for Ultimate if I am not mistaken?

On my HP laptop (Which came with Vista Home Premium installed), even after disabling everything and removing HP stuff, the idle is about 680MB in use (out of 2GB RAM). Under XP it can be around 180MB on idle.

[antonsvideo]

my XP edit PC idles at 140mb after a fresh boot

680MB is insane, what were they thinking when they made Vista

[STORMDAVE]

680MB is insane, what were they thinking when they made Vista

Time to upgrade your computers? :)

The shiny stuff takes alot of RAM. I would turn it all off, but I like the "zoom out" effect of the windows, but that's about it.

What I find funny is that alot of "budget" laptops have 1GB of RAM at stock level...when you fire them up and they have all the preinstalled garbage in there, probably 800+MB of memory is used already. So the computer slows down, then the uninformed customer goes down to a local Circuit City and they charge them up the wazoo for a 2GB ram upgrade. Eh, it's a corporate world we live in, what can we do? :P

[pjsssss]

Our local newspaper has a tech section in Monday's paper that I read before looking at the sports. :-) Today the writer was talking about computers as holiday gifts and mentioned that "Microsoft will not won't provide updates and fixes for it's Windows XP operating system beginning next year".

Anyone know how soon in "next year" that will take place? How will that affect all us editors using NLEs (not just Edius) that just won't work properly in Vista. Will all the NLE companies have stable Vista versions ready before we are hung out to dry with XP?

Just curious if anyone has better information about this. I am sure Edius is working on a Vista version so I am not begging for it to work now...I know it will someday. :-) I just don't want to remain on XP when security fixes and stuff quit being updated as I do have to use my editing machines for internet access from time to time.

Go to http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy to get Microsoft's official policy.

Here is a brief consolidation of the info.

The company's standard life-cycle policy provides bug fixes and security patches (known as mainstream support) for five years after initial release, and security-patch-only support (known as extended support) for an additional five years. Although Microsoft often doesn't provide extended support for its consumer products, the company says that XP Home and XP Pro will get identical support periods.
Microsoft's support road map currently says that extended support for Windows XP ends in April 2014. You need to be on the latest service pack within one year of its release for continued support, which at this point means you must be running XP Service Pack 2.
So the earliest date that XP SP2 support will end is 2014, but history has shown that Microsoft often gives customers a reprieve as these dates draw near.

[THoff]

my XP edit PC idles at 140mb after a fresh boot

680MB is insane, what were they thinking when they made Vista

Vista caches far more aggressively than XP does, and it will release the memory if an application needs it. The larger idle footprint is not the big deal it appears to be.

[Philip]

I think things have changed...

If there really is an SP3 coming next year, then there are still fixes coming, and XP is still in high demand.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139911/article.html

As you have said, we are working on Vista compatibility.

I know you are all working on Vista support and frankly I don't want to use vista right now if I don't have to. I was just curious if all the software developers would have their apps up to speed before XP support is discontinued. SOunds like XP still has plenty of shelf life based on other people's posts.

[GrassValley_KH]

BTW Edius runs fine on VISTA you just need a ton of memory.

It...does...but be aware that there are known incompatibility issues with some of the software components, and zero hardware support.

[GrassValley_BH]

Max physical memory for XP 64-bit (and I assume it's the same for Vista 64-bit) is 128 GB.

You can have up to 16 TB of virtual address space though.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294418