kittey said:
This isn’t about not wanting to test on XP. XP is a liability that needs to be condemned.
Off-topic elaboration:[expand]
I can totally understand you, though. I kept using XP for way longer than I should’ve been, too.
You need to understand that you can’t keep it around forever and since it’s abysmal outdatedness and insecurity are already causing trouble now, you need to let it go sooner rather than later. I’d be surprised if you don’t have at least some malware on your PC. As a sysadmin, I’m at the receiving end of that.
Also, I’m sure that various incompatibilities, such as Ruffle not working, are already annoying you time and time again. Let it go, if not for the safety of the Internet then for your own mental health. Trust me. I’m speaking from experience.
Personally, I moved to Linux (Debian) with a somewhat Windows-like window manager (Mate) because newer versions of Windows as well as MacOS were annoying me too much. Linux has its drawbacks too, but I can easily tolerate those. I made the move six years ago and never looked back.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what modern OS you move to. What matters is that you ditch XP.
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very off topic:[expand]
I'm aware of the insecurities, and I can assure you there is no malware running on my computer, I use a hardware-level firewall, a regularly updated hosts file, and I scan any software I download before running it, and sometimes open it in a VM first even if it says it's safe, just to be sure. Of course, Windows 10 isn't all that secure either, and it's a much bigger target for malware these days too because of it's popularity. In my opinion, most of the fear around Windows XP's security is just a result of Microsoft and other software companies' campaigning to get people using their latest products.
In terms of compatibility, it's not as bad as you would think. As an example, the only compatibility issues I have had with my browser are with Ruffle, which I have just fixed, and YouTube, which I can just access through an Invidious instance such as https://youtube.076.ne.jp instead. For software that doesn't run on Windows XP, I have my Windows 7 VM for that, and I honestly don't even find myself needing to open it very often.
As far as my mental health is concerned, I imagine I wouldn't be doing it any favors if I were to switch to another OS, as I would be spending hours and hours trying to get it to look and behave exactly like Windows XP and never being fully satisfied with it. There are some annoyances with trying to make modern software work the way I want it to on Windows XP, but it's almost always fixable and I enjoy the challenge. In the end, I love Windows XP too much to ever stop using it; it is truly the pinnacle of modern computing. Anything else is but a mere imitation.
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