Today, I am writing this blog post from a favorite coffee shop of mine in-between customer visits…using my iPad and no peripherals.
Thirteen years ago when XP just came out, the computer world was elated with the new system and its capabilities. However, there was very little wifi at the time, high speed internet was still not mainstream, and laptops (weighing 10 pounds plus) were quite expensive.
Working on a web site in a coffee shop was still a distant future dream, much less on a device less than a half inch thick and under two pounds.
Many people are bemoaning the loss of Windows XP, but truth is that it is time for it to ride off into the sunset. True that it still works and many computers running it are still very capable, but we continue to sit on just the beginning edge of computing and Internet technology and progress is inevitable, constant, and won’t plateau for years to come.
Heck, the popular and barnstorming iPad just turned 4 years olds itself! Imagine that!
Despite the Edward Snowden revelations about Internet snooping and other privacy breeches, I remain bullish on cloud computing. A large part of Windows XP exit is due to cloud computing and increases in mobile technology like this iPad I’m typing on right now and the plethora of e-readers, smartphones and iPad wannabes. The need for computers, and thus operating systems, is lessening, not increasing. And certainly, as cloud computing increases, the type or brand of our computers and their operating system means less and less.
I will not kick XP in the behind as it leaves the building. Instead, I want to give it a congratulatory slap on the back instead.
Windows 95 in the 90s and XP in 2001 were the two most significant forces that have driven all this new technology and interest in computers in general. Without a solid, easier to use computing system that could be made affordable for home and small businesses, the rest of the improvements and advances we take advantage of today would not have been possible…at least not so quickly.
Yes, Windows XP will be retired to its own wing in the museum of technology , but without it , none of the technology we enjoy today would be possible…until tomorrow.
