It's time to let go.

Windows XP debuted on August 24, 2001.  Be honest with yourself: would you seriously consider a car that old over one from 2 years ago?

We keep hearing that businesses and end users keep hanging on to XP because it's familiar.  It runs that 8 year old accounting program, or they have a printer that, despite the best efforts of the family dog, will not die and the manufacturer didn't make a driver for Vista or 7.  Maybe they just prefer something that's familiar.

Need I remind you that everyone hated XP when it first came out?  Oh yes, XP was the Vista of its day.

I just had to do a clean install of XP on my father's laptop, and I swear it's been a bitch. You know that XP was released before the mass popularity of DVD drives, and thus didn't come with integrated DVD decoding software?  Yeah, companies like Intervideo and Cyberlink made a mint off of people who wanted to watch movies on their laptops.

WiFi? Yeah, that came after XP, and the functionality had to be shoehorned in afterwards. So, if you wanted a wireless laptop you had to use the wireless network management software that came with your adapter's manufacturer, and it was guaranteed to be a piece of crap.

On it's own, XP is a crippled operating system these days.  Sure, once you load it up with third party software, it gets up to snuff, but by then it's so laden down it becomes nearly unusable. XP was certainly leap forward when it first released, but it's crippled by today's standards.

So to everyone out there clinging to XP for whatever reason, I say bite the bullet and buy a copy of Windows 7.  It's faster, more secure, and you might get a shiny new printer out of it.

Just don't buy a Mac. I guarantee your accounting software won't work with that.