THIS week sees the last batch of bug fixes and security patches that Microsoft will issue for Windows XP. After April 8th, computers using the 13-year-old operating system will continue to work just fine, but all technical support for XP—whether paid or otherwise—will cease. In a change of heart, Microsoft has at least agreed to continue issuing updates for its Security Essentials malware engine, which runs on XP, until July 2015. Apart from that, users who continue to rely on the thing will be on their own—at the mercy of mischief-makers everywhere. More than a few seem determined to stick with it. According to NetMarketShare, a web-analytics consultancy, Windows XP runs on 28% of the world's PCs, making it even today the second most popular operating system (surpassed only by Windows 7, with 49%). Over 400m machines will therefore be left exposed. Included in that number are 95% of all the cashpoints (ATMs) in the world. Windows XP and Embedded XP also power a lot of cash registers. At least most banks, stores, petrol stations and other retail chains have plans in place to migrate their point-of-sale (POS) terminals from XP to Windows 7 or Linux. Many have delayed doing so for financial reasons. POS terminals cost anything from $15,000 to $60,000 apiece, so they tend to be left in place for ten years or more. Besides, new rules will soon require the American versions of these terminals to be upgraded anyway, so that they can handle the more secure “chip-and-pin” credit cards popular in Europe.



Most of the holdouts are small businesses and individual users. Typically, they view the job of upgrading as a costly chore that can be deferred (it ain’t broke, so why fix it?). But more than a few consider all apocalyptic talk of XP’s vulnerability as scaremongering by Microsoft and computer security firms. It is certainly true that hardware makers, as well as software firms, have encouraged a fair amount of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), hoping to scare XP users at least into replacing much of their software, if not their hardware as well. Older XP computers can run Windows 7, though at nowhere near the spritely rate of newer ones. Few older machines, however, can run Windows 8 or 8.1 without upgrading crucial components. And the FUD factor worked in 1999, when the mythical "Y2K" millennium bug spurred a world-wide computer-buying spree. Once again, FUD seems to be working. Global PC sales have been in free-fall recently, as people embrace iPads and Android tablets, but the downward trend went into reverse in the third quarter of 2013, in which sales were up 5% from the same period the previous year, according to analysts at Citigroup. And this was not just a one-off. Year-on-year sales in the fourth quarter of last year were up 10%.



Even so, a lot of XP diehards refuse to be swayed. They believe that as long as they keep their firewalls and anti-virus software up-to-date, use Chrome as their default browser instead Internet Explorer, and disable Java and Adobe Flash, they will be OK.

They are half right. Doing so will certainly reduce an XP machine’s risk of being infected or hijacked. But all it takes is one security breach for a hapless user’s identity, social-security and credit-card details to be stolen. Scans of real-world installations show that XP systems get infected six times more often than computers running later editions, including Windows 8. Better by far to upgrade and have done with it.

But to what? For those determined to stay in the Microsoft camp, forget Windows 8 or 8.1. Not only do they demand too much in the way of hardware, both have been been written off as a debacle as bad as the Windows Vista disaster. With their touch-based design, they require users to do things differently from the way they are familiar with. Microsoft is now hurrying out Windows 9 in a bid to pre-empt a mass migration to Linux or Macintosh.



The best choice for those reluctant to change their habits and their hardware is to upgrade to Windows 7. This can be made to look and feel exactly like Windows XP, while offering far better security. Unfortunately, because this upgrade leaps a generation—avoiding the ill-fated Windows Vista—the migration is not as straightforward as one might hope. If precautions are not taken, the process will wipe out all of a user’s software applications, program settings and data files. These have to be moved from the hard-drive to a separate disk beforehand, so that they can be transferred back intact after the installation is complete. Fortunately, there is a handy software tool, well worth its $30 price, that simplifies the process (see “Say farewell to XP”, September 6th 2013).



One of the attractions of migrating to Windows 7 is that it has a “compatibility mode” which lets users run all their legacy software. People can also set up a “virtual machine” on a Windows 7 system that will emulate their old Windows XP environment, quirks and all. But be warned: running Windows XP on a virtual machine inside Windows 7 does not magically make XP more secure. It will still be as vulnerable to exploitation as it was when running undisguised.



An alternative for more adventurous souls is to upgrade to one or other of the many flavours of Linux. Not only are all the popular Linux distributions free, they make fewer demands on hardware and run faster. They are also mercifully free of infection. For the same reason that Macintosh computers were once thought immune to viruses and other malware, hackers tend to leave Linux systems well alone: their installed base (1.5% of all computers) is too small to bother with.



Of the hundreds of Linux distributions, three stand out as solid replacements for Windows XP. The most popular by far (when all its derivatives are taken into account) is Ubuntu, followed by LinuxMint. Both stress ease of use and offer desktop environments that Windows XP users will feel comfortable with. And both will work on even relics from computing's iron age. All they ask for is a 700-megahertz processor, 512 megabytes of random-access memory, five gigabytes of hard-drive space and a graphics card capable of just 800-by-600 pixels of resolution. On anything better, Linux will run rings around comparable Macs or Windows machines.



The third stand-out, an interesting alternative to Ubuntu and LinuxMint, is Zorin. This has gone out of its way to emulate Windows XP. For computer users fleeing Microsoft, Zorin OS 8 could be the perfect drop-in replacement for Windows XP. Unfotunately, Zorin’s installation process is not as idiot-proof as those baked into Ubuntu and LinuxMint.



Babbage’s favourite Linux of all remains LinuxMint, because it comes with all the "drivers" and "codecs" (including various proprietary ones that open-source purist Ubuntu refuses to include) that let it function without a hitch straight out of the box. He recommends newcomers from the world of Windows adopt the version with the Cinnamon interface—XP users, in particular, will feel right at home.



Rather than junk XP altogether, though, Babbage suggests users set up LinuxMint alongside Windows, in a separate partition on their primary hard-drive. LinuxMint even asks users whether they want to do that during installation, and will then automate the process for them. With a dual-boot machine, users can then choose which operating system to load at start up. Having the two operating systems installed side by side provides access to the file systems of both. It is also a handy way for people to find out which one they prefer. If they do not like what they see, they can simply delete LinuxMint and go back to Windows XP. When upgrading his XP desktops to Windows 7, Babbage ran both operating systems side by side for several months until he was happy with the result. He did the same when moving a couple of old laptops from XP to LinuxMint.



Inevitably, though, the move from one operating system to another—whether to Linux or Macintosh or simply to a later version of Windows—entails niggling compromises. Having a user interface that looks and feels like Windows XP can be comforting, but ultimately it is the quality of the applications available for the new operating system that make or break a migration.



That is not so much a problem when upgrading from XP to Windows 7. It is bigger one when migrating to Macintosh or any Linux system. Equivalent programs for all the usual applications—wordprocessors, e-mail packages, browsers, media players and the like—can invariably be found. But it is the handy little software tools that are often irreplaceable and missed the most. Only when moving off the the Windows platform can users really begin to appreciate how rich and diverse it is.