AMD/ATI Drops Windows XP Support 251
Billly Gates writes "The latest beta drivers for the Catalyst drivers control suite only list Vista as the lowest version they will support. We still have almost a year before Windows XP support finally ends. Will NVidia follow? So if you own a AMD system you will not receive audio, chipset, video, or any other drivers for your XP system and must upgrade or use an outdated legacy version. Looks like another death knell for this very long lasting platform."
Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're buying the latest and greatest gaming cards, you're probably going to want DirectX 10 or 11, good multicore support, and an OS that can handle more than 3-ish GB of RAM.
Ugh. Another Timothy Lord post (Score:4, Insightful)
Total non-issue. If you're still using Windows XP, then you're also stuck on DirectX 9 and all the other outdated technologies. New code means new risks, which you're avoiding by sticking to Windows XP, anyway. Also, the submission is wrong; this affects only the Catalyst drivers, which handle video and HDMI audio.
Then I noticed that this is a timothy story. Sometimes I think he posts the most inane story submissions just to get the Slashdot readers all riled up and posting comments, thus generating hits and ad revenues.
Where is the problem here? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you have an XP system, you either:
1. Have an old hack that you are never going to update, since it just works, or
2. Are a corp user with (hopefully) a decent tech team which will ensure you don't buy & support hardware where this will be an issue...
Or (obscure security-related issues aside) am I missing something?
If it works, why worry. (Score:5, Insightful)
How many people have XP systems and are buying new graphics cards?
If it still works, who cares.
If you've hit something where the graphics drivers are obsolete, there's probably a lot more wrong.
keeping up with advances and supporting older systems is EXPENSIVE. AMD made a cost decision, it's not worth it.
except when there's a security bug (Score:4, Insightful)
It won't really be a problem if you're not running into security problems. However, if someone finds a way to use the video driver to get SYSTEM or Administrator access to your computer, you'd really want the vendor of said video driver to come with an update. Since MicroSoft is still supporting the OS in terms of security updates, you'd expect the video driver vendor to do the same.
Mind you, just because there's no XP support in the latest beta driver doesn't mean AMD won't fix security flaws if those would arise. It's pure speculation to suggest that something like that might or might not happen. I have a gut feeling that the people at AMD would be smart enough to at least just fix the bug and do a minor version bump if something like that would happen in the period that MicroSoft still supports XP.
Re:Meh. (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're buying the latest and greatest gaming cards, you're probably going to want DirectX 10 or 11, good multicore support, and an OS that can handle more than 3-ish GB of RAM.
This is a complete slow-news-day non-story. It's just a more specific way of saying "nothing lasts forever".
The headline should have been "Nothing Lasts Forever and XP Won't Be the First Exception" or maybe "For-Profit Corporation Doesn't Want to Support Dying Platform". Not exactly surprising, informative, or newsworthy.
Re:Irrelevant news for nerds (Score:4, Insightful)
..and at least one of us is a myopic projectionist who is unable to see past his own shit.
Re:Meh. (Score:1, Insightful)
"That said, Windows XP is 5 versions and 12 years old. I really liked using XP, but nothing lasts forever."
Why the hell not?
Re:Meh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because in the world of technology, things advance whether you like it or not.
I see this bullshit all the time, and it sickens (and saddens) me. You have completely and entirely have forgotten the purpose of computers (re: technology): to solve problems or accomplish purposes that would otherwise be extremely time consuming or too difficult to do otherwise. If what you have works, there is no reason to change it. Most software today changes solely for the sake of change.
Some things don't "advance" because they just work. [adafruit.com]
I would love to see you argue your point with the individuals/companies mentioned in said article. I can assure you completely they would say the same thing I have.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Except that is not hapening yet (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would anyone buy a newer version of Windows if they can have XP forever. Microsoft could never compete against a free version of XP. Very few people would upgrade beyond it.
Exactly. This is why my Linux systems are all still running kernel 2.2.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)