1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,600 It's pretty rare these days for any tech product to have a 13 year life cycle, 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:07,640 but Windows XP and its iconic Green Hill 3 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:12,640 hung on for almost that long before Microsoft decided to finally stop supporting it. 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:17,120 And if you travel to Armenia, you'll actually find that over half the country 5 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:20,440 still uses XP. So how the heck did an operating system 6 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,200 that looked like it was designed by little tykes end up ruling the world? 7 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:29,480 And more importantly, stubbornly refused to give up its crown for so dang long. 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,040 Well, when XP burst onto the scene in late 2001, 9 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:38,320 it was already sorely overdue. Home users had been on the buggy Windows 9X series 10 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:43,240 since 1995, and these operating systems were fundamentally based on MS-DOS, 11 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:48,520 which had been around since 1981. So it wasn't surprising that the underlying code 12 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,320 of Windows 95, 98, and me wasn't going to be adequate 13 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:57,920 for newer software and hardware. Windows XP was instead based on Windows NT, 14 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:00,960 a more business operated family of operating systems 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:06,720 that hadn't previously been marketed to home users. This meant in 2001, people got their first taste 16 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:09,880 of the benefits of NT, faster performance, 17 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:14,640 better compatibility with bleeding edge products, and an OS that wouldn't immediately blue screen 18 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:19,400 if you heard its feelings. But perhaps the bigger C change that XP brought to the table 19 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:25,080 was that it really started to popularize the idea that computers and accessories should just work 20 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,680 without needing to go through complicated configuration procedures. 21 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:33,360 Windows XP made it easy to automatically connect to known Wi-Fi networks, which is a good thing 22 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:38,000 considering how much internet usage exploded between 1995 and 2001. 23 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,520 USB and plug and play support was also significantly improved. 24 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,960 So instead of having to install a driver every single time you plugged in a new gadget, 25 00:01:45,960 --> 00:01:49,400 you instead got a cheery notification in the bottom right of your screen, 26 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:54,160 happily telling you it was ready to use. And even though some folks disliked 27 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,880 how XP had a kids play area look to it, 28 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,960 many others welcomed the marriage of a much more reliable operating system 29 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:05,320 with a user interface that at least tried to be accessible 30 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:09,560 and visually pleasing. Remember that XP came out roughly six years 31 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:13,560 before the original iPhone, but had lots of similar design cues 32 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:19,000 with rounded edges, bright colors, and icons that tried to clearly convey meaning to the user. 33 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,080 So in many ways, XP was one of the first products 34 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,960 that got society at large, thinking of electronics as intuitive and pretty, 35 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,200 and not modeled after the last hardest level 36 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:33,320 of a video game. Now part of the reason XP had such incredible longevity 37 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:38,880 was that its successor, Windows Vista, was absolutely infuriating. 38 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:43,480 Although like Windows XP, it had relatively high system requirements at launch time, 39 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,760 Vista's launch was a mess because Microsoft did a poor job of communicating 40 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:54,560 to both PC consumers and manufacturers exactly what hardware they'd need to run Vista smoothly. 41 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,600 To the extent that manufacturers would put misleading 42 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,920 Vista compatible stickers on poorly equipped machines 43 00:03:00,920 --> 00:03:05,360 that disappointed average consumers. The poor performance, technical issues, 44 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:12,600 and the high cost of Vista led many users to just stay on XP until Windows 7 came along in 2009. 45 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:17,360 And even though Windows 7 was very well received, XP was still incredibly easy 46 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,480 for even lower end machines to run by 2009 47 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,520 due to advancements in hardware, meaning it didn't exactly run out of steam 48 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,600 just because Windows 7 came along. In fact, official support for desktop versions 49 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:33,680 of Windows XP lasted nearly three years beyond Microsoft's typical support timeline. 50 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,840 Because it was so paradigm shifting and reasonably stable, 51 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:40,120 it remained good enough for users and businesses 52 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,280 who just didn't feel a need to put in the effort and money to upgrade. 53 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:48,480 Just look at how much Windows 11 is struggling against Windows 10, which is now seven years old. 54 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,760 Even now, XP is still the operating system of choice 55 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:57,480 for a surprising number of ATMs, medical systems, and irredentist wannabe dictators worldwide 56 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:01,000 because people just don't wanna spend the time and the money 57 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,840 to upgrade a working system, unsecure as it may be, 58 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:07,860 or they need XP to run certain kinds of older software. 59 00:04:07,860 --> 00:04:12,280 And believe it or not, XP has lasted longer than that famous Green Hill. 60 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:16,960 Don't get us wrong, it's still there, but these days, it's covered in delicious wine grapes. 61 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:21,880 It's a win-win. 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