WEBVTT 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, 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:07.640 but Windows XP and its iconic Green Hill 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:12.640 hung on for almost that long before Microsoft decided to finally stop supporting it. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:17.120 And if you travel to Armenia, you'll actually find that over half the country 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:20.440 still uses XP. So how the heck did an operating system 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:24.200 that looked like it was designed by little tykes end up ruling the world? 00:00:24.200 --> 00:00:29.480 And more importantly, stubbornly refused to give up its crown for so dang long. 00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:33.040 Well, when XP burst onto the scene in late 2001, 00:00:33.040 --> 00:00:38.320 it was already sorely overdue. Home users had been on the buggy Windows 9X series 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.240 since 1995, and these operating systems were fundamentally based on MS-DOS, 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:48.520 which had been around since 1981. So it wasn't surprising that the underlying code 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:52.320 of Windows 95, 98, and me wasn't going to be adequate 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:57.920 for newer software and hardware. Windows XP was instead based on Windows NT, 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.960 a more business operated family of operating systems 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 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:09.880 of the benefits of NT, faster performance, 00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:14.640 better compatibility with bleeding edge products, and an OS that wouldn't immediately blue screen 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 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:25.080 was that it really started to popularize the idea that computers and accessories should just work 00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:28.680 without needing to go through complicated configuration procedures. 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 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:38.000 considering how much internet usage exploded between 1995 and 2001. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.520 USB and plug and play support was also significantly improved. 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, 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:49.400 you instead got a cheery notification in the bottom right of your screen, 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:54.160 happily telling you it was ready to use. And even though some folks disliked 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:57.880 how XP had a kids play area look to it, 00:01:57.880 --> 00:02:01.960 many others welcomed the marriage of a much more reliable operating system 00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:05.320 with a user interface that at least tried to be accessible 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:09.560 and visually pleasing. Remember that XP came out roughly six years 00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:13.560 before the original iPhone, but had lots of similar design cues 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:19.000 with rounded edges, bright colors, and icons that tried to clearly convey meaning to the user. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.080 So in many ways, XP was one of the first products 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:25.960 that got society at large, thinking of electronics as intuitive and pretty, 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:29.200 and not modeled after the last hardest level 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:33.320 of a video game. Now part of the reason XP had such incredible longevity 00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:38.880 was that its successor, Windows Vista, was absolutely infuriating. 00:02:38.880 --> 00:02:43.480 Although like Windows XP, it had relatively high system requirements at launch time, 00:02:43.480 --> 00:02:47.760 Vista's launch was a mess because Microsoft did a poor job of communicating 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:54.560 to both PC consumers and manufacturers exactly what hardware they'd need to run Vista smoothly. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:57.600 To the extent that manufacturers would put misleading 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:00.920 Vista compatible stickers on poorly equipped machines 00:03:00.920 --> 00:03:05.360 that disappointed average consumers. The poor performance, technical issues, 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. 00:03:12.600 --> 00:03:17.360 And even though Windows 7 was very well received, XP was still incredibly easy 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:20.480 for even lower end machines to run by 2009 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:24.520 due to advancements in hardware, meaning it didn't exactly run out of steam 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:28.600 just because Windows 7 came along. In fact, official support for desktop versions 00:03:28.600 --> 00:03:33.680 of Windows XP lasted nearly three years beyond Microsoft's typical support timeline. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:36.840 Because it was so paradigm shifting and reasonably stable, 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:40.120 it remained good enough for users and businesses 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:43.280 who just didn't feel a need to put in the effort and money to upgrade. 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. 00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:51.760 Even now, XP is still the operating system of choice 00:03:51.760 --> 00:03:57.480 for a surprising number of ATMs, medical systems, and irredentist wannabe dictators worldwide 00:03:57.480 --> 00:04:01.000 because people just don't wanna spend the time and the money 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.840 to upgrade a working system, unsecure as it may be, 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:07.860 or they need XP to run certain kinds of older software. 00:04:07.860 --> 00:04:12.280 And believe it or not, XP has lasted longer than that famous Green Hill. 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. 00:04:16.960 --> 00:04:21.880 It's a win-win. 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