I just read that MS will quit supporting XP in 3 months and Security Essentials downloads will no longer be available. I guess this news is a good impetus to upgrade my remaining XP machine.

My question to the group... For a P4 machine that only works as SETI box should I upgrade to Win 7 or install Ubuntu? This box has an AMD 6670 so I, of course, want GPU support. I am not a Linux master but neither am I afraid of the terminal.

Any thoughts on this upgrade? Are there significant performance differences?

Even though MS will stop the support for XP from April, you can continue to use the OS. The only thing missing will be the regular updates, and Boinc doesnt need them to function. Just install a good antivirus (even the free version of AVG is good enough) and the rig will be good for as long as you want to operate it. However, if you have planned to upgrade, Win 7 Pro is a good choice. Ubuntu is free ofcourse and does function well, however, since I am not that good with Linux, I will leave it for others to comment upon.

I think Windows 7 home edition would work fine for you since you're obviously familiar with running Windows and have been using home editions anyway. One thing to check is how much RAM you have in the system. Windows 7 is considerably more RAM hungry than XP is. I don't have a solid number for you, but under 1 Gbyte would seriously concern me, while by the time you have 2 I'd say no worries at all.

Others may have a better number for RAM needs.

I, personally, plan to retire my two remaining XP systems by the time that Microsoft withdraws support, which is April 8, 2013. In my case I am building new systems (new motherboards, CPU, RAM) but reusing some components (case, power supply, optical drives, some fans, HSF...).

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I say that as long as XP works for you, and if you're not interested in upgrading, stay with it. I have several XP machines that I have no intention of upgrading. They're currently not connected to the internet, so no concerns there. But even if I need to connect them, I have enough security in place to not worry too much about it.

Not much point buying copy of Win7 for P4 machine.

I am still running Win2k on my P3 machine. It works just fine. So just keep Xp on P4 machine and move on to bigger better things.

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Thats not entirely true.
Using OpenCL apps for his AMD GPU and lack of OpenCL support he will benefit from upgrading to Win 7 sooner or later.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

I have two machines (not crunchers) here that got XP SP2 installed and then I manually installed SP3, and they have never had a single update applied to them. They are even connected to the internet, but there is nothing vital or anything on them and I don't particularly use them basically at all.

Just because Microsoft won't issue new updates anymore doesn't mean you can't still use it. Being behind a NAT firewall (home routers) is about 99.5% of the security you would need anyway. If the only thing that machine does is crunch, you're fine. If you do any browsing, a free AV solution plus some common sense will suffice.

You can go a step farther if you use Firefox and go get the adblock extension, and even noscript, as well. Most spyware and malware infections come from the ads on websites or the scripts for the ads.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

"For a P4 machine that only works as SETI box"

If you aren't surfing the internet or reading emails on it, just leave it running XP. If you don't open a web page or email the chances of it getting infected with any nasty is close to zero.

Actually Using an XP machine online will become increasingly more hazardous once the support for it stops, but if it's just crunching SETI, there is no need to give MS more money...

Ian

I have had good luck for years running a minimal XP Pro SP2, (05.01.2600.00) install with no updates on my old cruncher only rigs. They are behind firewall and I do port checks now and then to make sure everything is still closed.

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As stated before me, there is no reason that you shouldn't get many more years out of XP as a dedicated cruncher.

The only problems that will arise is if you plan on doing web interactions.

Cheers.

I have 9 rigs.
8 are crunch-only rigs. 2 are on XP Pro 64bit, and the other 6 are on XP Pro 32bit. They shall remain so until for whatever reason, XP ceases to function for Seti crunching.
All rigs are firewalled behind my router, so that gives some protection. What is anybody gonna steal? My Seti WUs?

Only my daily driver has been updated to Win7, due to needing up to date apps for some internet functions. It also is protected by Trend Micro Titanium.

So, XP shall live on LONG after they stop releasing updates.
And I believe that the last set of updates will continue to be available through Windows Update long after no more are written, so any new install or reinstall should be able to be brought up to that point. Not sure how long they would continue to make them available.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I just read that MS will quit supporting XP in 3 months and Security Essentials downloads will no longer be available. I guess this news is a good impetus to upgrade my remaining XP machine.

My question to the group... For a P4 machine that only works as SETI box should I upgrade to Win 7 or install Ubuntu? This box has an AMD 6670 so I, of course, want GPU support. I am not a Linux master but neither am I afraid of the terminal.

Any thoughts on this upgrade? Are there significant performance differences?

Since MSE will still be available for my W7 box I expect the same virus definitions will work on my XP box. Do you know something different or is that conjecture on your part?
This is not really an issue in my case since the XP box is a dedicated cruncher and only goes to Boinc sites or M$ for updates on MSE.

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I just read that MS will quit supporting XP in 3 months and Security Essentials downloads will no longer be available. I guess this news is a good impetus to upgrade my remaining XP machine.

My question to the group... For a P4 machine that only works as SETI box should I upgrade to Win 7 or install Ubuntu? This box has an AMD 6670 so I, of course, want GPU support. I am not a Linux master but neither am I afraid of the terminal.

Any thoughts on this upgrade? Are there significant performance differences?

Since MSE will still be available for my W7 box I expect the same virus definitions will work on my XP box. Do you know something different or is that conjecture on your part?
This is not really an issue in my case since the XP box is a dedicated cruncher and only goes to Boinc sites or M$ for updates on MSE.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/security-essentials-for-windows-xp-will-die-when-the-os-does

... So, XP shall live on LONG after they stop releasing updates...

After over a DECADE of updates, shouldn't that system by now be fully feature complete and debugged?... ;-/

I don't know... have humans figured out how to write perfect code, including for the patches they write?

After over a DECADE of updates, shouldn't that system by now be fully feature complete and debugged?... ;-/

I don't know... have humans figured out how to write perfect code, including for the patches they write?

Nope, and the few systems that come anywhere close are tiny compared to Windows XP, and cost vastly more per line to develop. I once chatted with someone who had some idea of the development and checkout process for Space Shuttle code on the main computers. They were really, really trying, and got pretty close, but at an expense per unit functionality not thinkable for most applications.

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When the hardware in my jukebox finally dies then XP will finally die here.

Cheers.

The question was about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows ??

IT WAS NOT an excuse for a second debate about the relative virtues of Windows and Linux. There is a long running one in "Politics", so please refer there for the "missing" posts.

So this thread is now open, but take note - WINDOWS ONLY please.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

The question was about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows ??

IT WAS NOT an excuse for a second debate about the relative virtues of Windows and Linux. There is a long running one in "Politics", so please refer there for the "missing" posts.

So this thread is now open, but take note - WINDOWS ONLY please.

Greetings Rob,

My apologies for pointing this out, but the original post did ask about installing Ubuntu, which IS Linux:

My question to the group... For a P4 machine that only works as SETI box should I upgrade to Win 7 or install Ubuntu? This box has an AMD 6670 so I, of course, want GPU support. I am not a Linux master but neither am I afraid of the terminal.

So, this thread cannot be about Windows ONLY. :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

[edit]
Oops! I better watch out. I just realized I challenged a moderator in open forum. ;)
[/edit]

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Looks like Microsoft is getting the idea that people don't like Win 8 - here's one of several reports this morning saying they are going to give up and hurry on Win 9.

http://news.yahoo.com/windows-8-tanking-hard-microsoft-preps-windows-9-175030364.html;_ylt=AwrTccVXPNVSswEAHAtjmolQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByNzhwY2hkBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkAw--

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Another Fred
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