{"slug": "windows-xp", "name": "Windows XP", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 8, "warners": 2, "score": 1.681, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-01-17", "latest": "2026-10-30", "why": "Personally I love Windows XP because it's so colorful.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Personally I love Windows XP because it's so colorful.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Windows XP"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 777906400, "item_id": 48619150, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619150", "by": "inigyou", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think it was cool, it was productive yet colorful", "excerpt": "It's interesting how many people don't like the XP theme. I think it was cool, it was productive yet colorful, but I have to wonder if that's just because it arrived when I was at a certain life stage, the same way I had no problem with the COVID lockdown. We used XP in high school computer class the whole time I was there.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 760031557, "item_id": 47501972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501972", "by": "oldandboring", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows XP was very successful as well", "excerpt": "Today's reminder of how old I'm getting: this is totally predictable. Microsoft has been doing this for 30 years. Disclaimer: I'm aware of these things and have used most of them, but really none as a daily driver since Windows 2000. So I'm probably leaving some stuff out. Windows 95 and 98 were great releases. Windows ME was so bad they scrapped the Win9x codebase entirely. Windows 2000 was game-changing. One of the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating"}, {"id": 746612736, "item_id": 46663296, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46663296", "by": "AlienRobot", "date": "2026-01-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I love Windows XP because it's so colorful.", "excerpt": "My hypothesis is that this has to do with the whitening of the UI. Personally I love Windows XP because it's so colorful. The taskbar is blue. The start button is green. The window frame is blue, the close button is red. The sidebars are tinted yellow. Even icons like CD-roms aren't greyscale, but tinted purple instead. Since then, people started removing color from everything. Colorful icons became monochrome, perha", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Light Mode InFFFFFFlation"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 777905441, "item_id": 48619090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "by": "bee_rider", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "XP was quite ugly though.", "excerpt": "XP was quite ugly though. 98 or whatever was the best looking, but 7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern). (FWIW I mostly switched to Linux after XP so this isn\u2019t nostalgia).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 755228612, "item_id": 47201788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201788", "by": "linguae", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Things started going downhill, in my opinion, with the Windows XP \"Fisher-Price\" Luna interface", "excerpt": "Steve Jobs is famous for his 1996 quote about Microsoft not having taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOzGI4MqSU). I disagree; as much as I love the classic Mac OS and Jobs-era Mac OS X, and despite my feelings about Microsoft's monopolistic behavior, 1995-2000 Microsoft's user interfaces were quite tasteful, in my opinion, and this was Microsoft's most tasteful period. I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}]}], "who": [{"by": "spauldo", "context": "works with industrial control systems", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50299530", "date": "2026-10-30"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["running legacy industrial software", "old laptop os"], "compared": [{"slug": "windows-7", "name": "Windows 7", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows-2000", "name": "Windows 2000", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "arch-linux", "name": "Arch Linux", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows-vista", "name": "Windows Vista", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48616173", "title": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50287775", "title": "If IPv4 were land", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146960", "title": "The Myth of Snow Leopard", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500335", "title": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200904", "title": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46719489", "title": "You can now download Windows 7 and Vista ISO images with all the updates", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804792480, "item_id": 50299530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50299530", "by": "spauldo", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We use 32-bit Windows XP VMs or sometimes even FreeDOS for some of the software we use.", "excerpt": "There's still quite a few pockets of the industry where IPv6 just isn't available. Industrial control systems, for instance - there's lots of PLCs and SCADA software that are still IPv4-only. It's changing slowly, but industrial computing runs on thirty year time scales and there's still a lot of stuff out there that won't even run on modern operating systems. We use 32-bit Windows XP VMs or sometimes even FreeDOS fo", "context": "works with industrial control systems", "use_case": "running legacy industrial software", "switched_from": "", "story": "If IPv4 were land"}, {"id": 786438160, "item_id": 49152385, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49152385", "by": "simondotau", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows XP was sufficiently reliable by SP1, sufficiently secure by SP2, and sufficiently prepared for an extended lifespan by SP3.", "excerpt": "Until recently, no reasonable person ever expected a major new OS release to be rock solid before its first major point-release. And actually nothing has changed, except that what we used to call a \"point-zero\" release is now called a Public Beta. Windows XP was sufficiently reliable by SP1, sufficiently secure by SP2, and sufficiently prepared for an extended lifespan by SP3.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Myth of Snow Leopard"}, {"id": 777906400, "item_id": 48619150, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619150", "by": "inigyou", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think it was cool, it was productive yet colorful", "excerpt": "It's interesting how many people don't like the XP theme. I think it was cool, it was productive yet colorful, but I have to wonder if that's just because it arrived when I was at a certain life stage, the same way I had no problem with the COVID lockdown. We used XP in high school computer class the whole time I was there.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 777905441, "item_id": 48619090, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48619090", "by": "bee_rider", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "XP was quite ugly though.", "excerpt": "XP was quite ugly though. 98 or whatever was the best looking, but 7 was probably best overall (because they\u2019d at least somewhat improved the UI and the system was generally more stable and modern). (FWIW I mostly switched to Linux after XP so this isn\u2019t nostalgia).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 760031557, "item_id": 47501972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501972", "by": "oldandboring", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Windows XP was very successful as well", "excerpt": "Today's reminder of how old I'm getting: this is totally predictable. Microsoft has been doing this for 30 years. Disclaimer: I'm aware of these things and have used most of them, but really none as a daily driver since Windows 2000. So I'm probably leaving some stuff out. Windows 95 and 98 were great releases. Windows ME was so bad they scrapped the Win9x codebase entirely. Windows 2000 was game-changing. One of the", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft's \"Fix\" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating"}, {"id": 755228612, "item_id": 47201788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201788", "by": "linguae", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Things started going downhill, in my opinion, with the Windows XP \"Fisher-Price\" Luna interface", "excerpt": "Steve Jobs is famous for his 1996 quote about Microsoft not having taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOzGI4MqSU). I disagree; as much as I love the classic Mac OS and Jobs-era Mac OS X, and despite my feelings about Microsoft's monopolistic behavior, 1995-2000 Microsoft's user interfaces were quite tasteful, in my opinion, and this was Microsoft's most tasteful period. I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}, {"id": 747525393, "item_id": 46720337, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720337", "by": "merpkz", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Currently it has XP on it, but that is missing whole bunch of drivers", "excerpt": "Going to get this and install it on my old Asus core2duo laptop from circa 2008 - damn thing still is going strong, despite plastic becoming so brittle it has not one single panel left without cracks in it. Currently it has XP on it, but that is missing whole bunch of drivers, like touchpad not working and BIOS AHCI has to be in compatible mode otherwise it will bluescreen. It's going to be nostalgia machine where al", "context": "", "use_case": "old laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "You can now download Windows 7 and Vista ISO images with all the updates"}, {"id": 746612736, "item_id": 46663296, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46663296", "by": "AlienRobot", "date": "2026-01-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I love Windows XP because it's so colorful.", "excerpt": "My hypothesis is that this has to do with the whitening of the UI. Personally I love Windows XP because it's so colorful. The taskbar is blue. The start button is green. The window frame is blue, the close button is red. The sidebars are tinted yellow. Even icons like CD-roms aren't greyscale, but tinted purple instead. Since then, people started removing color from everything. Colorful icons became monochrome, perha", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Light Mode InFFFFFFlation"}]}