Video Thursday - Goodbye Windows XP Bliss Wallpaper

Its thursday once again and I was planning to showcase a video about lightroom, then again, a newsflash came in my email. Windows XP is ending. I went back to the time how and when XP was born in 2001.

I started using computers when machines with 8088 microprocessors were prevalent. For those non techies, what I meant were XT machines which didn't have hard drives yet. We used floppy disks on drive A, to boot up, then replace it with a software, then save files on drive B. You were considered cool to be seen bringing a disk case, the bigger the better. That means that you have an arsenal of software with you.

Pictures were not digitized then so if you want to send a postcard or create an invitation or business card, you have to be content with clip art. Clip Art was king then.

When 286, 386, 486 machines came in, Windows 3.11 was the first Graphic User Interface (GUI) I was introduced to, and thats when people got hooked with Windows. For a time there we were using Wordperfect and Lotus 123, then shifted to Word and Excel because of this.

2001 came and XP came and it was a standard update. Noticeable difference was the graphics. It was superb in every way and it blew every one's imagination. It was a graphics focused software and pictures came alive with this one. Everyone in my department had this software. Bill Gates was king of the land.

True XP, had its downs, but mostly it more of upside for me. It is where I had my joyous moments in internet time. It was simple, it was fast, it worked for me. Subsequent windows were a let down for me. Vista was big and clunky, Windows 7 blew past me without me even trying one (I switched to MAC because of Vista), and now Windows 8 confused me (my son just wanted one PC based machine in a house full of Macs) and I'm still thinking if I am still getting one.

I still have an old machine back home running on XP but no one is using it. My daughter back home still insists on a PC (running on 7) because of her school projects, I don't hear her complaining. My eldest son uses my old HP (running on Vista, I will replace this later on as HP has its issues with the software, i don't know what the problem is really, I can't blame Vista directly LOL).

This is saying goodbye to an old friend, the Windows XP which I dearly love and we bid goodbye to the familiar "Bliss" wallpaper that we see on our wallpaper. Thanks to Charles O'Rear for giving to us that wallpaper experience.

* Just a note, China has over 200 million users of Windows XP and although Microsoft officially ended their support for it, China being China, I think they will continue to develop and support it.

Here's the interview with Charles O'Rear as to how he took that photograph and how it became the picture that became synonymous with Windows XP. Please click ----- > here.