Hello

Let me introduce myself. My online name is dandl and I will sign my posts with Daniel. I have tried different versions of Linux over the years and have been working with Zorin for about a month now. I currently am running Zorin 6.4 dual booted with XP Pro on an old Dell Dimension PC with 1GB ram. I don't consider myself a Linux geek but I have installed Linux in several different formats. If I can help someone keep their old XP machine running then drop me a line. Daniel.

Hi Daniel,

you are welcome to take an active part in the forum, just read through the posts and if there is an answer you have for a problem, simply post it!.

Maybe you should use Zorin 8 Lite instead ?

I would advise that if you want to keep XP going then don't keep it on the network, but as a standalone - and make an image of the OS and Programs using either Acronis (commercial app) or Clonezilla (freeware). Even though Avast is offering a further 3 years support, they cannot offer critical fixes that M$ used to offer - I am wondering how long in reality an Avast user will have before the machine goes under completely!

I don't understand all this panic about XP end of life. I'm not on XP, but if I was using fully updated XP with a secure and updated browser like Firefox or Chrome with an up-to-date antivirus/firewall product I'd feel pretty secure. With Java disabled as always

I mean, we're talking about simple web browsing usage here, not server hosting. And security is 95% about the software used, not the underlying OS. If you get hit by a drive-by download, it's gonna be an exploit in your browser configuration at fault.

In the remote chance of some serious arbitrary code execution getting discovered at some point, Microsoft will fix it anyway. But I don't think anyone will be hunting for XP exploits for long.

They might! Apparently the UK Government is paying M$ £10 M a year for the next 3 years!

Also Java is not the only issue - Flash is a security risk (cross-platform) as proven by one of those hackfests a couple of years back! Something to think about! Also German Police a year back broke their own law by being taught by teenage 'crackers' (I prefer 'cracker' to 'hacker') how to use Russian software to take over a browser in less than 30 seconds and the end user totally unaware!

Any software that performs any kind of useful interaction with the web is a potential risk. That's why flash player is sandboxed in the browsers as well.