or dealing in sensitive data you should be fine with XP.
That's a pretty broad statement. Most people using a computer are dealing with data that is sensitive to them.
In any case though if you're doing dev work it does matter less. Although there are some things I like a lot more post-XP:
1) Video driver in user mode. Nothing beats watching your video driver die, you get a two second pause, and then its back. In XP you were down for the count.
2) Reliability monitor.
3) Much improved RDP support. Including WPF support and streaming video/audio. This allows me to work anywhere against my main dev box and it feels almost exactly like I'm on the actual machine.
4) Libraries allow me to have a different logical view than the physical structure of files.
This just a subset of the types of things that when I go back to an XP machine I realize I miss.
That's a pretty broad statement. Most people using a computer are dealing with data that is sensitive to them.
In any case though if you're doing dev work it does matter less. Although there are some things I like a lot more post-XP:
1) Video driver in user mode. Nothing beats watching your video driver die, you get a two second pause, and then its back. In XP you were down for the count.
2) Reliability monitor.
3) Much improved RDP support. Including WPF support and streaming video/audio. This allows me to work anywhere against my main dev box and it feels almost exactly like I'm on the actual machine.
4) Libraries allow me to have a different logical view than the physical structure of files.
This just a subset of the types of things that when I go back to an XP machine I realize I miss.