Hello,

this is not an answer to Martini, but

just a comment that I was using too Windows Xp

until the summer of 2018 (if I'm not mistaken, then I switched

to Linux, first Centos, and when it wasn't anymore possible

to keep it, Ubuntu).

I considered Windows Xp a completely successful product

for which no further development / technological progress

was really justified (except perhaps security patches)

and for sure the subsequent versions of Windows were not, which as far

as I know were indeed absolutely redundant and terrible.

(luckily I've never had to deal with them, I have now on another

partition of my system Windows 11 just for a specific feature on

a specific software which I use occasionally, but I'm really irritated

by the news widget, now disabled, and the policy to mix Internet search

results with local results).

So in my opinion (that's just my opinion) there isn't really a reason,

except for the use of specific software, to use Windows after Windows Xp especially

considering that at least after 2010 Linux was already a perfect viable

replacement also for Windows users, as I've found with Centos desktop.

In short I stand completely with Martini, with the exception to

recommend to give a try to the "Linux branch", which could be considered

(in my opinion) the genuine development of Windows Xp, by contrast

to the subsequent Microsoft's operating systems.

The alternative to that (to just keep using a system outdated of decades)

would be to enforce such a policy at a global level, requiring IT

companies to never replace their major product's versions with

new versions and to maintain all of them simultaneously. I think this makes sense only from an historical-documentary point of view so specific agencies should be appointed for this purpose by

state bodies as long as there is an interest by the broad

public for it ...

best

(Thomas)

---- On Thu, 26 Jun 2025 08:45:14 +0100 Tim Starling < mailto:tstarling@wikimedia.org > wrote ---

On 26/6/25 12:57, Leonid G via Wikitech-l wrote:

All these years I’m using a Windows XP laptop with Firefox 52.9.0 (32-bit) on it, and am quite happy with it (won’t change the system).

I'm sure you are happy with it, but it's insecure, and it won't work forever.

But since two weeks most pictures and map links are not showing up properly. Here are the screenshots as an example of one page in three languages and an example of a picture file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fYqWSfaJ18Zperk4-9XtwWqPBPZWv4ZL/view?usp=s...

Try right-clicking on one of the broken images, then click "open image in new tab", and switch to the new tab, and see if there is any error.

I note that the JPEGs seem to be broken whereas the PNGs seem to work. I would be surprised if that's our fault. Maybe your libjpeg is corrupted due to it being on a very old hard drive. You could try reinstalling Windows.

Was a coding algorithm at Wikipedia changed or support for older browsers disabled? According to this ( https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Compatibility_browser ) my browser is still supported. If it has been caused by mistake, then could you please turn it back on?

No, I don't think so, although dropping grade C support for your browser has recently been discussed at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T380576

-- Tim Starling

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