> Does the author actually use Windows XP?
I've switched to XP (from Windows 7, on a VM) and the performance is astounding even on limited hardware settings. No bloatware, just good old Win32 x86.
I've switched to XP (from Windows 7, on a VM) and the performance is astounding even on limited hardware settings. No bloatware, just good old Win32 x86.
It's sad how bloated things have gotten.
You wouldn't believe how much traffic is hammering IP ranges with known vulnerabilities. Forward port 22 to your Linux box or similar, check the logs for number of "connection attempts", it's going to be glorious log. A-HOLES of this planet are doing this just to get control of devices connected to the internet, if for no other reason than use them in DDoS-for-hire service. If there is a quick buck to be made.. they'll be all over it. Human parasites.
The main threat would be connecting to a malicious server that attacks some hypothetical hole in the TCP/TLS stack when you connect, but such servers aren't really omnipresent, and you can apply the usual measures of 'making regular backups' and 'not keeping extraordinarily sensitive data on a VM' to mitigate any impacts.
(Looking at actual historical holes, I find things like CVE-2005-0048, which requirs a malformed IP packet a modern router wouldn't pass through, and CVE-2007-0069 and CVE-2019-0708, which require a malicious incoming connection to a particular port. There's also stuff like https://www.forcepoint.com/sites/default/files/resources/fil..., but that's not really specific to XP services, and requires many stars to align unless you're running a vulnerable HTTP service.)