@ColoradoMarmot wrote:
Just a couple of other notes:
- The lifespan of using XP is limited. As Apple intel hardware goes out of support, you'll lose the ability to run any intel OS. Best guess is in the 2025-2027 timeframe (you'll likely have a year's notice - Apple should announce that X is the last version that will have intel support).
- Of course, XP shouldn't be on the internet at all. Suggest removing the ethernet adapter in the VM to be 100% sure.
- Fusion is starting to drop guest OS support, usually in line with esxi dropping it. That's mostly hit MacOS so far, but they've deprecated it for XP, which is the first step to dropping it. I'd expect to see end of support with 12-24 months.
- Getting XP to run on modern CPU's is getting more and more challenging, and often requires third-party patches. So even moving to workstation on windows intel (or later Macs) could be a challenge, and of course, workstation will lose support at the same time as Fusion.
All of this points to the same place: XP should have been retired years ago, but the true no-other-option is approaching, probably within 2 years. It's definitely time to start planning to move off it completely.
All very good points. The corollary to the first point is if your customers ever want to go to a new Apple Silicon Mac, they immediately lose the ability to run any Intel VMs, including Windows XP. Emulation via QEMU is the only solution for that.
- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
