This week marks the fifth anniversary of the beloved Windows XP operating system. And Travis Hudson from Gizmodo thinks in honor of this birthday, we should spread the love towards the often-hated Windows XP operating system.With Windows Vista on the horizon, it is important to look back at the life of Windows XP and commemorate it with a list of why we love that old workhorse of an operating system.

The Right Mouse Button
Sure, the competitor has been supporting the right mouse button for quite some time now, but they still neglect to include it in their packaged mice or touchpads on the laptops. XP has always supported the beloved right mouse button and always will. How else can you quickly steal images from the internet without the right mouse button?

Jump for the rest of the <3.
Application Support
Don’t get me wrong, the competitors have some cool software suites, but if there is a program out there, then there is a good chance it was made for XP, or has a version available for XP.

Gaming
Hands down, XP is a gaming machine. Gaming companies always make an XP version, and very few port their game over to the competitor’s operating system. Where would we be as a society without Solitaire, Freecell and Minesweeper. And don’t forget Pinball.

Customizability
Sure prepackaged computers with Windows XP are great (and cheap, see next bullet-point). But what if you want to build your own? Windows makes it easy as hell. Feel like upgrading components? Still easy. Half the time XP already has the drivers. Boy, this new video card sure is swell! And don’t even get me started on the awesome case mods that always accompany XP-powered machines.

Machine Competition
There are hundreds of companies out there manufacturing machines to run XP. This drives the prices of machines down. Want a complete desktop unit for $300? It’s possible with XP.

Speed
The competition may think they are cool with the animated enlarging icons, but that shit eats the ram, hardcore. XP uses less ram and runs a lot faster.

New Technology
What’s that? Core 2 Duo? 64-bit processing? SLI graphics? Oh, XP has been doing that for ages now.

Media Center
XP saw the addition of Windows Media Center edition. And hell, they have been doing it for years. The addition of MCE to the XP operating system saw the first steps of home entertainment and PC integration. What’s that? iTV in a year? Oh, neat, if you like old ideas.

Versions
Five years later, it is still Windows XP. Sure, they have had some service packs, but that is a hell of a lot better than buying a new update every year named after a silly animal.

Piracy
Raise your hand if you have ever used a version of XP that wasn’t exactly purchased. Windows Genuine Advantage has since hindered that possibility, somewhat, but still. XP helped kick start a generation of kids that do not pay for software with the help of P2P programs like BitTorrent, as of late. Free is always good.