Read more at:Microsoft yesterday added ammunition to its increasingly aggressive battle to get users off the nearly-11-year-old Windows XP by citing a company-sponsored report that claims annual support costs for the older OS are more than five times that of Windows 7.
Microsoft has been banging the Windows XP upgrade drum for years, but stepped up the campaign in 2012, including starting a "two-year countdown" to the demise of security support. Last month, Microsoft was blunt, saying "If your organization has not started the migration to a modern PC, you are late."
Windows XP exits all support, including monthly security patches, in April 2014...
Aged Windows XP Costs 5x More to Manage Than Windows 7 | PCWorld Business Center
It's a wonder that some actually keep using xp. I know of a school district here locally that got new laptops for their students, preloaded with 7 Pro, and wiped the hard drives clean and installed xp. Ever since, I've heard of usability issues because people aren't using decade old software anymore...
This reminds me of a couple years ago when I gave my mom a computer with a nice install of windows 7 and a bunch of security software installed. She turned around and had her boyfriend install xp for her because she was not willing to relearn how to use windows. "NO WAY do i have the time to just sit on a computer and relearn all this stuff like you do bill. And I cant imagine any of my programs will be compatible" she said.haha i sent the link in an email to her.
This reminds me of a couple years ago when I gave my mom a computer with a nice install of windows 7 and a bunch of security software installed. She turned around and had her boyfriend install xp for her because she was not willing to relearn how to use windows. "NO WAY do i have the time to just sit on a computer and relearn all this stuff like you do bill. And I cant imagine any of my programs will be compatible" she said.Wow...that's nuts.
Years ago I had only one computer and was running 2000 which I liked. Decide to get a laptop for the wife and it had XP. After learning it, I finally moved from 2000 to XP and all was great with both units running the same. Then along came Win 7 and I couldn't find anything I was use to. It was still there, just moved around. Now I love Win 7 and here comes Win 8 and things are moved again. It does keep the mind sharp learning new ways of doing the same thing. But I can see the resistance to change as people get use to doing things a certain way.
Jim
That is absolutely crazy.
The place I work is resistant to upgrade because it is a cash-strapped small business. But being a small business, it still has a large number of computers (half with CRT monitors I might add). To buy software for all of it would be quite an expense. In fact, before I got there, they were resistant to update the computers "due to possible problems caused by an update". This included security updates. I might also add that they are now doing better because of all those 'bad' updates. Got a lot of Dell Optiplex 330's for normal staff, so quite old.
The graphics team recently bought a GTX 550ti and found that they couldn't install it due to the AGP slot that apparently didn't accept PCI-e x16 o.0
But bless their hearts, its a non-profit that gives most of its gold away to help the community. What can you do?
Lots of people in the industry that I work in use this app everyday :-(
The vendor told me that it would only run on Windows3 and not to try it on Windows for Workgroups. They did not want any other app causing traffic on the IO bus. Even letting a screensaver come on slows this app to a crawl. The CPU speed cannot be over 500Mhz - not because of the app, but because of the stuff that it controls.
With enough tweaking, I got it working on W98 and then eventually on XP - only a few of the windows get their Z order messed up.
You let me know when you wanna come visit and get this working on W7 for me
Hi there
this isn't surprising -- just look at CARS or any other piece of machinery -- it invariably costs more to service and repair older gear than more modern stuff.
However in all this ONE important piece of information is missing.
Although it *may* cost more to maintain -- you can't forget the "Capital Outlay" (i.e COST) of purchasing the new product - be it Windows, a new Car, a new energy saving fridge or whatever.
I'm sure some people will stick with XP until they HAVE to buy a new computer. I'd suspect that most computers (non corporate or company supplied PC's) that are still running XP are due for "retirement" fairly soon anyway.
As for older legacy software - I still MOST CERTINLY AM using it. I still have an old H.P Plotter device (used regularly) which only works on XP and a large format professional printer (A2 poster size) also running on XP plus a few others..
OK I run these apps on an XP VM but it's still XP and isn't going off my system any time soon.
I know lots of cases where you have old "industrial" grade equipment which costs thousands of $$$$'s to upgrade --even if you could find newer stuff - and often you can't get a replacement.
This stuff is often perfectly "fit for purpose" for 30 - 50 years or even longer.
I think a lot of people just simply think computers are used by office professionals or home users.
Computers are used in all sorts of places -- from Oil Rigs to monitoring gases at potential volcano sites. Measuring gear is extremely expensive so the OS will remain. !!!
Often in this type of situation you CAN'T upgrade the OS even if you wanted to.
cheers
jimbo
I am running Windows XP only in a vm at this point. There is one more XP computer (a netbook) that I want to upgrade to Windows 7 because it's a pain to maintain and Acer put bloat on the install of XP and when I try to fix it, it will get worse. Keep in mind these are things like msconfig and I have to let the pc sit over night and it will work properly again. Also, I had some old apps (Timeshock games, lander and Palm Desktop) that I got running under Windows Vista 32 bit, so I have no need for XP at this point.
I just don't understand why they don't just make the system self contained running an in-house OS (such as a HP-UX derivative) in the first place? I bet you that in many cases a custom bare-bones OS could've done the job just fine.
Here's an example: At the college I go to, they use a mettalurgy machine that NEEDS to be hooked up to a compatible computer. But all the computer does is display the output and do printouts. The system could have easily have a CPU included and ports for monitor, keyboard, and printer.
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