Windows 7: OZ govt pays $14 million for outdated WinXP

Australia -- August 5, 2015
We used to be a clever country, now we just dig holes and export the dirt ...
... and then ...

Revealed: Australian government pays hefty price to keep outdated Windows operating systems secure

Australia must not of got the memo.

Microsoft has informed the world when XP would no longer be supported.

In the U.S.A we got banks that still use XP.
That doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

They paid Microsoft to keep giving them windows updates. A lot of governments are doing this now.

There are so many more including the US Navy,
MS are making a fortune, it would be nice if they had to show it seperately in thier accounts,

The only XP product thier not supporting is the man in the street, ie you and me


Roy

It's not that a crazy idea if you take into account all that would cost migrating to modern Windows versions. I don't think those big enterprises/governments that stay on XP are just lazy, but instead the numbers favor this decision. Just in a quick review, consider that a migration would imply:

-Testing existing systems on new platforms.
-Modify or develop new ones for those that don't work (remember that Vista introduced many new incompatibilities).
-Stop work for install new OSs, meaning lost productivity.
-Users have to adapt to the new OS, specially non-techy people can have a hard time until they get to work again. Means more lost productivity.
-Monitor the new systems until they're known to be stable.
-Older hardware may need to be update too (Vista+ are much more resource demanding than XP). Ie more money spent.
-Purchasing licenses for a lot of computers, that alone could cost more that pay MS for extra maintenance.
-There may be simply no real reason to change what currently works fine. Specially for non-internet facing machines, the risks of using XP are minimal compared to newer systems. For servers there will probably be stronger reasons from an IT standpoint for anticipating a migration.

All in all, people that manages the big money will for sure sum those and it's not crazy to see them chose the easy way of paying to keep the existing system in good health.

Obviously, the phase "outdated WinXP" is also wrong and sensationalist. They're paying explicitly for new updates, so at least for them, it won't outdate for a long time.

A lot of good points to consider for industry and governments.
That being said one has to trust Microsoft to furnish Updates in the long term future. That is a maybe at best.

Sooner or later one has to plan for a System and hardware upgrading.
Just moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic did not keep it afloat.