British governments pay to keep Windows XP alive

Fixious

Test Lead
They've known for years that support for XP would end. If they're sweating and scrambling for solutions now, I have no pity for them. I personally don't know anyone who runs XP, but I'm sure a few local businesses are.
 

WildFire

Warrior of Linux
Well considering important government software like the systems the NHS runs on I know why they haven't upgraded because updating those current softwares / making a new system for all of those services because of switching an os is definitely more expensive than paying Microsoft
 

RockeyRex

Legions Developer
Well considering important government software like the systems the NHS runs on I know why they haven't upgraded because updating those current softwares / making a new system for all of those services because of switching an os is definitely more expensive than paying Microsoft
...I have no idea what I just read.
 

RockeyRex

Legions Developer
Britts just threw 9,1million € for updates to 30 000 outdated systems for undefined period of time. That's money thrown down the gutter considering the upgrade is coming in few years time no matter what. It's just shows that not a single *dance* is given how efficient these public sectors are. More expensive to upgrade? No my little friend, THIS is expensive.
 

Dabbleh

Legions Developer
Britts just threw 9,1million € for updates to 30 000 outdated systems for undefined period of time. That's money thrown down the gutter considering the upgrade is coming in few years time no matter what. It's just shows that not a single *dance* is given how efficient these public sectors are. More expensive to upgrade? No my little friend, THIS is expensive.

But the U.S. government isn't alone -- around the world, other governments have hit a similar problem. The Guardian reports that both the British and Dutch governments are paying millions of dollars to Microsoft for an extended year of support.
source: wp
 

Defender

Member
Microsoft, is just a bunch of money grabbing crocks.
I think they have agreements with the hardware company's to make older systems obsolete, replace with latest OS, and new hardware, am I wrong?..
 

RockeyRex

Legions Developer
Microsoft, is just a bunch of money grabbing crocks.
I think they have agreements with the hardware company's to make older systems obsolete, replace with latest OS, and new hardware, am I wrong?..
Yes very conspiracy. Such greed.

In all seriousness WinXP is released 2001. That's 13 years of support to a piece of software that is without a doubt outdated by a long stretch. Expecting modern hardware or todays software to support something this old is flat out greedy.
Besides, how many softwares from even 10 years ago can you think of that still have support and updates to them and have not been remade completely to match todays standards. And this is just random software not a complete OS.
 

GReaper

Grumpy
Every piece of software has a support lifespan, whoever buys anything should consider this any time they buy/deploy software instead of expecting their supplier to extend support.

Too many businesses are being run by people who are failing to understand this. They'll use something, get plenty of value for money from it for the duration of the support lifespan, expect additional support which nobody wants to provide, delay the inevitable, and generally cause problems.

I install a server with an operating system - I check the end of life date for it and plan accordingly. I install software on it, I check the end of life date for that, upgrade when needed, test new updates carefully before deploying. Why? Because I don't want to be in the position of saying "ooops" when a severe vulnerability comes along and I can't upgrade the unsupported software.
 

BugsPray

Legions Developer
Microsoft, is just a bunch of money grabbing crocks.
I think they have agreements with the hardware company's to make older systems obsolete, replace with latest OS, and new hardware, am I wrong?..
You're wrong.

You can't have consumer-driven innovation and not have products become obsolete, especially with the speed of the tech industry. On one side, you have people getting mad at Microsoft and other old-guard companies blasting them for "not innovating" when you have this other camp at the same time yelling at them for not supporting legacy software beyond its end of life. It's this bi-polar consumer and enterprise sentiment that keeps companies like these in paralysis.

If you're interested in maintaining your XP install, there are anti-virus software companies willing to take your money from you. Or you could just update to an OS released in the last decade.
 

Defender

Member
Got part of my info from this site:

Microsoft, the crocks, and some ether big company's are actually trying to stop innovation, by derailing a Senate bill, to reform the U.S. patent system’s troll problem via the proposed Innovation Act legislation. If it pass's, more tech start-ups would have a better chance to become competition against Microsoft.. Microsoft, is against fair competition, their history proves it. Too many banks, systems run xp still, Maybe the us government, needs to find a way to force Microsoft to keep supporting the OS, with at-least some kind of paid support option for a few more years , it puts everyone on the internet at risk to have so many computers running it with no security updates..


from this site:
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, 95% of the 420,000 ATMs (cash machines) in the USA run Windows XP. Come April 8 2014, if a serious security flaw is found in Windows XP, the banks will be on their own to defend against increasingly high-tech criminals. (Read: ATMs running Windows XP robbed with infected USB sticks.) The banks do have plans to upgrade these machines, but it will take time — probably a few years, if not more.
 
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RockeyRex

Legions Developer
Oh not the article. When you can use the legal system as a leverage just because you know the other party can't afford to fight for his rights, something is wrong. But the fact you insist MS needs to be FORCED to continue their support on the OS based on that article...

Soo... Defender. Will you be here in 5 years to fix one of the scripts you made as it's now defunct? I think we should force you to. It's causing too many people to miss their favourite chat when they can't log it anymore. We can't be arsed to do anything about it ourselfs.
 

Defender

Member
Probably wrong to say they should be forced too, I'm not a lawyer, but I read they have made a deal to offer paid support, cost about $200.00 per computer, for big company s, but not for the average consumer. If they are going to still make XP security updates/patch's for big business, there's no reason in my mind, they can't offer people some kind of paid update at the same time, for small business, or consumers..
 
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SeymourGore

Flatulent Cherub
Probably wrong to say they should be forced too, I'm not a lawyer, but I read they have made a deal to offer paid support, cost about $200.00 per computer, for big company s, but not for the average consumer. If they are going to still make XP security updates/patch's for big business, there's no reason in my mind, they can't offer people some kind of paid update at the same time, for small business, or consumers..

Not sure if it'd make sense for Grandma to pay MS $200 to keep her outdated OS updated so she could play pogo. Large organizations that were too shortsighted with their IT infrastructure and were caught by surprise by the Win XP announcement, this option might make sense for them.
 
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