Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003 • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#81

Post by mhurron » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 1:49 PM UTC

Ricapar wrote: post #57

mhurron wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would 8 be a problem? There is nothing supported that can't run higher and the situation that made IE6 end up being so entrenched, that MS sat on IE development for so long and IE6 was the only IE for many years, didn't happen with anything after that.

IE8 is a problem because many big enterprises still run it. I know of several big US corporations that, even though they run Windows 7 now, still deploy it with IE8 for compatibility with legacy applications. Once you start dealing with big corporations, it's not as simple as "oh it's time to update".

Unless you're targeting enterprise customers, is that really much of a problem?

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#82

Post by mseebach » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 1:51 PM UTC

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #53

gtirloni wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How open source will fix it for an organization that can't bother to move from a decade old operating system? In 10 years we'll reading about the UK govt having trouble moving away from Ubuntu LTS 14.04. They only have option b) if they won't to avoid this in the future. Open source or not.

Upgrading an OS OS is a lot cheaper than upgrading a proprietary one.

It's not the license cost that's keeping these people from upgrading. It's verifying that the hundreds of applications, many of which were built by systems integrators that you have a strained relationship with that need to work correctly on whatever you're replacing it with. It's training users - some people "need" a two-day offsite seminar and a couple of weeks of reduced workload to transition to a new system. Also, something invariably goes wrong, so you also have to account for lost productivity when that happens.

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#83

Post by Ellipsis753 » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 1:53 PM UTC

I've heard a few people saying that they're staying with Windows XP in their company internally. The idea being that as the internal computers share a single access point to the Internet that they can filter everything incoming there.

This doesn't really sound correct and obviously it won't help for physically bringing in USB sticks etc but I'm still interested to know what others think here?

Is there about to be a large number of 3rd party firewalls trying to protect internet computers from Windows XP exploits?

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#84

Post by zamalek » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 1:55 PM UTC

andygates wrote: post #65

dorward wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not alone. The UK government is doing something similar. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/07/uk-governm...

That works out at about £13,000 for our site, which is £16 per XP box. Our renewal program - like many big public-sector ones - is contingent on budget, manpower, and horrible crufty software for which there is no more modern compatible alternative or update. Or where the update is just broken (gee thanks), so we have to wait out vendors' promises versus a ticking clock.

> no more modern compatible alternative

Sounds like a good startup opportunity.

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#85

Post by gnu8 » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 2:01 PM UTC

jmnicolas wrote: post #24

Where I work we still have business specific apps that run only on XP and our suppliers have no plan on upgrading them (unless we fund the entire project, which they will happily resell full price to over companies). This is a clear example of what the lack of competition does

If you'll state what apps these are, I bet someone here would throw together a web based SaaS replacement in an afternoon. If there's no competition for a business app it's often because no one is aware of the need.

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#86

Post by jenscow » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 2:06 PM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #82

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upgrading an OS OS is a lot cheaper than upgrading a proprietary one.

It's not the license cost that's keeping these people from upgrading. It's verifying that the hundreds of applications, many of which were built by systems integrators that you have a strained relationship with that need to work correctly on whatever you're replacing it with. It's training users - some people "need" a two-day offsite seminar and a couple of weeks of reduced workload to transition to a new system. Als…

I believe you get that with all OS upgrades.

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#87

Post by jenscow » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 2:07 PM UTC

skyebook wrote: post #79

danielweber wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, if they run into any issues, just post to the Ubuntu forums, and lazer420 will tell you how to fix it!

Or there's always the paid Canonical support. But the thought of David Cameron hunched over a laptop having some tea and getting assistance from lazer420 in saving the NHS from the next heartbleed is priceless.

No, they ask their IT department. The difference being, they can fix issues with the OS themselves (or hire someone to). With something closed like Windows, there's only one place to go for support.

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#88

Post by pgrote » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 2:12 PM UTC

We have internal web based apps that require IE 7 and Windows XP due to Active X controls. We've moved to Windows 7 with virtual XP machines. To prevent internet access we've stopped any traffic at the firewall with the virtual machines.

We think this will work to prevent internet based attacks, but realize we're still vulnerable to physical attacks through media. It was the best we can do given our reliance on the older system.

Any other holes in this other than the physical issue?

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#89

Post by jenscow » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 2:14 PM UTC

johnchristopher wrote: post #37

I would like to read an article about whether or not an up-to-date anti-virus is going to protect users (how and why) as a lot of IT people defend that position.

Exactly. Any AV worth it's salt should pick up something that a security update should have fixed.

Re: Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003

#90

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Tue, Apr 08, 2014, 2:17 PM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #71

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're going to leave your non-technical mom using an unpatched OS connected to the public Internet? Let me know how that works out.

Yeah, that's pretty much the current situation anyway with a lot of folks.

Would be interesting to know. Based on anecdotal reports, I would guess that we are now today in a situation in which more people than ever are running an unpatched, Internet-connected computer - I'm hypothesising that XP is by far the most 'un-upgraded' OS we've had since mass adoption of the Internet.