
Ask HN: Is the UK's Ministry of Defence Still Using Windows XP? - scarydiscovery
I&#x27;ve just had to deal with the following request via email, regarding a website that has a banner encouraging IE6, 7 and 8 users to upgrade:<p>&quot;Do you have any idea how irritating this message is? We are on windows XP and outlook 2003 as probably thousands of other people are - why do you block them?<p>I am not allowed to upgrade any software or browser so I feel really disappointed that I cannot book any events on line, or even by phone in your case. Come on, we can’t all afford to upgrade every time MS or IE upgrades.&quot;<p>Does this mean the MOD are still on Windows XP?
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brudgers
There's something to the idea that a website which can't handle older browsers
gracefully is a design issue not a user issue. Cars from 1953 can still
operate on today's roads. Why should the information superhighway be
different?

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scarydiscovery
That presupposes that the highways don't constantly change to be backwards-
incompatible with older cars. Unfortunately, they do.

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DanBC
> or even by phone in your case.

Displaying a list of events and a telephone number isn't something that
requires a modern browser.

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jmnicolas
> [...]I cannot book any events on line[...]

So basically they complain that they cannot use their work computer for
personal stuff ?

Anyway the problem can be easily (?) solved by using a VM or a dedicated
machine, but I guess the MOD IT might not be as agile as one would like ;-)

~~~
detaro
Or it is part of their job to book events? But indeed, it's hard to justify
not having _also_ a modern browser available, even if you "need" an old
environment for other reasons.

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detaro
Not unlikely, quite a few government agencies in multiple countries still are
on XP (and paying tons of money for security updates)

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thepacketrat
Yes, the UK government is paying Microsoft a ton of cash for XP support, so
this is possible.

