
Despite Attempts to Get Users To Upgrade From XP, 30% Still Use It - TheSurge
http://thesurge.net/2014/03/04/despite-attempts-to-get-users-to-upgrade-from-xp-30-still-use-it/
======
brudgers
Many XP systems cannot be upgraded to another version of Windows, at least
officially the hardware isn't adequate. On the other hand there was a huge
opportunity to switch these systems to Linux if there had been a savvy distro
with a little cash and a business model. But I fear that bus has left the
station.

~~~
shmerl
Not only that, a lot of times that hardware simply has no drivers for newer
Windows! Linux indeed often works much better to address this (usually this
happens with laptops). I installed Linux for quite a few people in such
situation.

~~~
brudgers
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1805 laptop that I bought in August 2001. It runs
Linux (Wary Puppy 5.5). It's that or Winodes 2000 [or the ME it shipped with]
because XP ties itself to specific hardware.

It's a handy third screen.

------
ck2
I'm one of those people unfortunately.

XP was all I needed for a decade. My firewall which has thousands of rules
does not work with anything newer and other firewalls suck today, very badly.

I have many many programs which are licensed and I do not want to have to try
to find the key for each one again, heck find the program again, only to find
out it doesn't work beyond XP.

XP was just a launching UI for me, really could not care about how it looked.
I have it very locked down and very tweaked.

And I really do not want to lose the months of getting something configured
again. But come mid-April I won't have a choice.

~~~
eli
My guess is that someone will step up and continue to create patches for XP,
because you're in a pretty big boat.

But if I were you, I'd switch to a newer OS and run the whole XP box in a VM
(note you may run into some MS licensing issues setting this up). Then at
least you can slowly start migrating and at least your "main" hypervisor OS
will be fully patched. Doesn't help you with the firewall, though.

~~~
ck2
What blows my mind is that XP still needs constant, serious security patches
after 12 years. Think about that.

~~~
TheSurge
It's not because the software is necessarily "insecure", it's just because new
ways of getting around protections are found every day. Plus, look at how much
the technology landscape has changed since XP was introduced in 2001.

------
eli
Uh, ATMs use Windows XP Embedded, which isn't really the same thing and is
_not_ at EOL. Microsoft said they'll support Embedded at least until 2016.

~~~
shmerl
I wonder, why would ATMs use XP instead of Linux which sounds like a much
better fit?

~~~
daigoba66
Hardware and software support mostly. OEMs and vendors often write software
and drivers for Windows only, or have better support in Windows.

But there's no reason I know of to keep using XP instead of 7 or 8 for these
applications.

Disclaimer: I work for a company that engineers software for self-service
patient check-in kiosks.

------
jostmey
Why do I still use Windows XP? Because Microsoft charges too much for
Windows-8. Right now I am running XP in virtual box on my Linux workstation,
and everything works fine. Why would I pay to upgrade to Windows-8 knowing
that I might have trouble installing Windows-8 in virtualbox. There is no
point.

~~~
Touche
Just curious, why are you using XP in a vm instead of just using Linux?

~~~
eli
How else do you test on IE?

~~~
fournm
[http://modern.ie/](http://modern.ie/) ? Microsoft's got VMs for almost every
IE/OS combination you could want.

Edit: meaning, why are you limiting yourself to just XP. I realize that was
unclear.

~~~
Dragonai
Now this is cool. Thank you for sharing the link.

~~~
leobelle
I have found it to be pretty slow and painful.

------
higherpurpose
This is a good opportunity for institutions to move to Linux instead of
Windows 8, if they're going to have to train their users to use it anyway:

[https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/education-
mi...](https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/education-ministry-
romania-endorses-ubuntu)

As for why ATM's aren't using Linux, is beyond me. I guess Microsoft got to
them first. This is the problem with open source projects over commercial
solutions - there's hardly anyone out there working hard to _promote_ that
solution to users, other than the "community".

Things are changing and the community and social media can have a bigger
impact, but not when these ATM owners had to make the choice, and Microsoft is
still spending billions on promoting their stuff.

~~~
TheSurge
Honestly, I would also think that most of the applications for ATMs were
created before Linux systems gained much popularity. Plus in general Linux
isn't used to often commercially, I believe.

------
PhasmaFelis
"Shit, for some reason people don't want to drop a wad of cash on a upgrade
that provides no benefit to them and may not run effectively on their
hardware. I don't understand it! Haven't these jerks heard of _progress?_ "

------
coreymgilmore
What could be interesting will be percentage of computers running Windows 7 at
EOL. My bet is it will be the same or higher. I don't see many companies
jumping on the Windows 8 bandwagon any time soon, especially with how much
"less buggy" 7 is versus 8.x.

~~~
TheSurge
I don't either, but not just because the the bugs. The whole focus on tablets
and touch screens is a big turn off to most businesses I would think. Even
though Microsoft is finally considering switching 8 to more of a classic
style, I think it's too late for that.

~~~
DougWebb
It's not too late at all. Microsoft has had a number of "skip this version"
Windows versions, and the subseqent release has done well. WinXP did well
despite WinME, Win7 has done well despite Vista, and Win8.1 or Win9 will
probably do well despite Win8.

~~~
TheSurge
I have no doubt that Microsoft will do well on future editions despite Windows
8. What I do think is that anything with Windows 8 in it's name is always
going to have the touchscreen/tablet stigma attached to it.

------
Touche
Still think Microsoft should open source XP. They have no interest in
developing it despite user demand, let someone else take over.

~~~
nightski
Do you really believe there is any sort of significant demand for XP? Maybe
you could make an argument for 7, but really the almost 13 year old Windows
XP?

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Hey, look, there's a link to an article up there! Let's read it together:
"Currently, the more than a decade old OS still has a market share of 29.53%."
Wow!

~~~
jodrellblank
"Market: the state of trade at a particular time or in a particular context"
\- Google definition.

29% of operating systems sold today are XP?

29% of computers sold today are running XP?

When the article says "market share" I think that's misleading, there's no
money or trade involved in people using an old thing. It's more indicative
that such people are _not_ willing to spend money on computing, than
indicative that they are willing to spend money to stay where they are.

------
wnevets
at this point they should be treated like ie6 users. Its been 15 years

~~~
arbuge
13

