

Microsoft chops the price of custom Windows XP patches - ch_123
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-chops-the-price-of-custom-windows-xp-patches-7000028512/

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dang
The original submission [1] was both blogspammy and linkbaity. Apart from the
content being poorer, this leads to lower-quality threads, as you can see from
the first few comments here. Since threads are sensitive to initial
conditions, this can have quite an effect.

We're looking for the highest quality, most original source for any story.
When posting, please search around a bit to see if you can find a better
source. When reading, if you know of a better source, please alert us to it.

1\. [http://windowsitpro.com/paul-thurrotts-wininfo/microsoft-
bli...](http://windowsitpro.com/paul-thurrotts-wininfo/microsoft-blinks-
offers-xp-customers-support-contracts-cheap)

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shaggyfrog
Thank you for taking a stand on this and making it policy.

Back when I got enough karma to be able to flag submissions, I used it on
linkbait submissions, but it never had any effect... and I quickly lost my
flagging privilege.

I hope this pattern of finding more authoratative and higher quality sources
continues. It can only benefit HN.

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ElDiablo666
I don't understand. How did you lose your flagging privileges?

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dang
By flagging too many things that a moderator thought were on-topic.

Keep in mind that many people have a wrong idea of what's off-topic for HN.
For some reason they think HN is only about tech and startups, when that is
not true at all. Genuinely interesting posts from off the beaten track are
among the most precious things on this site. Flagging those is like stepping
on wildflowers. That's one reason why people might lose flagging. Another is
just by flagging way too much (e.g. dozens of stories at a time). But I'd have
to look at the data to answer in any particular case, and even then might not
be able to.

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chrisBob
Can't read: it crashes Safari. Its interesting because it is the only
repeatable why I have found to crash Safari on my Mac.

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rbanffy
This smells like attempted code injection.

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Guvante
I would bet there is another side to this. If I were Microsoft I would include
in the discount a requirement to switch over to a Windows OS.

Giving up $82 million in support fees (which they may have decided to live
without) to guarantee a large customer doesn't use this opportunity to look at
other options isn't such a bad deal.

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bcbrown
The article mentions this. Customers need to have a migration plan (presumably
to a modern Windows) to get the discounts.

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Guvante
It mentions they are required to migrate but not what to.

If they are forced to migrate to Microsoft why is this a weakness from them?

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yuhong
This makes it closer to what MS charged for NT4/2000 custom support before.

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szilardeo
Why would someone consider buying this instead of upgrading to windows 8?

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cwyers
When you have thousands of XP machines, many of which lack drivers for newer
versions of Windows or the hardware necessary to run them well, and
applications that haven't been updated for over a decade... well, you do this
to keep yourself (somewhat) more secure while you work out the transition plan
you've been putting off for far too long. (And Microsoft is only offering this
to companies that commit to a transition plan, although it's unclear on what
timeframe and with what if any penalties if the transition doesn't happen.)

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oDot
Aren't Microsoft's solutions to running XP stuff on newer versions of Windows
pretty good? XP Mode works well for our exotic software, but I have no idea
how it scales for many users

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ataylor32
Now that support has ended, Microsoft's recommendation is that you "only use
Windows XP Mode if your PC is disconnected from the Internet". Source:

[http://windows.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows7/products/feature...](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode)

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rbanffy
Microsoft will do _anything_ to keep its users on Windows.

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harigov
And the problem is?

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rbanffy
It's rather a valuable asset. They will do whatever is necessary to keep you a
customer. I've seen more than one situation where they reduced prices by huge
factors in order to remain in a competition. Sometimes, the credible threat of
a migration was enough to trigger the high-double-digit discount.

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Piskvorrr
Nah. If they announced this beforehand, they'd be vilified as "trying to
extort money out of their longtime customers." This way, they're hailed as
saviors of the endangered and abandoned.

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melling
No, the savior of the lazy and stupid. How much money do you think Microsoft
has invested in Windows since XP? A billion dollars? But that doesn't matter
because this old version of Windows does everything that we want it to do.
People should have to pay for being lazy.

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JimmaDaRustla
Not to mention how long ago the support SHOULD have ended, but MSFT continued
to extend it because of the amount of users not willing to move off of it.

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tunap
"...but MSFT continued to extend it because... 2+ years of extended sales to
sell more over-priced netbook trash."

FTFY

[https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/features/2008/apr08/04-...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/features/2008/apr08/04-03xpeos.aspx)

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JimmaDaRustla
That was six years ago, out of context of the extended support they provided.

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tunap
Actually, less than four when they stopped selling XP. My point is, if they
extended sales are they not obligated to extend support?

"Sales of Windows XP licenses to OEMs ceased on June 30, 2008, but continued
for netbooks until October 2010."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP)

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JimmaDaRustla
Agreed.

If they allowed the sale of products beyond the point of original support, we
shouldn't be commending them for extending the support.

My personal expectation if I were to purchase a system with an already
outdated OS, is that I would receive updates for at least 2 years.

Point well taken though.

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ademarre
Dear Microsoft,

Better yet, open source XP and earn some serious cred!

Sincerely Yours, The hacker community

~~~
ElDiablo666
Wow, your comment is grayed out like it was downvoted but you've only asked MS
to liberate an OS, which is something that should be supported. True hacker
spirit there.

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ademarre
HN doesn't like subtext. Of course, it's terribly impractical to ask MS to
release the XP source code, and that might even exacerbate the ongoing need
for security patches. But look at all the millions being spent now, and
imagine how different the situation would be if these enterprises were able to
choose a free and open source OS from the start.

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Redoubts
Would it be different? How much would it cost to find someone to pick up and
take over support for RHEL4, for instance?

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ademarre
A fair point, but don't you think with sufficient demand there would be
competition in a free market?

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schneid
It was nice of Microsoft to admit that their customers are moving to Linux:

"We’ve been working with customers and partners on the migration from Windows
XP since we announced in September 2007 that support for Windows XP would end
on April 8. 2014. As part of this effort, we’ve made custom support more
affordable so large enterprise organizations could have temporary support in
place while they migrate to a more modern and secure operating system."

