Do you still use XP? (multiple choice)

Is xp going to be dead and buried in April , or is it just that there will be no support / upgrades available ?

maki wrote: »

This isn't true. Previously released updates will still be available for download (manually or via Windows Update) and the knowledge base will still be there.
Microsoft have ended support of plenty of operating systems over the years and this won't be any different.

Exactly, i know plenty of companies who are running legacy software packages on Server 2000, simply because the software company that made it is gone out of business or dont support it anymore and it cant be transferred to another server and obviously they cant do a P2V on server 2000. Running fine with no issues apart from the odd HW failure here and there.

XP has been out for 12 years now and there have been very few cumulative updates for it now over the last few years, i think there was only one update for it on the latest patch tuesday and that was related to IE, the last service pack for it was 5 years ago, its about as "stable" as an OS can get.

Dont believe the hype that every xp machine will suddenly stop working and become a hackers dream on 8th of April, that wont happen. Think about it logically, why would a hacker spend time trying to hack an OS that's 12 years old, would it not make more logical sense to try and develop an exploitation for windows 8 seeing as though thats a newer OS with possibly undiscovered vulnerabilities and the majority of bluechip companies will be or have already migrated to Windows 8.

28064212 wrote: »

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-IE/security/dn481339 - Put in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3, and view the most recent updates. Just last week, there was a critical patch: "Vulnerability in VBScript Scripting Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2928390)".

And here's the real problem: If that patch was published in May, for just Vista and higher, a hacker knows that there is a strong possibility the vunerability exists, unpatched, in Windows XP. Updates now become a source of attack information for XP.

I get your point but i don’t entirely agree with it. You are talking about reverse engineering but Vista onwards uses a different architecture to XP, so a recognized vulnerability in Vista or 7\8 mightn't exist in XP. Also, Just because a patch is available on windows update, it doesn’t automatically mean that clients have installed that patch on release date. So your logic hackers could also reverse engineer the vulnerability for Vista\7\8 the minute they are identified and exploit machines that haven’t been patched. How many companies do you know run WSUS\SCCM to deploy updates as soon as they land. They don’t, a competent IT dept will install updates in test environments first to ensure stability before deploying. An incompetent IT dept mightn’t run WSUS or have automatic updates enabled on clients….how many companies in Ireland operate under this basis? From my experience quite a few.

Look im not saying I dont recognise there is a higher risk with XP and there won’t be some exploitations but personally I don’t buy the notion that on April 9th every XP machine out there suddenly becomes a ticking time bomb. Like everything, with the correct systems administration I personally believe the risk is minimal, bad or non existent administration on a windows 8 environment is much riskier than a well maintained XP environment. Obviously we are advising our customers to remove this risk by replacing \ upgrading their XP clients and some are, but in the real world this simply isn’t an option for a lot companies who are struggling to pay their staff wages and keep the business running…as an IT provider we cant turn around and say because Microsoft wont support your OS, neither will we. If we did that we’d have to close our doors in the morning.

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Because it's everywhere, banks, schools, offices, government buildings, even the white house is still using XP

I don’t support large public enterprise environments with unlimited IT budgets such as the White House, but if I did I would obviously be migrating away from XP. Im talking about the real world, small to mid level businesses. Microsoft will still be developing patches and support for XP after April 8th nd I would imagine that any enterprise environments that absolutely need XP will be paying for custom support.,

Mr. G wrote: »

The only Windows operating system that is worth using now is Windows 7. W8 and Vista are not great, XP was a nice OS to be fair.

I've worked in Enterprise environments and have experienced upgrades from xp to Win8.

Vista was a fine OS. It just needed ram which at the time manufacturers and companies were happy to still ship/buy the usual 512mbs and then complain about it afterwards, when 2 gig should have been the bare minimum. Drivers became a issue, mainly because most peripherals makers decided to try cash in and refuse to release drivers for relatively new equipment. I haven't seen them try that recently with either Win7 or 8.

Windows 8 is a fine OS, with many back end improvements in performance again. They made a mistake trying to change the basic UI layout when it doesn't suit non-touch devices and have since backtracked.

I can tell you now, for the all the headaches we had with legacy applications, the people still on XP have made it so much harder for themselves through ignorance and laziness.

My last company found it difficult to move from XP to Vista, Vista to Win7 was a breeze and Win 7 to Win8 has proven to be effortless. Thats not because of the differences between the OS's but actually due to the fact that the company is used to changing every few years. Applications have to have active maintenance contracts, staff have to have a machine replacement every 2.5-3 years and legacy apps with no support get left in the dust and replaced if necessary.

bbk wrote: »

I selected the work option. I only upgraded from it as the software I use stopped working on it. I'd still be using it now however, having gotten 8 and then 8.1 I would be more than happy to upgrade.

All windows 8 needs is the Classic Shell start menu and the idiots to moan about the personality split of windows 8 can become happy.

To be fair, Windows 7 is at least as good as XP and 8 is a better then the lot. Very happy. Vista though, rubbish.

Don't forget you wouldn't have 7 and 8 without Vista. Vista is not rubbish, with at least 2gb of ram and a good processor Vista runs extremely well in fact it runs as well as 7 on my PC but Linux Mint beats the two of them hands down.