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by lukeschlather 5419 days ago
Windows XP is still supported, and even if I wanted to run Windows 7, it's too bloated to run on fully a third of the hardware in my organization (and that's just counting x86 desktop/laptops.) Windows XP is a problem, and Microsoft hasn't solved it.
2 comments
serge2k 5419 days ago
Yes, they have. The solution is called windows 7.

The only problem is people refusing to upgrade from a decade old OS.

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lukeschlather 5418 days ago
I'm talking about machines which barely fit the minimum specs for Windows XP - I guess this is hard for you to grasp, but some people can't afford to buy a $300 netbook when they have a perfectly functional desktop from 6 years ago.

Also, we have several applications which, while they will run on Windows 7, they simply do not run well. From a business standpoint, it's really hard to justify an upgrade that results in reduced functionality in the name of security. I can clean up after malware pretty quickly - people working with outdated but business-critical applications lose hours of their days when software starts acting up because it wasn't written with a good security model in mind and it's being forced into that environment.

You can say Windows 7 solved the problem all you want, but there remain countless areas where Windows XP is required, and virtualization is not a magic bullet - networking is always tricky. And in any case, we do all that work of migration and what do we gain? Exactly what we have right now, except with hardware accelerated graphics that don't support all our hardware and some difficult to quantify reduction in malware attacks.

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sukuriant 5419 days ago
What sort of hardware are you running? Windows 7 runs on netbooks!
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lukeschlather 5418 days ago
5-7 year old hardware. This is an affluent community - I know it's unusual to think about it here but some people absolutely cannot afford to upgrade. I'm talking about hardware that barely meets the minimum specs for XP.

I'm not one of them, but I see them every day. Windows 7 does not solve the Windows XP problem. (The Windows XP problem will be solved when any given computer can run Windows 7 easily.)

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