February 16, 2014 at 9:43 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Time to Retire
February 17, 2014 at 7:28 am
I was just reading a comment on Bruce Schneier's blog. Apparently very many bank cash machines (ATM) are running XP. Likelihood they'll all be converted on time is about zero. Also medical and industrial equipment.
In IT we tend to think of things in terms of servers and user machines. But there is a whole embedded world out there where it's not such a straightforward fix (just get a new pc).
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
February 17, 2014 at 8:14 am
Getting family members off of XP will be difficult. Also difficult is getting businesses off of XP.
For the former, I tend to recommend Linux, if nothing else for the price. For the latter, well, they need to ask for budgetary approval!
February 17, 2014 at 8:21 am
It's easy to take family members off of WinXP. Not so easy for companies that need lots of licenses and testing time to make sure nothing is going to break. I wonder if I'll get Win7 (or 8 :sick:) at work soon.
February 17, 2014 at 8:22 am
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
It's easy to take family members off of WinXP. Not so easy for companies that need lots of licenses and testing time to make sure nothing is going to break. I wonder if I'll get Win7 (or 8 :sick:) at work soon.
Yeah sometimes that is true especially when you are their IT staff.
:w00t::-D
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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February 17, 2014 at 8:35 am
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
It's easy to take family members off of WinXP. Not so easy for companies that need lots of licenses and testing time to make sure nothing is going to break. I wonder if I'll get Win7 (or 8 :sick:) at work soon.
Win7 or what? I don't think I'm familiar with that other product, so I'm sure I misheard you - did you mean Win7 or Debian, Win7 or Ubuntu, or Win7 or FreeBSD? 😎 Personally, I'm not about to try and give a family member Win8 + Office 2007+ if they're used to WinXP + Office 2003-; I don't need that many calls for help.
February 17, 2014 at 8:43 am
The problem with Microsoft wanting to retire things is that they have to convince the public that new is actually improved.
If I'm normal consumer with a seven year old PC with WinXP and and the full Office suite that I paid the $300 retail price for. I paid a $1k for the whole setup. I have enough hard drive space and the speed isn't too bad. It works for what I do.
So convince that person to go to a Win8 with a completely different interface and Office 13 with a ribbon that slows him down for no reason. Especially when he can go find a decent old WinXP machine at a thrift store like Goodwill for $25.
I'm on a laptop with Win7 with Off2007. I'm planning to downgrade the Office to 2003 because the ribbon slows me down and takes up too much real estate. As for Win8 -- I'm hoping Win9 will actually be an improvement.
----------------
Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
February 17, 2014 at 8:46 am
Nadrek (2/17/2014)
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
It's easy to take family members off of WinXP. Not so easy for companies that need lots of licenses and testing time to make sure nothing is going to break. I wonder if I'll get Win7 (or 8 :sick:) at work soon.Win7 or what? I don't think I'm familiar with that other product, so I'm sure I misheard you - did you mean Win7 or Debian, Win7 or Ubuntu, or Win7 or FreeBSD? 😎 Personally, I'm not about to try and give a family member Win8 + Office 2007+ if they're used to WinXP + Office 2003-; I don't need that many calls for help.
We're on 2014, I'm sure that they can handle Office 2010, I'm not so sure about Win8. I tried to use ubuntu on the family computer once, they kept asking where were Word and Solitaire.
February 17, 2014 at 9:40 am
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
Nadrek (2/17/2014)
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
It's easy to take family members off of WinXP. Not so easy for companies that need lots of licenses and testing time to make sure nothing is going to break. I wonder if I'll get Win7 (or 8 :sick:) at work soon.Win7 or what? I don't think I'm familiar with that other product, so I'm sure I misheard you - did you mean Win7 or Debian, Win7 or Ubuntu, or Win7 or FreeBSD? 😎 Personally, I'm not about to try and give a family member Win8 + Office 2007+ if they're used to WinXP + Office 2003-; I don't need that many calls for help.
We're on 2014, I'm sure that they can handle Office 2010, I'm not so sure about Win8. I tried to use ubuntu on the family computer once, they kept asking where were Word and Solitaire.
Word without the ribbon = LibreOffice.
Solitare is under Games - after you use the Package Manager to search for it and install it, along with a bunch of other games (that don't need Flash, and don't install spyware and advertisements and IE addons and toolbars).
February 17, 2014 at 9:42 am
Nadrek (2/17/2014)
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
Nadrek (2/17/2014)
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
It's easy to take family members off of WinXP. Not so easy for companies that need lots of licenses and testing time to make sure nothing is going to break. I wonder if I'll get Win7 (or 8 :sick:) at work soon.Win7 or what? I don't think I'm familiar with that other product, so I'm sure I misheard you - did you mean Win7 or Debian, Win7 or Ubuntu, or Win7 or FreeBSD? 😎 Personally, I'm not about to try and give a family member Win8 + Office 2007+ if they're used to WinXP + Office 2003-; I don't need that many calls for help.
We're on 2014, I'm sure that they can handle Office 2010, I'm not so sure about Win8. I tried to use ubuntu on the family computer once, they kept asking where were Word and Solitaire.
Word without the ribbon = LibreOffice.
Solitare is under Games - after you use the Package Manager to search for it and install it, along with a bunch of other games (that don't need Flash, and don't install spyware and advertisements and IE addons and toolbars).
I know that, my family doesn't.
February 17, 2014 at 10:03 am
Luis Cazares (2/17/2014)
Nadrek (2/17/2014)
Word without the ribbon = LibreOffice.
Solitare is under Games - after you use the Package Manager to search for it and install it, along with a bunch of other games (that don't need Flash, and don't install spyware and advertisements and IE addons and toolbars).
I know that, my family doesn't.
You can teach them that, or you can teach them Win8.
Choose wisely. 🙁
February 17, 2014 at 10:12 am
February 17, 2014 at 12:20 pm
The tech debt things certainly rings true for me. There's nothing like working through the source code for an old report and finding that what it was reporting was total rubbish. But as a previous editorial said " End users will continue to do whatever they’d already decided before they saw the numbers."
February 17, 2014 at 1:46 pm
Funny this article comes up. Saturday I was at my parents house and my Mom said look at this message I am getting on our PC.... she fires up the PC and low and behold it is Windows XP. I could have swore when we upgraded her from Windows ME it was to Vista.... yikes... so.... Sunday I ordered her a new PC with Windows 7. I don't want to try and teach an 80 year old how to use Win8 when i don't even have it myself. So, there will be one less XP license being used in a week or so... LOL
February 18, 2014 at 8:12 am
I get the value of leaving XP behind. I also get the pain and potential expense involved at the family level. Like many of you I just bought my Mom a new machine and did my best to move all the stuff she needed over to the new one. Not everyone has the money, time, or skills to do that. Moving to Windows 7 on the same hardware is possible, so I wish that there was some $19 upgrade to a minimal version of Windows 7 that could be done in place.
Cloud based storage (dropbox, skydrive, google drive) should ease this pain some going forward. Should we start to point our not-technical-at-all friends and family to something like Chrome OS?
It's different at work, at least some. There are often compelling advantages to moving to a newer version of hardware or software. It feels like it's only moderately painful as long as we do it often, the five year gap between SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 allowed a lot of inertia, debt, and complacency to set in.
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