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There is a relatively old—though still fundamentally true—adage about Windows: Microsoft's biggest competition is Microsoft, as a specific subset of users (and businesses) only upgrade to the latest version of Windows kicking and screaming. According to SpiceWorks' Future of Network and Endpoint Security report, published Tuesday, 32% of organizations still have at least one Windows XP device connected to their network, despite extended support for XP ending in 2014. (Notably, the last variant of XP, Windows POSReady 2009, reached end of life in April 2019.)
With the looming end of free support for Windows 7, this reticence of users and enterprises to upgrade to newer versions of Windows is likely to create significant security issues. Presently, 79% of organizations still have at least one Windows 7 system on their network, according to SpiceWorks, which also found that two thirds of businesses plan to migrate all of their machines off Windows 7 prior to the end of support on January 14, 2020, while a quarter will only migrate after that deadline.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday July 31 2019, @07:01PM
Had we bought, we would be installing the stuff about now. And embedded is a fuzzy thing. These machines would be in a kiosk and boot to a single application, but they would also be exposing a GUI to the general public and accessing Cloud based resources. So what would I do, put them in our DMZ zone where they would be easier for an outsider to hack into but couldn't harm the internal network as easy, or bury them inside the internal net which makes them a harder target, but with all the Cloud activity not invulnerable, but if taken gives an attacker a paved road into our internal net? Or build a third hardened internal net for them?
With the exception of a Windows based accounting system, which is impossible to avoid since the only vendors with access to the government systems required to do payroll reporting is Win/Mac only, I have avoided the Windows plague. No intention to invite it in now, especially a version that would be extinct on the ribbon cutting day. Maybe the vendor would eventually update, maybe we would be stuck on XP for another five to ten years.