Over at MSFN Forums, user 'harkaz' has described a simple 3-step method of applying newer Microsoft updates to Windows XP operating systems.
He says: "The constraints are entirely artificial. Porting is easy as 1-2-3 ... So Windows XP can have semi-official support until 2019!"
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How to Apply MS Updates to Windows XP until 2019
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by tathra on Sunday May 18 2014, @12:34AM
i'm kind of shocked that people are so desperate to keep XP 'alive'. about the only 'legitimate' reason i've seen for anyone still using XP is some dead/niche software, like in hospitals; as for dated hardware, is it really that expensive to buy hardware supporting Win7? the laptop i'm using now was $300 back in 2012 and it is able to run even recent-ish games like Skyrim just fine. not that i'm saying everyone should be forced to spend what may even be as little as spare change for a box that'll run Win7, but honestly it kinda seems ridiculous.
what might be the best move for MS would be to simply release XP to open source and let the community continue supporting it, since thats starting to happen already. naturally this couldnt happen until their current support contract ends, but it'd be a pretty damn good publicity move that would let them off the hook of continuing to support such a dated OS while giving people what they want. bill gates even said he'd rather people pirate windows than use linux; well, releasing XP to open source would be a great move to keep people from leaving the Windows environment.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @12:59AM
You have no use for it, so it should die. Good news, asshole, I can say the same about you. Please die. Die now. Die. Die. Die.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Preston on Sunday May 18 2014, @01:29AM
There are a few things wrong with these ideas. First of all, open sourcing the product is out of the question. A lot of the source is probably still used in current generation products. Also, third parties may own some of the source and Microsoft May be prohibited from redistributing it; this was an issue with Windows CE.
A hardware upgrade may not seem like a large amount of money when you're thinking of your personal budget and your personal computer, but when you're looking at a corporation, you can easily be looking at a multi million dollar project to replace the workstations. Software in use by the organization may be custom built and only work for XP. The cost of upgrading then raises by an order of magnitude. You also can't just swap out all the old computers for new ones. They need to be tested in their respective environments. All this for what? To replace a system that works? One whose original investment is just now starting to make a return?
Firewall the machines and stop web browsing. I won't even get into the cost of supporting an XP VM vs a Win8 one.
Microsoft should focus on the embedded and enterprise market more. It is going to eat itself alive while everyone migrates to Linux.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tathra on Sunday May 18 2014, @01:57AM
most businesses have a valid reason to stick with XP, that i understand. the "cost" statement was referring to all the home users sticking with XP whose reasons basically boil down to, "i dont want to upgrade".
i did consider the possibility that some of the code might still be used in current versions, but thought when windows 9 came out, which may be out by the time their contractually-obligated support for XP ends, that there would be enough versions in between that nothing currently useful could be gleaned from XP's code, or that there would have been enough changes to the code that they could release enough of it for a community to maintain it without releasing anything critical to the current version. naive perhaps, but with the nearly-inevitable linux migration, unless they decide to support XP forever, finding a way to do it might be their best option.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ls671 on Sunday May 18 2014, @02:05AM
"most businesses have a valid reason to stick with XP"
Businesses that insist on sticking to XP will be able to get patches from MS. It will just cost them extra money and it tends to be very expensive. This is business as usual.
I have only seen that happening with government agencies so far, maybe some "businesses" do it too but I have never heard of it.
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Sunday May 18 2014, @02:57AM
> I have only seen that happening with government agencies so far, maybe some
> "businesses" do it too but I have never heard of it.
Banks with outdated ATM machines [reuters.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday May 18 2014, @03:41PM
Also, quite a few credit card readers in stores.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday May 18 2014, @03:37PM
the "cost" statement was referring to all the home users sticking with XP whose reasons basically boil down to, "i dont want to upgrade".
Wrong. The "cost" statement was referring to all the home users sticking with XP whose reasons basically boil down to, "I can't afford to upgrade". There are fifty MILLION poverty-stricken people in the US alone, and none of them can afford a new computer nor can install an operating system.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @06:56PM
none of them can afford a new computer
No need to buy anything.
With the correct OS, you're good until your hardware completely quits working.
A proper OS will come with all the apps you need and can be had for $0 and updated eternally for $0. [google.com]
nor can install an operating system
3 year old installing Ubuntu [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday May 18 2014, @11:26PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:30AM
You addressed the enterprise market, but you could also throw in small business as the biggest one.
At the small scale (1-5 employees) could easily be $500-$750 a station if you are going on the lower power end of the market. Completely ignoring software requirements and vendor lock-in you need to hire IT if you want to upgrade old hardware. Most people don't have the skill sets to do what is required in business to not lose data, maintain uptime with no surprises, etc. Granted, there are some small businesses run by stupid people that will try, but those tend to not deliberate so much about budget and would have upgraded by now to Win7 anyways.
Past that when you get to between 10-50 it could represent too risky of an investment of capital, and most smart business owners would look at the interest rates for loans or what a place like Dell or CDW would charge per month on a dollar buy lease. Maybe getting all new hardware is just too difficult at the moment. Even with IT, or a competent CTO, they are going to say that it will cost a couple hundred a machine in the form of licensing and hours spent by staff performing upgrades.
Given the economy and what may be perceived as a helpless battle WRT to security, I don't know what Microsoft was thinking on this. They can't possibly believe that this is going to force anyone to stop using it, especially with the vendor lock-in and the software restricted crowd. My buddy has to use XP since he can't afford a multi-thousand dollar software upgrade for his CNC control software.
On the one hand it does increase the overall state of security since Win7 has to be better than XP in some regard. While on the other the only thing it saves them is the budget they spend supporting it while putting a lot of disadvantaged businesses at risk that all have sensitive business data. This does not create goodwill in their market.
Until the economy is better Microsoft should be supporting XP, or I don't know, maybe offer some sort of financing program and incentives to help do it. Sell some hardware packages and upgrade services. They need money to support divisions operating at a loss, and God knows Bing, IE, and Win8 aren't going to help them.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday May 18 2014, @10:46PM
Third party license restrictions makes sense, but what does it matter if portions of the code are being used in the current version? I doubt anyone will use that to make a Win8 clone.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday May 18 2014, @03:39AM
Yes, it can be THAT expensive for retired people or the poor, and Win 7 won't be available much longer [computerworld.com].
Three hundred dollars might mean little to you, but to some it can mean quite a bit.
Often these users are low risk anyway, they surf, write email, look up recipes. But every once in a while they buy something on line, or check log into their bank, and that is where the problem begins.
XP isn't actually dead yet. It just shouldn't be on line.
(This also describes some of the users.)
I'd recommend these folks get a Chromebook than sink money into another version of windows.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Informative) by umafuckitt on Sunday May 18 2014, @03:56AM
Or just install Linux on the existing machine and don't spend a penny.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Horse With Stripes on Sunday May 18 2014, @01:10PM
That will still cost them money. Most non-techies are not confident enough (and often not capable enough) to install an OS. So these folks will have to pay someone to do it. It's not as expensive as a new computer, but they are still using older hardware (which should suffice for most casual users).
(Score: 2) by umafuckitt on Sunday May 18 2014, @02:37PM
Well... Exactly. It's cheaper than a new computer. A Linux install is now pretty straightforward for many distros. With the right install guide a lot of beginners could likely do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:31AM
XP isn't actually dead yet. It just shouldn't be on line.
(This also describes some of the users.)
I like that. I'm stealing it.
I'd recommend these folks get a Chromebook [rather] than sink money into another version of windows.
...or get a $0 OS that does the tasks they do (out of the box, even) for the current box.
...and surely these folks' neighborhood/town has a supply of nerds (e.g. the local LUG).
(Munich was handing out Ubuntu CDs. I didn't see it mentioned explicitly, but is seems logical that directions to boot to it were on the shuck.)
Now, one of these days those decade-old HDDs will croak, so long-term, yeah, ChromeBook.
.
1 of the 2 justifiable ongoing use cases has been mentioned:
Specialized gear with no drivers beyond XP.
The other justifiable use case is an exotic "XP-only" app.
...and again, those boxes that stay with XP should strictly be air-gapped affairs.
With the coverage WINE has for XP APIs these days, again, the $0 OS just might be a solution.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:33AM
A computer that cost $300 2 years ago would probably be $100 or less today. Computer prices drop insanely fast.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:33AM
Then point them to craigslist, I have had to do this for some poor senior citizens (I charged them a whole $10, less than the cost of gas for my big ass Yukon) and was easily able to find dual core systems that not only came with Win 7 but would be trivial down the road to upgrade to Win 8 or 9 should they choose. Final cost? One paid $85, the other $90 and both systems had modern multicores, at least 3GB of RAM, at least 320GB HDD, and IGPs powerful enough to do hardware acceleration of most formats.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Sunday May 18 2014, @10:59AM
I'm assuming this was a Craigslist in a rather large sized community.
Perhaps even a large sized community with a lot of nearby large universities and high-tech companies and workers likely to upgrade to the latest thing fairly regularly, resulting in a very good stock (thereby driving down prices) of not all that far out of date used gear.
This is far from being a universal condition.
Even between the Charlotte and Raleigh Craigslist sites I can spot inequality of shopping opportunity or price difference between the same items.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 18 2014, @06:03PM
Actually its in the poorest state in the nation so I'd say if I can do it? Anybody can, you simply have to be willing to wait a little bit to find a good deal if one isn't on that day. Just looking today the first hit I find is a Win 7 laptop for $135 [craigslist.org] that is a dual core with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB HDD, more than enough and no buying an OS.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Sunday May 18 2014, @11:00PM
Looks like it's in the richest part of the poorest state.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday May 19 2014, @01:16AM
Your point? The average pay is $35k so any way you slice it its a poor state and it still took me all of 5 minutes to find a nice sub $150 system with Win 7 preinstalled and ready. if I were to keep an eye out for a week i have zero doubt i could find a sub $100 system with Win 7 because as I said I've already done so twice before, and both little old ladies are quite happy with their new systems.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Monday May 19 2014, @03:15AM
My point is that the offerings on that Craigslist are far better than on the Craigslist sites for many "not large, wealthy, or influential" communities.
Craigslist is far from monolithic and how good a deal you can find there is very dependent on location.
Which is why most of my Craigslist purchases involve having to convince someone who doesn't know me from Adam to take PayPal or a check and to ship to me at my expense.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday May 19 2014, @05:58AM
Unless you are living in the Dakotas, which from what I understand are extremely sparsely populated? last i checked every state has a capital and in those capitals are people that sell PCs. And even in BF nowhere they have Amazon, yes? Here ya go, $106 and free shipping [amazon.com] for a dual core with 2GB of RAM and Win 7.
So I'm sorry but you've run out of nits to pick, getting a functional system with Win 7? REALLY not hard nor expensive. And if they can't afford a single upgrade a decade? then frankly they probably can't afford internet so it doesn't matter if they are on Win98, does it? And if the system is less than 8 years old all they need is Win 7 HP and MAYBE a RAM stick, and that is only if they bought a worst buy special. People forget that 8 years ago was 2006 which means Athlon64 X2, Pentium D and the first Core Duos and most of the systems then came with 2GB of RAM, more than enough to run Win 7 comfortably.
Hell just for shits and giggles I slapped Win 7 onto my 2003 Sempron i used at the shop for a netbox, it had a GB and a half of RAM (cost for the 1GB stick? $8) and all it needed was a graphics card and then only if I wanted Aero, the ancient IGP could go up to 1200x1024 just with the Windows drivers. In fct the only stickler I've seen as far as hardware and Win 7 is some of the ATI IGPs like the X300 that was in the 2006 C2D I recently had...know how much it cost to replace that IGP with an HD2400? $12 with shipping. I ended up selling it to my landlord for $150 off the rent, he does his stock trading on it 6 days a week,purrs like a kitten.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Monday May 19 2014, @10:42PM
My point is that Craigslist, for local purchases, is only the answer in some communities with a Craigslist site, not all of them.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday May 19 2014, @11:46PM
And that is why we have Amazon, and Tiger, and Newegg, and Starmicro, and a bazillion other places that sell used PCs and parts friend. The nice thing about Win 7 is if a PC is fast enough to surf the net comfortably? Its fast enough for Windows 7. If the PC was built in the last 8 years? A good 90% of the time all they need is a Win 7 disc and MAYBE $10-$20 worth of RAM. 1GB and 2GB RAM sticks are crazy cheap, a LOT of the mid 00s board would take more RAM than they are rated for, for example I've found most boards rated for 1GB sticks can actually take 2GB sticks, they just didn't have any for testing when the board was released, and even a Pentium D with 2GB of RAM can be a good Windows 7 netbox although naturally I'd recommend a C2D or Athlon64 X2.
So I stick by my original statement, there really is no reason for anybody to be sticking with XP, not when you can often get a better system for around the cost of Win 7 alone or just grab a copy of Win 7 and slap it on.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:24AM
Actually you can update the hardware on pretty much anything from 2002 on up to accept Win 7 and run it quite well for less than $100, here is how along with a second slightly more expensive route that will give you more than double the performance of the first.
Get an AMD E350 motherboard [amazon.com] which will give you dual 1.7GHz CPUs with an HD6310 GPU capable of 1080P, if your hard drive and DVD are IDE and you wish to keep them add a couple SATA to IDE [amazon.com] while you are at it. Memory is personal choice, if its just a basic websurfer you can go uber cheap and get 2GB for around $12-$18, or you can shop around and get 4GB for a little more, your choice. if you go with the cheap RAM you are looking at less than $100 to take any old P4 power pig into a nice low power dual core websurfer.
For just a little more you can get a socket AM1 [amazon.com] which you can pair Athlon quad core [amazon.com] for a grand total of $90, slap in say $40 for 4GB and voila! A quad core with HD graphics for $130!
So there really is no excuse, its insanely cheap to upgrade any of those old power hog office boxes to run Win 7. Hell if you don't want to do the work you can find plenty of 2007-2010 PCs on your local craigslist for less than $100 with Win 7 installed, so unless they have ancient gear they have to support hanging onto a 13 year old OS just doesn't make sense. if you DO have some old shit you just gotta have? Then do what I did with those customers that had to keep an old XP box around, I slapped on a 2 port KVM and restricted the XP box to the LAN. this way they can keep that old plotter or no longer supported software in safety and with a minimum of hardware.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Sunday May 18 2014, @03:27PM
i'm kind of shocked that people are so desperate to keep XP 'alive'
I'm shocked that Microsoft is stopping security updates for an OS that 1/4 of web surfers use only seven years after brand new computers came with it preinstalled.
Chevy could never get away with saying that a factory defect that could put your 2006 car into a tree is okay, why can Microsoft get away with not fixing dangerous factory defects (bugs) that threaten the entire internet?
What is the old widow living on Social Security with a perfectly functioning computer supposed to do? She obviously can't install an operating system or afford to have one installed, let alone replace a perfectly good machine with a new one.
is it really that expensive to buy hardware supporting Win7? the laptop i'm using now was $300 back in 2012 and it is able to run even recent-ish games like Skyrim just fine.
Some of you guys have no concept of what poverty is like, apparently. $300 may be easily affordable to me and chump change for you, but for a vast number of people, three hundred dollars is half a month's income.
What about the environmental impact of millions of PCs becoming purposely obsoleted?
I'm responsible for my car's wear and tear, as I'm responsible for my computer's wear and tear, but I'm not responsible for my ten year old car's factory defects, nor should I be held responsible for Microsoft's factory defects.
what might be the best move for MS would be to simply release XP to open source and let the community continue supporting it
I agree, but don't hold your breath. It won't happen, Microsoft is simply irresponsible and doesn't care about the internet's health.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by emg on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:42PM
"only seven years after brand new computers came with it preinstalled."
Seven years? You could certainly buy netbooks with XP preinstalled in 2010/2011.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 18 2014, @09:00PM
Where? Because after Win 7 came out the only XP netbooks I saw were NOS still left in the warehouses and if you go by that logic then you could buy Vista in 2010 since i saw NOS Vista systems in 2010.
BTW as a user of the Internet? if you have hardware capable of running Win 7 (I would put the minimum at a late model P4 and 1.5GB of RAM) and you really can't afford a copy of Win 7 or a cheap Win 7 box on craigslist? Then please pirate it, having a bunch of zombie XP boxes infecting the net doesn't do anybody any good.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by Hawkwind on Monday May 19 2014, @04:03PM
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday May 19 2014, @04:47PM
That was the date the contract expired, didn't have anything to do with how long they actually shipped the units. if you want to go by that MSFT allows OEMs to ship the previous version for 2 years after the next release but i seriously doubt there was a flood of Vista boxes in 2011. They allowed XP to go past the cutoff by a year because Vista simply would not run on an Atom single core, hell I'd argue pretty much NO OS ran on those first gen Atom chips worth a shit.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by Hawkwind on Monday May 19 2014, @05:52PM
Wait, seems like you have some knowledge about this so maybe you can help me parse this. So just one part of the linked item:
"To ensure customers receive their XP orders prior to the October 22, 2010 deadline, Dell will begin removing XP as an option in September. There will be three options for your IT Staff to consider: (1). Complete your migration to Windows 7. Dell offers several services that can assist you with compatibility testing and deployment (2). Use the XP media to Hand Install XP onsite (3). Incorporate CFI services to assist your XP image loads. Please ensure that your organization has selected a strategy and that your account executive is fully aware of how you want to proceed."
The piece seems to be talking about Dell partners buying computers with XP.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday May 19 2014, @06:50PM
That is corporate which often has mission critical applications that require an older OS and therefor is far from typical. Please note the "IT staff" part which indicates this is for large orgs which will most often have site licensing which means they can use any OS from MSFT ever created regardless of support. I don't know if its still the case but when I was working corp a few years back and had an MSDN I could download and use Win 3.11 WFW if I so chose, the images and tools were provided. As for the third that stands for "custom factory images" which if you are buying large amounts (typically 500+) you can have a custom image with the OS of your choice and drivers premade by Dell.
So this isn't for the street, its for large orgs and the consulting firms that support them. I have been there myself, I had to keep NOS (new,old stock) desktops with Win2K until 2012 for a graphics design house which was using custom imaging tools that required Win2K and the farthest I have had to go back was building a DOS 3 CNC out of my first gamer rig (we builders are packrats and if it works we are loathe to toss) in 2007 for a lumber mill that had an $80K computerized lathe that wouldn't run on anything else. Just as I doubt you would consider what I was doing "proof of continued sales" even though I was functioning as an OEM and VAR so too does these large orgs buying XP boxes for backwards compatibility not reflect what was being sold on the street.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by Hawkwind on Monday May 19 2014, @11:52PM
Cool - thanks!
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:46PM
and some of you guys have no concept of just how fast computer prices job, and what the environmental impact would be of buying a used or simply old computer to keep it from going into a landfill.
nowhere did i say, "man, i can't believe these people are too poor to spend $300!" i was pointing out that 2 years ago, this thing was already pretty cheap as far as computers go, so today it'd probably be $50-100. and hell, even if thats not possible, why are you letting these people off the hook for being irresponsible and unable to save? since when cant people set aside $20 a week, or hell even each month, for a new computer? because its "not essential"? then they shouldn't have a computer in the first place since its so "non-essential". if they bought a computer that ran XP, i have little doubt they spent a lot more at that time than it would cost to buy a computer running Win7 today.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:49PM
ugh, lack of caffeine.
"just how fast computer prices job" should be "just how fast computer prices drop". how the hell did i mess up that bad.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday May 18 2014, @11:46PM
I have an XP machine (well two - one's a spare) which perform a fairly critical role. It uses 2 pieces of specific software (one inhouse, one external), but the replacement machine is $60k, plus training.
Realistically I don't see it being replaced until one of them dies.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @01:09AM
This is great news for small machines with limited resources, like a cheap VPS that runs one or two programs 24/7.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mindriot on Sunday May 18 2014, @11:23AM
It may be great news for experts like us, but even then I'd recommend treading carefully.
While the constraints are "entirely artificial", as TFA stated, I am almost certain that Microsoft no longer performs regression (or any other) testing of their patches against WinXP installs. So, while you may still be able to find a workaround to get them installed, there's no guarantee that stuff won't break. The chances of stuff breaking will only increase with future patches. And since this is closed-source, I would rather update to Win7 than hack these patches into an outdated XP system.
soylent_uid=$(echo $slash_uid|cut -c1,3,5)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @01:22AM
http://www.communitynewspapergroup.com/vinton_news papers/article_7a4b00d6-dc74-11e3-a917-0019bb2963f 4.html [communityn...rgroup.com]
Have to wonder if any of those machines are connected to the Internet.
Imagine how powerful the guards could feel if they upgraded it to 8.1 with facial recognition log in and gesture control. All they would have to do is face a camera and wave their arm. Not sure how the system could recognize if it was a willful living act or not..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:06AM
And you can pry it from their cold dead fingers!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @08:29AM
Real women use MacOS System 7.5.5, the last OS that runs on an Apple Lisa.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Sunday May 18 2014, @09:29AM
We also have an XP-based POS system in house. I also have an upgrade planned: Linux Mint. Properly configured, works pretty much like XP. It happens that our POS software has a Linux version; even if it didn't, many POS solutions will run just fine under Wine.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by agentcooper on Sunday May 18 2014, @11:13AM
What POS software are you using? Have you already moved over to Linux or are you still testing?
I have a number of customers on Micros who are finally ready to consider an alternative but are very cautious.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday May 19 2014, @05:53PM
What POS software are you using?
He already said: Windows XP.
(Score: 1) by Freeman on Monday May 19 2014, @10:45PM
Most definitely the correct upgrade path. I work at a Library and I switched our dozen or so EEE-PC 1000HE Netbooks to Linux. It was the only logical path for us as we didn't have the cash to just up and get a dozen or so new Laptops.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by elgrantrolo on Sunday May 18 2014, @11:27AM
My idea of "support" includes commitment and quality assurance. If people are willing to hack installation packages to move them from Windows 7 to XP that's clever as long as they don't convince themselves they are playing safe in any way, shape or form.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 18 2014, @12:24PM
Excellent learning situation. Closed source with EOL support on near impossible upgrade environments ought to upgrade the foresight in some people. And keeping people on WinXP makes development for [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software) ]Wine[/url] so much easier. Which in turn will provide a nice upgrade path.
The next upgrade objects with a possible hard wall in sight are smartphones. Can't upgrade and can't use them unless upgraded to what the market in the literal sense requires. And the hardware crypto mechanism as well as lack of API documentation will hinder any serious upgrades. Should you succeed the warranty is revoked.
(Score: 1) by Daiv on Sunday May 18 2014, @01:38PM
This is the type of community that should know about and try to support ReactOS [reactos.org]. It's pretty much a *nix-type free Windows XP/7 equivalent. I've test run some of the builds on PIII laptops that could only dream of running more than 512mb ram and it runs like Windows 98 on a P4. (I hope some of you know what I'm talking about!)
Anyway, since "official" support has ended for XP, this would be a functionally equivalent OS that allows people to use their exact same Windows programs, but still be supported.
(Score: 1) by Freeman on Monday May 19 2014, @11:05PM
ReactOS is still in Alpha. I am hoping 0.4 will be stable enough to be marked as beta. ReactOS still has a fairly long uphill battle, before I could recommend it for anyone's business.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:57PM
Q4OS [q4os.org] is a Linux-based OS with an interface nearly identical to Windows XP; folder names, desktop, explorer, menus, EVERYTHING!
.... Take it for a test ride .... Install WINE into it and run your Windows software on a great replica of the classic Windows XP GUI !!!
Check it out