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Sebastian Anthony writes that Microsoft is setting an awful precedent by caving and issuing a fix for Windows XP. "Yes, tardy governments and IT administrators can breathe a little easier for a little bit longer," writes Anthony, "and yes, your mom and dad are yet again safe to use their old Windows XP beige box. But to what end? It's just delaying the inevitable." This won't be the only vulnerability found in XP adds Dwight Silverman. "If Microsoft makes an exception now, what about the flaw found after this one? And the next? And the one after that, ad infinitum?" Even though Microsoft has released a patch for the IE flaw, and Windows XP is included, it's time to move on really. "I don't want to hear that tired "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" line. Hey, XP IS broke, and it will just get more so over time. Upgrade to a newer version of Windows, or switch to another modern operating system, such as OS X or Linux."
(Score: 1) by Magic Oddball on Sunday May 04 2014, @09:54AM
The main reason I'm aware of is the same one that made me move to Linux: a lot of computers sold for well over $1k only a year or two before Vista's release turned out to have integrated hardware MS had blacklisted. My own two 1.5-year-old laptops' integrated graphics was on the list, and yet they're perfectly capable of displaying all of Vista's effects plus quite a few in KDE 4.
The main reasons people don't upgrade the hardware in that case:
1) They can't afford to spend any money unless it's a necessity.
2) Their current system can do what they want it to at a comfortable speed, and they dislike the idea of throwing a fully-functional computer that meets their needs.
3) They're barely computer-literate, so they find new OS environments totally confusing and have no idea what to buy or how much to pay for it.
The first two groups can switch to Linux if they have enough technical ability to figure it all out on their own, since chances are they don't have someone else to help out. (The problem is that mainstream reviews are rarely unbiased, so those people are likely to assume Linux couldn't possibly be a viable option.) So there's a very good chance that most of them will stick with their now-unpatched XP boxes right alongside the third group, and will invariably infect them at some point even if being careful.
From what I've been seeing, Microsoft is already going to be producing WinXP patches/updates for its governmental clients. It seems like releasing that work as officially unsupported could be a very smart PR move in their fight against Google for dominance. All they'd have to do is say they had decided to share their efforts in order to protect the Internet as well as the people/schools unable to replace their computers, and then draw a parallel with Google allowing carriers/manufacturers to leave countless Android devices vulnerable due to lack of updates.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday May 04 2014, @04:23PM
They're barely computer-literate, so they find new OS environments totally confusing and have no idea what to buy or how much to pay for it.
I've not found that to be the case. Switching from XP to KDE is far less an environmental change than any version of Windows to any other version. The reason they're not installing Linux is because first, few have even heard of it and second, those who have have been scared off by the lie that Linux is hard to install and use. The truth is, every Linux distro I've tried was easier to install than any version of Windows I've installed, and Linux is far more useable and has far more features than Windows. Normals I've installed it for had no problem using it. I've had Linux notebooks in the bar and people would see it and ask what version of Windows it was.
I completely agree with the rest of your comment.
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