Windows XP Costs 5x More to Manage Than Windows 7

[schizrade]

For the IT shops still crying about moving to Windows 7: go ahead and stay with your shitty XP installs. Just don't expect the rest of the world to remain in the boondocks with you. I remember the same crying over moving away from NT.

Oh lord there was much gnashing of teeth leaving NT4.x.

 

[defunctdoormat]

I really don't understand the divide here. There's some serious hate mongers for XP in this thread. Yes, they're that vile. Why? Is your life really that pathetic that you have to take time out of your day to bash someone that is using something different than you? How about you get over yourself and deal with your own life and let others do whatever they want. They have no effect on you. Seriously. If I wanna drive a car thats 50 years old, that's my business. If I wanna live in a house that's 100 years old, that's also my business. But somehow, you think that because I'm using a piece of software that's 11 years old, it allows you to tell me how to run my life? The conceit of the tech community is astounding.

On all the systems I've ever helped maintain, and run myself, I had 1 that had a security problem. It was actually prior to XP, too, in 1999. We received a virus by email at our business. I found it early, and told everyone, personally, that they are not to open that email. Someone decided not to listen. He was fired shortly thereafter, because he was incapable of following any instruction. The biggest problem with computers has never been the software or the hardware. It's the people using them.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

I really don't understand the divide here. There's some serious hate mongers for XP in this thread. Yes, they're that vile. Why? Is your life really that pathetic that you have to take time out of your day to bash someone that is using something different than you? How about you get over yourself and deal with your own life and let others do whatever they want. They have no effect on you. Seriously. If I wanna drive a car thats 50 years old, that's my business. If I wanna live in a house that's 100 years old, that's also my business. But somehow, you think that because I'm using a piece of software that's 11 years old, it allows you to tell me how to run my life? The conceit of the tech community is astounding.

On all the systems I've ever helped maintain, and run myself, I had 1 that had a security problem. It was actually prior to XP, too, in 1999. We received a virus by email at our business. I found it early, and told everyone, personally, that they are not to open that email. Someone decided not to listen. He was fired shortly thereafter, because he was incapable of following any instruction. The biggest problem with computers has never been the software or the hardware. It's the people using them.

If it only affected you that would be one thing. However XP represents a security threat to everyone. I don't care that you want to use something different. I start to care when a large install base represents the single largest source of malware when something can be done about it. You haven't had a security problem..for that matter neither did I. You and I however are not representative of the average user by any margin and they are the problem. You rant about the conceit of the tech community, yet you clearly failed to recognize how uninformed and conceited your post comes across acting like your experience is reflective of the majority.

For the record;
1) I don't care about XP in closed loop corporate environments. It isn't a big deal and usually has enough IT staff backing it to prevent it from being an issue. For those environments that aren't running specialized hardware/software though there is little reason to stick with it. Moving to 7 for non specialized environments benefits everyone, especially IT.
2) I do have a problem with XP installs on Joe average and Grandma kettles machines. These are the users that absolutely need whatever tech they rely on pushing them to move to something that is not only more secure but frankly easier for them to deal with. Fact of the matter is 7 like OSX protects the average user from themselves, while XP just flatly doesn't. So the faster these users get pushed off XP, the better.
3) People who know what they are doing can use XP for all I care. Frankly I think they are stupid for doing so, but it is their personal choice to be so. Especially since XP mode in 7 works beautifully, is free and far more secure than just a plain XP install. But hey, stay two generations back and don't take advantage of your hardware..I don't really care.

 

[Koolthulu]

Microsoft is switching its tactics in an effort to get businesses to make a switch over to Windows 7 from the aging Windows XP. Instead of pressing the issue of security (which they are still pushing), the company is now targeting the bottom line of a business still running 11 year old software.

How much more does maintaining 2000 cost? 90% of the computers where I work are still using it. We even have a couple of '98 machines.

 

[leeaz383]

A few things to remember: When Microsoft came out with Windows ME, it was a flop. Win 98 with a boatload of crapware that made it run worse than 98. Win 2000 Pro was like a breath of fresh air over 98, yet it still had it's issues. And then I noticed that updates would come down that seemed to make 2000 run worse than it did before. A Microsoft ploy to get people to go to XP? Recently, I've seen the same with XP. Yet the issues with XP, that everyone needs to realize, not all hardware than can run XP can run Vista or 7 for that matter. We've since learned that some XP hardware could run 7 ok, but RAM was till an issue. So now you're talking those users that are still on XP must upgrade their hardware to be able to handle it. And with the economy bad, no one has funding for buying new boxes. And for as much as 7 may not cost as much to manage, certain bugs can still cost IT departments dearly to fix. User abuse of the OS must be considered, as one bad user can trash a workstation in less than an hour. How to fix? Re-image.