Slashdot Asks: Will You Need the Windows XP Black Market? 245
NicknamesAreStupid (1040118) writes "As Whoever57 pointed out, there are some who will still get support for Microsoft Windows XP — the 'haves'. However, most will be the 'have nots.' Anytime you have such market imbalance, there is opportunity. Since Microsoft clearly intends to create a disparity, there will certainly be those who defy it. What will Microsoft do to prevent bootleg patches of XP from being sold to the unwashed masses? How will they stop China from supporting 100 million bootleg XP users? And how easily will it be to crack Microsoft's controls? How big will the Windows XP patch market be?"
There are a lot of businesses still on Windows XP; if you work for one of them, will the official end of life spur actually cause you to upgrade? (And if so, to what?)
Re:How much does it cost to upgrade? (Score:5, Informative)
It costs a lot more than a new PC to upgrade thousands of PCs. Imaging, deployment, backup/restore processes for the end users is just the beginning. Upgrading dozens, hundreds, or thousands of individual customized applications to be compatible with Windows 7 is an absolute nightmare. I know all about this just from upgrading my relatively small workplace from XP to 7. It was a fight just to get core, mission critical apps to work with IE 9; 10 and 11 are out of the question. Lots of cash to vendors and app support folks, lots of cash to deployment specialists, lots of overtime. Adds up to a LOT of money.
By the way: $9 million over 680,000 PCs is $13 per PC. That's less than we paid per PC to have a contractor come in and physically install new machines at desks, and completely ignores the cost of OS licensing, hardware, support, and the thousands and thousands of man hours the IT department spent with associated tasks.
Re:Already gone to Linux Mint Cinnamon... (Score:5, Informative)
Set up a "multimedia desktop" for my parents in their lounge. The desktop startup/response time of the OS is orders of magnitude faster than any other computer in our family and yet it is on the oldest and slowest hardware. Anything higher than windows XP ran like an absolute dog on this machine - in fact not really usable at all due to lack of memory etc.
Since it is only used for browsing and multimedia they don't even notice the subtle differences.
The fact that they are complete computer novices who would never try to tinker with any admin options actually works in their favour. Most of the apps use are essentially"platforms" in that the software works the same on both OS's.
Installation was also stupidly easy. The apps were free.
Pretty much the only "negative" was that I had to google some alternative apps for the ones I would use on windows as there was not a linux version - and that's just being picky.
This wont be the solution for everyone (due to app support etc) but I seriously suggest it to anyone with an XP machine that does not want to hope on the M$ upgrade train just for the sake of it.
I think this option will be overlooked by many due to historical difficulties - that PR baggage is hard to shake it seems.
Re:Application and driver compatibility (Score:5, Informative)
iTunes 11.1.3.8 is listed/rated "Gold" so, yes, iTunes works.
Finally (Score:5, Informative)
Use != modification (Score:5, Informative)
It clearly states that anyone supporting XP after Microsoft disowns to OS is a 'CRIMINAL'.
Under current copyright law, Microsoft could make a good faith case that anybody else providing modifications to its copyrighted operating systems is committing criminal infringement of copyright. I don't see how stating a reasonable interpretation of current law is "propaganda".
Actually, as tested in EU courts
Slashdot is subject to the jurisdiction of US courts, not EU courts.
you are just as entitled to use it with or without the official support of the original manufacturing company.
Using it doesn't include modifying it, which is what third parties providing support would have to do in order to let their clients keep using it without known security holes. And there's precedent against that: Apple successfully sued in the United States a company that was selling PCs along with the patch to run OS X on them. Put Apple v. Psystar in your favorite web search engine.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Application and driver compatibility (Score:2, Informative)
Linux has a Dramatically better hardware support than XP,Vista,7 or 8 has combined. Only a fool that knows nothing of linux would ask the "expensive to replace peripherals" raging bullshit line not knowing that linux has such better hardware support than Windows, that many times a device actually works BETTER under linux.
But don't let facts like that slow down your bullshit tirade.... please continue... I so would love to hear more of your "superior race" Mein Furor... We all know that you are too stupid to actually research the crap that spews forth out of your mouth... and we all really love the flow of foamy shit that daily comes from your mouth as "advice" or passed off as "knowledge" by you.
Better for some, perhaps most, but not all (Score:5, Informative)
Linux has a Dramatically better hardware support than XP,Vista,7 or 8 has combined.
Dramatically better on the whole? Perhaps. Better for every particular device? Not necessarily. There are probably plenty of edge cases that have an XP driver and no Linux driver at all. Does SANE support the Microtek ScanMaker 4850 flatbed scanner yet? It appears not [sane-project.org].
Re:A Terrific Opportunity (Score:4, Informative)
Mind installing Windows XP sans SP and connect it to the internet? I'd like to know whether Sasser is still alive and kicking, and I can't be assed to try it myself. Back in '07, the time from connect to infect was 30 seconds, but I am sure it went down since.
Re:Application and driver compatibility (Score:4, Informative)
ReactOS has been in alpha for at least the last 9 years, since I first heard about it.