[lug] Windows XP End-of-Life: April 8, 2014

Mon Apr 7 12:52:22 MDT 2014

But then again, maybe
not.<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/not-dead-yet-dutch-british-governments-pay-to-keep-windows-xp-alive/>

A private-sector business that welded itself to XP might wind up out of
business. National governments have a different incentive structure, as do
private-sector businesses under heavy regulatory burden.

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 8:49 PM, Robert Racansky
<robert.racansky at gmail.com>wrote:

> So what does Windows XP EOL have to do with Linux?
>
> At last night's meeting, I mentioned that I was trying to get Windows
> XP users to switch to Linux Mint, because Microsoft's support for
> Windows XP ends 4 months from now.
>
> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle
> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx
>
> http://isc.sans.edu/diary/SIR+v15%3A+Five+good+reasons+to+leave+Windows+XP+behind/16922
>
> http://azstarnet.com/business/local/f5ed9fc3-8da4-59a3-ac2e-c570bf7e3bca.html
> http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131213/BUSINESS/312130034/2047/BUSINESS
>
>
> A large fraction of the attendees were not aware of this.  Of course,
> since only 1/2 dozen people showed up last night, it doesn't take many
> to make "a large fraction".
>
> What this means in the short term is that, after April 08 2014, there
> will be no more security updates.  How many zero-day exploits will be
> used after that is unknown, but it's more than zero.   In the medium
> and long term, this also means no more feature updates, bug fixes, and
> application updates (including anti-virus updates) for Windows XP.
>
>
>
> So for those people I know who don't want to shell out $100+ (or
> whatever) for Windows 7 or Windows 8 *, I've been trying to convince
> them to switch to Linux Mint Xfce, because
>
> (1)  it's free
>
> (2)  Linux Mint comes with most applications, codecs, plug-ins, etc.,
> "out of the box" that most people will need.
>
> (3)  Xfce is "lightweight", so should run on the older hardware that
> many people are currently using to run a 12 year old operating system
>
> (4)  Xfce has the most "Windows" like interface, so the learning curve
> is low -- possibly less than switching to Windows 8.  As a Mac user &
> Windows admin **, I would be hard pressed to answer any questions
> about Unity, Mate, Cinnamon, etc., so I'm certainly not going to
> suggest it to people who may ask me for support.
>
> *  One of them is running a publicly-accessible web server on Windows
> XP!  At least he's using Apache for Windows, having given up on IIS
> years ago.
>
> ** A job I describe as being a glorified click-monkey, minus the
> glory; at least at CU's University Information Systems.
>
>
>
>
> On a related note, OSNews had an article earlier this year by a
> support technician who switched his office to Linux Mint Xfce that
> worth reading in it's entirety.   Here's an excerpt:
>
>
> http://www.osnews.com/story/27144/What_Users_Want_--_Selecting_a_System_for_i_Their_i_Needs
>
> What Users Want -- Selecting a System for Their Needs
> posted by Howard Fosdick on Mon 24th Jun 2013 03:00 UTC
>
> I volunteer as tech support for a small organization. For years we
> relied on Ubuntu on our desktops, but the users didn't like it when
> Ubuntu switched to the Unity interface. This article tells about our
> search for a replacement and why we decided on Xfce running atop Linux
> Mint.
>
>
> The users' desktop computing requirements are straightforward:
>
> 1. Low to no-cost hardware and software
> 2. Easy to use
> 3. Stable and bug-free
> 4. Easy to set up
> 5. Easy to support
>
> Cool visual effects, high-end graphics, the latest features, geeky
> apps, and rolling updates aren't important. Easy, simple, stable, and
> cheap are what we're after.
>    .
>    .
>    .
> We didn't consider Windows or Mac OS, due to their high costs and
> licensing restrictions. Also, new Windows versions impose a learning
> curve for little apparent benefit. My users who tried Windows 8
> complained about it. As one summarized, "Why on earth do they keep
> changing Windows?"
>
> Please keep in mind, you who are reading this are expert computer
> users; my clients are not. You and I look forward to new Windows
> versions and new Linux distros as a chance to play and learn. But what
> we consider interesting, my users see as a waste of their time. They
> look at computers the way most of us look at driving a rental car. You
> should be able to hop in and go. If you have to read instructions or
> ask a lot of questions, something's wrong.
>    .
>    .
>    .
> My users liked MATE, but then I downloaded Xfce and added it to our
> base install. Bingo! Xfce was an instant hit. With its simple,
> straightforward desktop, you can see why. How to use Xfce is obvious,
> regardless of whether one comes from a Windows, Mac, or Linux
> background. Even beginners can use it without help. Xfce buries the
> old canard that Windows is easier to use than Linux once and for all.
>    .
>    .
>    .
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-- 
Jeffrey Haemer <jeffrey.haemer at gmail.com>
720-837-8908 [cell], http://seejeffrun.blogspot.com [blog],
http://www.youtube.com/user/goyishekop [vlog]
*פרייהייט? דאס איז יאַנג דינען וואָרט.*
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