Windows XPocalypse

Windows XPocalypse

A sample of the recent industry buzz about the Windows XP end of life and the potential for a Windows XPocalypse.

Windows XP users should ditch Internet Explorer, says US Dept. of Homeland Security
by Mike Epstein for Digital Trends

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) say that Windows XP and Internet Explorer are a bad combination. CERT doesn’t really think you should be using XP at all, but if you have to, they want you to at least switch to a more secure third-party browser.

CERT, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, warns consumers of software that may pose a security risk. According to a bulletin released Monday, Microsoft includes software updates for IE into other system-wide patches. Users will no longer receive updates when Microsoft stops supporting XP next month, potentially leaving them exposed.

Microsoft Is Doing Us All A Favor By Killing Windows XP
Tony Bradley for Forbes.com

If the Windows XPocalypse actually happens, there will definitely be those who point the finger and blame Microsoft.

Too bad.

The reality is that Windows XP is significantly less secure than its successors. Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 all include security features and controls designed to thwart attacks, and reduce the potential impact of successful attacks. There are many flaws that exist across all supported versions of Windows, but they are easily exploitable on Windows XP, and only moderate threats

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on later versions of Windows. The reality is that Windows XP is already a ticking time bomb, and the only thing that has allowed the ancient OS to maintain the façade of functionality are the valiant efforts of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing.

Instead of focusing on Microsoft’s supposed “obligation” to continue providing support to users—most of whom have contributed little or nothing to the PC revenue stream in the last decade—we should be focusing on the responsibility those users have to adopt more current, more secure operating systems if they want to continue to share the Internet with the rest of us.

Perspective: Microsoft risks security reputation ruin by retiring XP
for Computerworld.com

If every PC sold in the next 12 months was one destined to replace an existing Windows XP system, it would take more than a year and a half — about 20 months — to eradicate XP. Windows XP isn’t going anywhere.

There’s the real possibility that large-scale infections of Windows XP will paint the Windows brand as insecure, fulfilling the implicit prophecy the company made late last year. To most people, Windows is Windows is Windows, with no distinction between XP and the newest, locked-down 8.1. And for those people, Windows is Microsoft because it’s the best known of the company’s software.

Killing Windows XP Wastes Billions
by John Dvorak for pcmag.com

Imagine if Microsoft charged a mere $1 a month to those 500,000,000 XP users for continued support—forever. This would add $6 billion per annum to the bottom line. What would it cost Redmond to maintain a team to continue patching this OS? $50 million a year? At most?
At least half of the XP users would take the deal and result in Microsoft getting $3 billion. How can they pass this up? It’s like free money.

Does it really matter to Windows XP owners if Microsoft pulls the plug? by Preston Galla for computerworld.com

One might think that owners of those nearly half billion machines would be panicking so close to the deadline. But so far, there hasn’t been much more than a peep. That’s likely due to the nature of the people using XP.

It’s hard to get a handle on who they are. But most likely, there aren’t a lot of major enterprises among XP holdouts. Most big businesses tend not to trust their most vital corporate resource — their computing infrastructure — to 13-year-old operating systems about to lose support.

Inside the muddled, misguided mind of a Windows XP holdout
By Robert X. Cringely for InfoWorld.com

…those people still using Windows XP and desperately protesting its April 8 support death knell. For them, this will be a hard one to hear.

Basically, these folks are saying they’ll hold their breath like 8-year-olds until Microsoft agrees to keep supporting XP. But aside from oceans of blue faces, their main argument is that allegedly a little more than 32 percent of the computers on the planet are still running XP, so Microsoft’s stellar security reputation will suffer if all those machines are suddenly compromised like nuns in a biker bar.

…Times change, and life sucks. XP users need to take a drink, stop wishing, bite the upgrade bullet, and join the rest of us living modern lives with compromised crypto currencies and flying Taser-bots. It’s far from perfect, but sticking your head in prehistoric software sand isn’t going to help.