Posted on 03/21/2014 5:39:38 AM PDT by RangerM
Compatibility issues down the road would be the concern and they you would just upgrade.
That is simply not the case. The XP operating system is based on the Windows NT 5.0 kernel that was developed in the late 1990’s. In fact, if you do a VER command on Windows XP it lists the version as 5.1. That is NT 5.1.
While NT 4.0 was the last of that name, originally, Windows 2000, the immediate predecessor of Windows XP, was to be called Windows NT 5.0, but Bill Gates had the name changed to better sell the Y2K fixes in Windows 2000.
The bottom line is that the 5 kernel is VERY old in the Tech world scheme of things, and every exploit that has gotten a patch over the years makes the kernel unwieldy and extremely difficult to patch any longer. From a security standpoint, it really has reached the end of its life. Every exploit from this point onward costs a great deal to remedy, and the codes is very difficult to maintain, and Microsoft has reached the cost of diminishing returns on the ability to patch XP. That’s it. End of life.
Don’t blame Microsoft. Blame the attackers for continuing a war and they are always on the lookout for new exploits. Nothing made by man is unbreakable by man. You wouldn’t expect a cavalry charge with soldiers on horseback to defeat a tank army, would you? How can you expect a 14 year old operating system to be able to survive 14 years of learning the code and exploiting it that the hacker community has now had? When do you decide that that system is no longer reasonably defendable? Microsoft as a sue-able corporate entity has to take into consideration that if an exploit can destroy or compromise someone’s data or financial information they could wind up in court being sued for allowing XP to continue. And believe me, Microsoft sees frivolous and BS lawsuits all the time from greedy lawyers hoping to scavenge some ready cash form tech ignorant juries and judges. Microsoft realized this when they set about creating the 6 Kernel (Vista/Windows Server 2008/Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows Server 2012) and they actually are hard at work on the series 7 kernel. I expect folks to be pissed at Microsoft when THAT is released, but it is required in this ending war.
That’s fine, Skink... I’m just saying Microsoft is NOT just throwing away a very large client base, rather, they’d LOVE to keep it (and the cash flow!). However, the real world dictates otherwise.
It is very frustrating. I am a specialist in System Center and enterprise-level systems deployment. I’ve been telling people for YEARS that XP is going away and why. Microsoft has been doing so also. Yet I still find people resisting because in their minds, XP is perfectly fine. And it is and has been a GREAT operating system. Just like the United States Cavalry was in the 1880s. It’s just not used to fight any longer.
Microsoft no longer supports XP with free security updates, but that doesn’t mean those systems no longer work. They will work, until such time as a new or even old exploit reaches critical mass for those still connected to other networks or introducing media into those systems.
Caveat emptor.
In my opinion, you are fine the way you are. Let ‘er run ‘til the hardware starts to get flakey. There’s gonna still be millions of XP systems in service 5 years from now and beyond.
This is the same advice I’m giving most of my business and home user clients.
Why would you use Windows to run apache?
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