Posted on 04/13/2014 1:44:21 AM PDT by dayglored
Usually, the Internal Revenue Service is the one getting paid this time of year, but Uncle Sam will be lining someone else's pockets this tax season because of its attachment to Windows XP. In case you hadn't heard, support for XP officially stopped on April 8th, meaning that Microsoft will no longer provide support or security updates for the venerable OS.
However, governmental computers can't be left vulnerable, so the IRS will be paying Microsoft millions of dollars for custom support to keep their machines secure and functional. Right now, over half the agency's PCs still run XP...
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
I've run across the same a time or two. I guess that the solution would be to start reviewing applications to make new purchases less proprietary and less likely to choke on newer platforms. I'm running an old WinAmp that was around with Win95 on a Win7 platform. I realize it's a lot less complicated than some of the huge apps that businesses need, but I find it difficult to understand why folks keep painting themselves into corners by having special apps contracted for development with no plan to upgrade after a certain expected life span. The companies that develop the software are the biggest winners.
On the flip side, we also try to adapt COTS apps for other than the originally intended use and that creates its own ball of wax.
I believe that quite a bit of medical software will run only on XP.
No problems with my Apple stuff..
There's a machine tool in my plant that is controlled by a 286 running Dos Shell.
Coming upon that was like discovering a living brontosaurus.
> Wrong. 100% wrong. Who better to attack than folks whose guardians just walked away?
XP and Vista/7 share 90% of their code. Every month, the bad guys will examine the patches Microsoft produces for Vista/7, determine where the code flaw was, and find that same flaw in XP. Then they will exploit it in XP.
By stopping security update support for XP, while the nearly identical code is still getting updates, Microsoft is handing the bad guys a freakin' map of XP flaws to exploit. THAT is the problem.
Do your taxes online under XP & pay the IRS nothing for last year ... if audited, argue that it was a software glitch — they should “understand” ......
I wonder if a FOIA request for the code on the updates would be productive?
No. Microsoft is a business. Unlike a government, if you do not like the way a business is treating you, you can easily migrate your custom elsewhere.
Ah. Oh dear.
The other half runs Win95.
>>After all the Feds know a good value when they see one.<<
Sarcasm?? I hope!
Maybe all the IRS computers get constant Blue Screens of Death.
The last thing we want is for the IRS to have efficient computer systems.
For the money spent per computer they could buy NEW Windows 7 computers!!
If they go enough years, yes.
How about Linux? Tuxes for Taxes!
then you have to retrain the helpless.
A lot of our tools were custom made by small companies because the big suppliers weren’t interested in modifying their standard semiconductor tools to our needs. As a result, we had tool sets that were hard to get software updates for and many of them were orphaned.
A lot of our control software was developed in house when we were part of a much bigger company and before vendors had realized the market for off the shelf software to fulfill those functions. These were integrated shop floor and quality control systems at worldwide sites that posed significant costs and risks for changes so they were being put off as long as possible. New systems were being tried, but were still limited in scope and were rapidly increasing in complexity and cost to match the internal systems we already had.
How much would it cost them to upgrade everyone to Win 7? That’s what my company did, and it went without a hitch.
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