Windows XP support: Dutch government enters into multi-million euro deal with Microsoft

[Himanshu Arora]

Just a few days after the UK government signed a £5.548 million deal with Microsoft for a year’s worth of Windows XP support, the government of the Netherlands has signed another multi-million Euro deal with the company for continued support of its Windows XP systems, according to Dutch News.

As per the report, around 34000-40000 Dutch national government civil servants are still using Windows XP computers. The deal is expected to provide continued Windows XP support until all government PCs are migrated to a new system, which is due to happen in January 2015.

A similar deal between the software giant and the United Kingdom government is expected to see the former provide critical security updates for XP, Office 2003, and Exchange 2003 until April 8, 2015.

As of tomorrow, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP for the general public. This means there will no longer be any updates or security patches for the OS, making it vulnerable to security threats. The company has urged XP users to migrate to a more recent supported operating system.

"It's really critical that consumers who still own Windows XP devices recognize that it's not just about upgrading to something new. This is about protecting your PC from security threats, especially if you are using the internet", said Jason Lim, Microsoft’s general manager of Windows business group.

On the other hand, ATM operators are considering a move to Linux, as it would give them more control over both hardware and software upgrade cycles. Around 95 percent of the automated teller machines around the globe are currently powered by Windows XP.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56282-windows-xp-support-dutch-government-enters-into-multi-million-euro-deal-with-microsoft.html

 

[wastedkill]

Great move to show everyone how stupid you are and how vulnerable you really are. Best thing they could do is move to linux atleast it doesnt change every few years to a completely new platform...

 

[GhostRyder]

Great move to show everyone how stupid you are and how vulnerable you really are. Best thing they could do is move to linux atleast it doesnt change every few years to a completely new platform...

First of all what did I say...

Second how is this showing vulnerability? They are signing a deal to continue supporting because some companies happen to want to keep Windows XP because they don't want to swap yet. Security threats are a problem on Windows because Windows is what most of the world runs business or otherwise. Owning a Mac means you have alot lower chance of problems because macs are just never targeted along with Linux/Novell/Solaris or others.

Microsoft has the hardest job of protecting their operating systems because most people are going to spend their time attacking the majority of users.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Ridiculous, the end of XP support has been very publicly coming for a long time now. Some 'decision-maker' chose to delay the change to Win7 which they are doing, so they didn't have the expenditure and now they have to pay more than if they had done it in a timely fashion. Like the man in a TV commercial used to say "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later" implying the costs of paying later will be much greater.

 

[GhostRyder]

Ridiculous, the end of XP support has been very publicly coming for a long time now. Some 'decision-maker' chose to delay the change to Win7 which they are doing, so they didn't have the expenditure and now they have to pay more than if they had done it in a timely fashion. Like the man in a TV commercial used to say "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later" implying the costs of paying later will be much greater.

Wow, that actually summed it up quite nicely. Most companies need to just move on and switch to a new OS, most of the programs will have Windows 7 support (Heck you can even run them in Windows XP mode on windows 7 if its a problem).

 

[mendescotta]

Microsoft should make a service pack 4 adding some modern features to XP and bringing it in pair with new systems and charge people for the upgrade. that woul be a better move than force people to upgrade to something that is different, uncompatible and more resource hungry

 

[davislane1]

Ridiculous, the end of XP support has been very publicly coming for a long time now. Some 'decision-maker' chose to delay the change to Win7 which they are doing, so they didn't have the expenditure and now they have to pay more than if they had done it in a timely fashion. Like the man in a TV commercial used to say "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later" implying the costs of paying later will be much greater.

This isn't ridiculous at all. Permit me to entertain with an analogy...

When a reasonable and honest golfer plays a par 3, we expect three strokes or a birdie. When a government athlete plays a par 3, par 3 = par 5. Thus, any apparent double bogey is, in actuality, par for the hole.

Therefore, I contend that this isn't a massive shankfest but rather a fine example of how to hit an extremely short par 5 in as many strokes.

 

[Lionvibez]

Wow, that actually summed it up quite nicely. Most companies need to just move on and switch to a new OS, most of the programs will have Windows 7 support (Heck you can even run them in Windows XP mode on windows 7 if its a problem).

While I agree its foolish to stay on an OS this long.

Having just done a system wide upgrade from Xp to 7 at my job. Its not as simple as running everything in XP mode. There is alot of older custom software in our environment that won't run properly like that we know cause its been tested. Also some of the authors haven't bothered to upgrade the software and don't plan on it. Some of that custom software cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So my point is its a bigger project and more expensive than some people notice.

However in the long run its best to just upgrade the OS and find alternative software if possible in your environment.

 

[GhostRyder]

While I agree its foolish to stay on an OS this long.

Having just done a system wide upgrade from Xp to 7 at my job. Its not as simple as running everything in XP mode. There is alot of older custom software in our environment that won't run properly like that we know cause its been tested. Also some of the authors haven't bothered to upgrade the software and don't plan on it. Some of that custom software cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So my point is its a bigger project and more expensive than some people notice.

However in the long run its best to just upgrade the OS and find alternative software if possible in your environment.

Oh believe me I know what your talking about being a a Level 1 system admin. I have to work on dated servers and systems constantly. Its annoying when I run into system running on old operating systems and get told to fix them though more than upgrading and finding replacements. The other day I was given a ticket to repair a server that was blue screening constantly that was running on Windows NT still. The machine was ancient and the OS was ancient which turned into a hassle because it had all the drives at that point minus one backup drive failed. When I reported this they asked me to repair and reinstall all the programs many of which were near impossible to find to run on that old NT operating system (Including just finding the disk for NT LOL). Made my job alot harder just because an agency refused to upgrade even when the machine failed and needed to be completely rebuilt.

They need to schedule regular updates instead of being stuck in the past. Theres a point where "If it aint broke dont fix it" should stop being repeated.

 

[Lionvibez]

Oh believe me I know what your talking about being a a Level 1 system admin. I have to work on dated servers and systems constantly. Its annoying when I run into system running on old operating systems and get told to fix them though more than upgrading and finding replacements. The other day I was given a ticket to repair a server that was blue screening constantly that was running on Windows NT still. The machine was ancient and the OS was ancient which turned into a hassle because it had all the drives at that point minus one backup drive failed. When I reported this they asked me to repair and reinstall all the programs many of which were near impossible to find to run on that old NT operating system (Including just finding the disk for NT LOL). Made my job alot harder just because an agency refused to upgrade even when the machine failed and needed to be completely rebuilt.

They need to schedule regular updates instead of being stuck in the past. Theres a point where "If it aint broke dont fix it" should stop being repeated.

Totally agree Boss!

 

[Jad Chaar]

Ridiculous, the end of XP support has been very publicly coming for a long time now. Some 'decision-maker' chose to delay the change to Win7 which they are doing, so they didn't have the expenditure and now they have to pay more than if they had done it in a timely fashion. Like the man in a TV commercial used to say "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later" implying the costs of paying later will be much greater.

Exactly. Plus why would anyone want to stay on XP?

Windows 7 is a ton better and the while the upgrade could be costly and take time, it is better than paying tons to get support for an ancient OS to run for ONE MORE YEAR. So dumb.

 

[Guest]

I was working for DEC years ago and was doing contracting work at a big toy retailer when XP was released. The PC development and IT folks were so upset, they did some basic testing and there custom stuff that worked on WIN 95 wouldn't run "as is" on XP.

I understand very small companies who don't have IT being upset.

Any company that has an IT department should have been way ahead of the curve on this.

When WIN 7was in beta I tested it on some old laptops bought when XP was first released and it worked fine.

If you have important custom software, whether it be Windows, LINUX, UNIX, or whatever you should
always be prepared for changes.

It is called "Change Management ".

 

[chris14]

Microsoft should make a service pack 4 adding some modern features to XP and bringing it in pair with new systems and charge people for the upgrade. that woul be a better move than force people to upgrade to something that is different, uncompatible and more resource hungry

Wow. A great ideal. Give it DirectX10 and write to dvds, etc. But keep the XP look and feel intact.

 

[taimuraly]

"On the other hand, ATM operators are considering a move to Linux, as it would give them more control over both hardware and software upgrade cycles. Around 95 percent of the automated teller machines around the globe are currently powered by Windows XP."

Yeah for Linux =)

 

[Bubbajim]

This is bloomin' annoying. I don't want my government (UK, rather than Dutch) to spend millions of pounds of tax money on just staving off the inevitable. Pay for one more year - what do you do next year? Pay again or upgrade. Repeat that question year on year until you finally upgrade - at another cost. Just get it over with and stop wasting money!

I appreciate there are difficulties with the migration from one to another due to custom software (particularly in civil service, I hear) but this is just wasteful procrastination.