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Maybe With Help From Google and Adobe, Microsoft Can Kill Windows XP

Posted by Soulskill on from the but-wendy-from-accounts-receivable-will-be-upset dept.

colinneagle sends this excerpt from Network World: "Google announced last Friday that, in accordance to its policy of supporting a current browser and the immediate predecessor, its Google Apps productivity suite would drop support for Internet Explorer 8 once Windows 8 ships. Neither IE9 nor IE10 are available on XP. Adobe announced on the Photoshop Blog that the next version of Photoshop CS would support only Windows 7 and 8. The current version, CS6, is available for XP but, amusingly, not for Vista, which was its successor. This is a much-needed boost for Microsoft, which anxiously wants to put XP out to pasture after 11 years. Despite efforts to get rid of the old OS, XP still holds 43% of the market, according to the latest monthly data from Net Applications. Among Steam customers, Windows 7 has 70% market share, covering both 32-bit and 64-bit, while XP has 12%. That confirms what has been known for some time: consumers are adopting Windows 7 at a much faster rate than businesses. I know there is a whole economic argument to be had, and these numbers are not precise or scientific, but if XP really can be found in only 12% of households but 43% of businesses (or something close to that), then it really is time for the enterprise to stop dragging its tail."

3 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Kill XP? by second_coming · · Score: 5, Informative

    The main ones I have found which only work with early versions are embedded web apps in things like telephone systems. We had a Mitel 3300 which just would not work with anything later than IE6. The developers in their wisdom wrote some browser detection into the pages that if you weren't using IE6 told you it needed IE6 or later then refused to display anything else.

  2. Not this again by Quick+Reply · · Score: 5, Informative

    First, it was already posted: http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/09/15/0130219/google-kills-apps-support-for-internet-explorer-8

    Second, IE8 is being dropped, not Windows XP.
    IE8 does not equal Windows XP.

    IE8 is a web browser.
    XP is an operating system that supports many web browsers and applications, and more than one at the same time.

    There are plenty of other SUPPORTED ways to access Google Apps on Windows XP:
    - Google Chrome
    - Mozilla Firefox
    - Apple Safari
    - Google Chrome Frame
    - Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

    With all of the above solutions, Internet Explorer 8 will still work on the computer for other websites that are required (whether that is a technical requirement or user preference). These solutions work in ADDITION to Internet Explorer, they do NOT replace Internet Explorer.

    If the organisations IT policy is so rigid that they can't allow any of these solutions onto their network but still use Windows XP, then I doubt that this kind of organisation would be using such progressive and relatively new (compared to on-premise) solutions such as Google Apps in the first place.

  3. Right after we replace Netware... by MasterOfGoingFaster · · Score: 5, Informative

    We'll be replacing those shop-floor Win XP machines - right after we get rid of the Novell Netware servers. Yeah - we still use Netware.

    I guess you'll have to mod me 'funny' because you can't mod me "sad".

    --
    Place nail here >+