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Google To Support Windows XP Longer Than Microsoft
An anonymous reader writes in that Google plans to support XP longer than Microsoft. "Microsoft will officially retire its Windows XP operating system early next year, but Google on Wednesday announced it will continue to support its Chrome browser for the platform through at least early 2015. The Mountain View, Calif., Web giant announced it will keep sending out updates and security patches to the Windows XP version of Google Chrome 'until at least April 2015.'"
also doesn't matter.
Just let XP finally die...
When we all worried about MS bundling IE, the flip side is their incremental cost and surface area make supporting IE for example untenable past the OS date, because it is so intertwined
Google To Support Windows XP Longer than Its Own Fucking Products
Really, who cares about this kind of marketing Gotcha stunt. It's for the likes of eweek and cnet to analyze.
Nice one Google. I really appreciate how you are keeping support for XP when there will soon have been four new releases and 13 years since XP was released, and yet you dropped support for the latest version of RHEL.
Maybe this is is just a ploy by Google to keep their Chrome version number larger than FF's.
Microsoft will support Windows Server 2003 until July 14, 2015. Windows Server 2003 is basically the server edition of Windows XP. So in actual fact, XP is not really retiring until 2015 anyway.
I'd imagine their cost to do this is very low. What exactly is different about Chrome for XP from Chrome for Vista? Not much, I bet.
Furthermore, Google makes recurring income from their browser in the form of ads and data. If there were a reasonable amount of users who wanted to pay by the month to continue using XP, I'm sure that Microsoft would support it for longer.
These retired parents probably aren't playing massive online games, so approximately all of their online activity will be through the browser.
As long as the browser is a) up-to-date and b) not tightly coupled with the system shell, that's almost an up-to-date system as far as the internet is concerned. What I mean regarding coupling is that if Explorer gets exploited, the system is owned because Explorer the browser ~ Explorer the desktop ~ Explorer the file manager. If Chrome gets exploited, the worst that can happen is that web pages get messed with, not the system.
It isn't a hard job to make updates to a single application that is already buildable on some existing operating system. It's much harder to keep an entire operating system patched and updated. So, it isn't surprising that Google - or anyone else - will keep applications updated on XP long after Microsoft's own support for XP itself ends. I plan to do the same thing for my own Windows applications: since XP is still so widely used, the benefits of a larger user base for my applications easily justifies the minimal differential cost of providing updates for it.
It would be hugely amusing if one of these projects announced (even in jest) that they were would continue to issue patches for XP after EOL.
I hear you. On the other hand, Red Hat and Centos users can still install the latest Chrome:
# wget http://chrome.richardlloyd.org.uk/install_chrome.sh ./install_chrome.sh
# chmod u+x install_chrome.sh
#
That's about 10 times too complex for most XP users.
This is actually good news, because people can start dropping support for IE8, and XP users still have an option in Chrome and FF. If Microsoft doesn't even support it, why should anyone else?
Developers can tell customers to use Chrome, Firefox or upgrade to Win7 (and therefore making IE9 and 10 an option).
Hurray!
Hell, if that's use the case, install GNU/Linux. Did that for lots of old folks at the community center who were in the same boat. Few, if any complaints. Wine can run most old programs -- Even re-united a guy with a few of his old DOS games via DOSBox. Most folks are surprised the system can actually run faster in most cases, and that it's free... So are the updates. "Why would anyone pay for Windows if this is free?" I just shrug. Beats the hell outta me. Going from XP to XFCE or Mint/Cinnamon is far less of a shock than Windows8 or Unity. Chrome and Firefox work the same.
Throw in a spare RAM sim from my junk cache to top it up and you're good to go for as long as the hard drive holds out -- Laying down a new format track gives 'em a bit more life, and in most cases I can leave the XP partition there for dual booting into if they really need to run windows for some odd reason afterwards.
Also, sure Chrome may be updated, but it talks to the OS and its that OS interface that'll get exploited through chrome whether the browser is up to date or not. Just ditch the OS, and learn your lesson: Don't use an OS you don't have the source for or be prepared for planned obsolescence.
Wouldn't it be hilarious, if by June or July of 2014, Microsoft resumes pushing out the Malicious Software Removal Tool and patches for Windows Firewall again, after all the world's XP machines get malware at the same time?
I've heard of carrier grade NAT, but only in theory. Never seen it actually implemented. What ISPs actually do this?
Mostly mobile ISPs and ISPs in less-industrialized countries. See what happened a few years ago when Wikipedia blocked the proxy that the whole country of Qatar was behind.
Turn off the computer.
I can still download modern software that will run perfectly fine on Windows NT4 SP6a. I wouldn't run that POS OS, but if I were to do so, I could run pretty much everything that I wanted to and be able to have modern software on my machine that fills every conceivable need.
Get your free Dropbox account with 2 GB Free storage!
Going from XP to XFCE or Mint/Cinnamon is far less of a shock than Windows8 or Unity.
That's the benchmark. Even next to Windows 8, Unity is shocking.
Client for Linux.
By starting with "if that's the use case", with "that" being web browsing. In which case the application is the browser, and assuming any relevance to the discussion, we are talking about Chrome, but he did also mention Firefox.
So which web browsing application do you feel is missing on Linux, that you can still keep up to date on XP for the foreseeable future.
Please, don't trivialize things.
Sure, you can only use browser to access the internet. Secure browser will not compromise your system. But it will give the hacker your IP address.
Using the IP address the hacker can do a number of things. He can exploit vunerability on some service, that is not protected by the firewall. Or exploit a problem in the firewall software itself. These vunerabilities are not so common, but it is naive to think, that if you only use the browser, only thing that needs to be secure - is the browser.
The whole XP OS is getting compromised, because hackers had so much time to work on it. And soon, the exploits will not be fixed. Please upgrade to an OS that gets regular security updates or disconnet yourself from the internet.
I wonder if they will try and turn XP into a form of Chrome-OS, push the brand forward with their windowed apps from Chrome as they are doing on Windows 8, then start advertising to the users about Chrome books. Then when their poor old XP machines fail, the users will already be familiar with the Chrome ecosystem, look at the cost of a Chromebook and think "why do I need a full blown desktop".
Only a Linux hater would reply so stupidly also...
Someone who is still running XP probably isn't that interested in modern games or modern leading-edge applications. Maybe they still run XP because they don't like paying for software upgrades that they consider pointless for their own use. Maybe they even run a hacked copy of Microsoft Office, for example.
Very few people actually need the majority of features in big heavy applications like Microsoft Office or Photoshop, for most of them it's just a case of getting accustomed to a new UI, LibreOffice or The GIMP.
I'm the tech geek for a large circle of friends and family and have moved a number of them over to Linux Mint after they came to me wanting something better than XP now that it's going out of support. I've had a few calls and done a few house visits but all of them are pleased with what it does, none of them needed to do heavy macro work in documents or heavy graphics editing.
If you're going to hate then at least do so from a position of knowledge and experience rather than one based on FUD. I myself run XP and Windows 7, I like both of them and use them for stuff that is more difficult to do than it is Linux. Yes, I'm mostly Linux user but a computer is merely a collection of tools to get jobs done and I don't believe in "cutting my nose off to spite my face" - I just use the best tool for the job and really couldn't give a toss what OS it ultimately runs on.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
Sorry, you do not know what you are talking about.
In the *MAJORITY* of home installations, people access the Internet via a NAT router that "translates" the internal *NON-ROUTABLE* IP address of the user's PC to the *ROUTABLE* IP address of the router's Internet interface, as assigned by the user's ISP. Note that the router's IP address is not usually a static one and will change as a result of DHCP on a reasonably regular basis anyway.
A hacker will therefore only ever see the IP address of the router, not the IP address of the user's PC. Yes, the hacker *COULD* attack the router and *IF* the router has a security hole he/she could exploit then an attack is possible. However, unless the router has crappy firmware, has an administration interface with a crackable password exposed to the Internet, and/or an open incoming port that routes into the internal network, then any attack is extremely unlikely.
If you get a piece of malware on your computer then, yes, it can have the ability to open a connection to a hacker and allow him/her to do what he/she wants. But in a home environment, that malware will exist because the user has done something stupid - either gone to a dodgy web site and dowloaded it or installed it as part of some warez the user has got hold of.
Hackers are not particularly interested in wasting their time on "small fry" home users. They prefer to attack bigger targets like corporations and usually leave it to bots and scripts to find ways of owning user PCs that can then be used as owned machines in mass attacks on those bigger targets.
There are millions and millions of devices on the Internet, scripts and bots have limited intelligence and therefore if you know some of the basics about Internet security (essentially not opening unnecessary ports on your router, turning off Internet-exposed router admin interfaces, not installing dodgy software, not visiting dodgy sites, not opening dodgy emails) then you are reasonably secure no matter what OS you run.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
This. My favorites are XFCE and KDE for the performance, but Unity and Compiz really are complete shit in terms of performance. It's sad that the mainstream Ubuntu desktop performs so badly. Opening and navigating in Dash is laggy, dragging shortcut icons from Dash to taskbar is very laggy. Opening the settings manager takes a second or two (not that you could configure almost anything there anyway). On low-end (Atom/Bobcat) hardware even the basic window animations are choppy and the desktop practically completely unusable.
They aren't supporting XP, they are supporting Chrome on XP. I don't see how this is so shocking as software companies have long done this. We develop applications that are expected to work on XP / 2003 through Windows 8.1 and it wasn't really that long ago we were still targeting Windows 2000. It constrains some of your choices and increases your testing surface but if the business thinks there is money to be made going after a customer segment, we do it.
> An operating system is more than just the UI - it's the applications.
It is neither.
Ok I get what you were trying to say. You're still wrong. Even minor changes to one guy's estabilished workflow is a PITA. If I can avoid it, I do.
Puppy Linux BTW works very well for many old machines because it's so easy to configure and install. Boot a live CD or USB key, and you can install to hard disk or make more USB keys or live CDs, or remaster with included tools. Runs fine from USB and doesn't require a hard disk. It's available in Chrome and Firefox flavors, and Slacko is based on Slackware so what's not to like?
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Google is doing this to build a migration path for users XP to Chrome OS.
By 2015 Google will have a mature Chrome OS, and a huge number of XP users that have no migration path. This is a huge opportunity for Google to win these people over as users -- first as Chrome users, then as Chrome Apps start becoming plentiful through Chrome, XP users will have a way to use modern services while skipping over WIndows XP and the non-existent modern services that will be available for it.
The next step for Google is to get Windows to boot directly into Chrome instead of WIndows XP loading the Explorer Desktop. This is a trivial configuration. Every Windows XP box can be converted into a Chrome OS box once Google gets all the right pieces in place. This is a path to wean users off of Windows and onto Chrome OS.
Of course, when users have to purchase another machine, they will already be familiar with Chrome OS.
Internet explorer != explorer Sure, they're fairly tightly coupled, but they are still 2 very different applications
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
When there are zero browsers supporting updates on XP maybe people will finally migrate elsewhere.
Let's look at Windows 98. A study posted on slashdot found that if you connect a Windows 98 computer to the internet (with no AV and no SPI firewall on the modem) it caught a virus in 11 seconds on average. That's while sitting idle at the desktop. April 9th 2014 will be similar for XP. Nobody will have a functioning online XP machine past the 8th.
Most of those Nat routers will after opening a connection pass most things back straight to the machine when it initiates the connection, otherwise Nat wouldn't work.
It's one of the ways Skype used to punch through nat routers, having both try to connect, so the routers let both talk, vs one side. If you are not firewalled/natted... You've got for a brief Window and a chance to connect to almost all ports on the target.
"Why would anyone pay for Windows if this is free?"
Because moving to Linux is not free.
You're experience the community center has been the opposite of mine. How do you get people used to the change?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
An OS is neither the UI nor the applications.
The decision about what OS to use can be influenced by the Apps and interface.
Anyways, he is talking abut a community center. So it's likely all they need to do can be done through Linux. And he also said some machines are set to dual boot.
You need to put the caffeine down for the rest of the day and relax. He didn't say all windows can be replaced with Linux.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The GIMP
You don't get used to Gimp. You get beaten by it until you submit.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
No chrome for Android 4.0, which is still nearly 40% of the current Androids in use.
Agreed. But unless you've got someone there ready to do a man-in-the-middle attack at that moment in time, it's extremely unlikely.
Again, it comes down to how important and big a target you are for hackers - the vast majority of home user machines are owned through automated scripts and bots in drive-by attacks, not because some seasoned hacker is sat there physically waiting for you to do something that he/she can exploit.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
True they are no longer two views of the same binary like they used to be. Of course we're talking about XP. On XP, they are the same COM object. As Microsoft explained in US vs. Microsoft, you couldn't remove IE from the Windows system because IE WAS the system.
More recently, there has been some separation, but go to the Windows update site in Firefox or Chrome. You won't get very far . Only IE can replace system files with stuff it downloads from a web site.
No chrome for Android 4.0, which is still nearly 40% of the current Androids in use.
That read <4.0 when I wrote it.
That's your opinion and you are entitled to it.
But I would argue that given that I personally don't do professional-level graphics editing, I cannot justify the expense of a fully licensed copy of Photoshop. Therefore I have a choice of either using a free alternative like GIMP (which is what I do in reality) or downloading a free warez-d copy of Photoshop.
Given that warez-d copy would be extremely likely to contain malware which will, at some point, do some damage to my PC that I would inevitably have to investigate and fix, then I would argue that investing time in learning GIMP without any risk of malware is the better option of the two.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
How do you get people used to the change?
This is exactly the question Microsoft is asking since they released Windows 8. The majority of computer users looking to upgrade are now faced with this dilemma (tri-lemma?).
Whatever they choose the user will bear the cost of learning a new interface. How many will choose Linux and decide to, at least, save a few dollars as well? Microsoft still has name recognition, but that isn't worth as much if you keep jerking your customer's chains. Microsoft mistakenly believes they need one uniform interface from phone through tablet to desktop. The evidence shows that this is far from true. People have been more than happy using Windows on the desktop and iOS on phones for years. Looking at reality shows us that users seem to have no problem handling multiple interfaces across devices.
The theory that you must present one interface and only one interface is not supported by the evidence.
For Microsoft to dis XP when the OS works so sufficiently is a matter of ANTI Trust with that company and me. (as in me , myself and everyone who still uses XP)
Forcing or attempting to force us xp users to upgrade or get out doesn't bide well with us.
An operating system is more than just the UI - it's the applications, it's always the applications. Going from XP to Windows 8 might take some learning how the new interface works, but at least the extreme majority of your programs you know and love will continue to work just fine. Unless you're using predominantly open-source or cross-platform programs to being with, moving from one OS to another is always going to be more of a shock than going from one version of the OS line to another.
Unless, like most people these days, you spend 95% of your time in the browser.
The Gospel according to lolcat
> How did this bullshit get modded Insightful?
Why? Because the users in question aren't trying to pretend that they are graphic artists that work for some Hollywood movie studio. The requirements for these people are rather limited and quite well understood.
That is why they are using XP to begin with.
> moving from one OS to another is always going to be more of a shock than going from one version of the OS line to another.
Vista and Win8 both contradict this assertion quite definitively.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I don't think that there's any consumer gear, running original firmware (like they all do), older than 3 years that's not completely remotely ownable from the WAN side, via more than one exploit to boot.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Yes and no. Pirating Photoshop is quite possible to do safely but it requires some knowledge of how to block domains in the hosts file, which domains to block, as well as where to obtain the keygen and use it properly. GIMP is far easier of course, but the main reason I use GIMP (apart from it being free and morally better to just pirating stuff) is because it's cross-platform. Skills and techniques and UI operations I learn in GIMP will survive moving between Windows and Linux, and so if i'm going to invest my time in learning a complicated tool, why not use one that works in far more operating systems and with less licensing hassle?
I just found out that my Windows 7 license is somehow tied to a magic number planted in my laptop hardware. This means that I will not be able to run it under VirtualBox, which is the best Windows XP emulator I have to date. What next?
Actually the retired parents won't be able to make a transition to a Microsoft operating system because there will be no upgrade path from an obsolete software installation.
Before the XP finally dies, OP should download a linux iso, make a live cd, and help his/her retired parents make the transition. If all they do is surf the net, update fb, send and receive email, etc, they'll hardly notice
If you are Google you do not want Chrome to be the part that
busts open XP.
XP with no applications but one XP might be as secure
as Win8 and a full treasure trove of applications by who
knows what is on them.
MS has got to get Mom&Pop companies off it ASAP.
Other than a disconnected system that prints reports
for the book keeper XP is a blunder.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
Someone who is still running XP probably isn't that interested in modern games or modern leading-edge applications. Maybe they still run XP because they don't like paying for software upgrades that they consider pointless for their own use. Maybe they even run a hacked copy of Microsoft Office, for example.
It's not just about modern games, you lose all the old ones too. Linux is fine if you want to run a couple select games, Windows allows you to have a hundred arbitrary ones installed or otherwise present on disk, all working.