Oh sure, as soon as Ubuntu can support in-house developed MS Access databases and ODBC to MS Exchange server! Windows is easy to replace, so long as you have no business apps.
Also, vendors who provide third party stuff also rely on MS support. Have an interoperability problem between Windows and a third party device that "should" work? If the OS in "unsupported" by MS, good luck on getting any support out of the other vendor for the problem.
MS Support status isn't just related to MS software directly.
If you are still running your business on hardware from prior to 2006, you're on borrowed time anyhow.
Most businesses (at least here in AU) depreciate hardware over between 3 and 5 years. So the oldest machines in their fleet right now in most situations will be 2009 spec, or 2006 spec if they have previous generation machines STILL kicking around.
The vast majority of those will run 7 without issue.
That isn't just a Windows problem. It's a paid software developer problem. Or company in-house developer problem. Once it "works" the funding/spare time for the project dries up pretty quick and the guy is tasked with something else.
I'm no IT professional and don't know the logistics of it all
This is why you don't understand the slow uptake.
Core issue is this: IT identifies applications that are incompatible. Business stakeholder/beancounter says "they currently work, we're not spending the $/resources to upgrade". Project dies until there is no alternative/shit hits fan.
You have the skill-set and time to audit all the code in your OS yourself? No? Then you need to trust third parties to do it for you. Whether they are paid (MS) or volunteer (Linux/BSD).
Windows XP was released 12 years ago. Of a fleet of 600+ desktop machines running 7, the handful that have come back in the last 2 1/2 years have been due to TROJANS which were run as administrator by a user who had admin that shouldn't have been given it really.
No they're not. They might claim "oh i didn't do anything!" when bringing you their PC for repair, but more often than not they've been attempting to get "free shit" which isn't "free".
If you keep on top of security updates and run with UAC turned on, and NOT as an administrative user, Windows is security is good enough.
If you run Linux logged in as root and don't keep on top of security updates your asking to get owned as well.
It's not the OS that needs to be thrown out and start over. It's the IT departments who don't give a fuck about ensuring that the desktops under their control are secure, and the general user apathy that goes with it. And I say that as someone who doesn't run Windows if i can avoid it.
At some point there was an internal study at Bell Labs after WYSIWYG word processors were beginning to be available that found most people spent 20% of their time futzing with how the document looked instead of writing
That's a behavioral/education problem, not a GUI one. You can use Word (or any other editor) to write the text first in its entirety, and then format it.
It is extremely dishonest to oneself to ignore the misuse of ones things by guests and instead ask for technical solutions. Man up and tell them 'No'
That. The best (easiest, most familiar to end users) "technical solution" for an end user device at the moment is an iPad. If you're paranoid about the iPad itself getting owned accidentally (which I've yet to see with a corporate fleet of over 150 iOS devices) then wipe/DFU reset it between visitors.
But a technical solution for an end user device is not the answer to your problems. EIther man up and say no, supervise what they do or install a filtering firewall on your premises
Actually I'm not just comparing RT to iPad. It fails against android and it fails against a traditional laptop. If you're going to abandon the Windows ecosystem to go for a tablet (as you need to, to go RT) then you may as well jump ship to a platform that has plenty of apps, better screen, etc.
If you want to run Windows apps, you're limited to the Pro, which is too big and heavy to be a decent tablet, and not really usable in PC mode without a desk. Touch for most windows apps currently sucks. Sure, metro is OK, but the existing apps have widgets that are way too small. And yes, I've tried using it - both with a Windows 8 tablet, and via PCoIP on an iPad. At least running View on an iPad you can zoom in and out of the screen to click Windows application widgets more easily - ironically, when using via VMware View, the iPad (or equivalent Android running View) makes a better touch enabled Windows desktop than Surface RT.
Depends on the computer and its usage. MAX TDP of a modern desktop CPU may be about 100 watts give or take, but when its running 99% idle most of the time the consumption is a lot less than that. My laptop for example generally consumes around 10-15 watts for the entire box. If you run multiple drives in RAID for speed or better reliability, drive consumption will be a much more significant portion of overall consumption.
Yup, exact reason i have a Momentus XT 750. Sure, an SSD would be faster. At not providing the capacity I require... causing me to spend more of my time fucking around moving files between it and an external drive (essentially, doing a poor job of SSD/HD caching manually on a per-folder level rather than per block).
1. It is SLC NAND and far more reliable than consumer SSD style MLC. 2. Pretty sure anandtech did a piece on them mentioning that NAND failure results in regular spinning drive behaviour.
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You mean all that stuff compiz, etc are trying to reimplement on Linux?
Oh sure, as soon as Ubuntu can support in-house developed MS Access databases and ODBC to MS Exchange server! Windows is easy to replace, so long as you have no business apps.
citation: please provide link to iPad 4 / iPad mini specification or better Android machine for $90.
Also, vendors who provide third party stuff also rely on MS support. Have an interoperability problem between Windows and a third party device that "should" work? If the OS in "unsupported" by MS, good luck on getting any support out of the other vendor for the problem.
MS Support status isn't just related to MS software directly.
If you are still running your business on hardware from prior to 2006, you're on borrowed time anyhow.
Most businesses (at least here in AU) depreciate hardware over between 3 and 5 years. So the oldest machines in their fleet right now in most situations will be 2009 spec, or 2006 spec if they have previous generation machines STILL kicking around.
The vast majority of those will run 7 without issue.
That isn't just a Windows problem. It's a paid software developer problem. Or company in-house developer problem. Once it "works" the funding/spare time for the project dries up pretty quick and the guy is tasked with something else.
Welcome to the real world.
This is why you don't understand the slow uptake.
Core issue is this: IT identifies applications that are incompatible. Business stakeholder/beancounter says "they currently work, we're not spending the $/resources to upgrade". Project dies until there is no alternative/shit hits fan.
Except Windows 95 has no open ports by default. Hell, TCP/IP isn't even installed by default.
Windows 98 does. I have one for running OLD games, under VMware Fusion.
You have the skill-set and time to audit all the code in your OS yourself? No? Then you need to trust third parties to do it for you. Whether they are paid (MS) or volunteer (Linux/BSD).
Windows XP was released 12 years ago. Of a fleet of 600+ desktop machines running 7, the handful that have come back in the last 2 1/2 years have been due to TROJANS which were run as administrator by a user who had admin that shouldn't have been given it really.
No they're not. They might claim "oh i didn't do anything!" when bringing you their PC for repair, but more often than not they've been attempting to get "free shit" which isn't "free".
Do you know any non-technical Linux users? They don't remain users (or alternatively, remain non-technical) for long.
If you keep on top of security updates and run with UAC turned on, and NOT as an administrative user, Windows is security is good enough.
If you run Linux logged in as root and don't keep on top of security updates your asking to get owned as well.
It's not the OS that needs to be thrown out and start over. It's the IT departments who don't give a fuck about ensuring that the desktops under their control are secure, and the general user apathy that goes with it. And I say that as someone who doesn't run Windows if i can avoid it.
That's a behavioral/education problem, not a GUI one. You can use Word (or any other editor) to write the text first in its entirety, and then format it.
Back to SMS with Android huh?
That. The best (easiest, most familiar to end users) "technical solution" for an end user device at the moment is an iPad. If you're paranoid about the iPad itself getting owned accidentally (which I've yet to see with a corporate fleet of over 150 iOS devices) then wipe/DFU reset it between visitors.
But a technical solution for an end user device is not the answer to your problems. EIther man up and say no, supervise what they do or install a filtering firewall on your premises
Actually I'm not just comparing RT to iPad. It fails against android and it fails against a traditional laptop. If you're going to abandon the Windows ecosystem to go for a tablet (as you need to, to go RT) then you may as well jump ship to a platform that has plenty of apps, better screen, etc.
If you want to run Windows apps, you're limited to the Pro, which is too big and heavy to be a decent tablet, and not really usable in PC mode without a desk. Touch for most windows apps currently sucks. Sure, metro is OK, but the existing apps have widgets that are way too small. And yes, I've tried using it - both with a Windows 8 tablet, and via PCoIP on an iPad. At least running View on an iPad you can zoom in and out of the screen to click Windows application widgets more easily - ironically, when using via VMware View, the iPad (or equivalent Android running View) makes a better touch enabled Windows desktop than Surface RT.
are you attempting to run it in an enterprise environment?
Yes, I've been testing since the beta. Have you?
Depends on the computer and its usage. MAX TDP of a modern desktop CPU may be about 100 watts give or take, but when its running 99% idle most of the time the consumption is a lot less than that. My laptop for example generally consumes around 10-15 watts for the entire box. If you run multiple drives in RAID for speed or better reliability, drive consumption will be a much more significant portion of overall consumption.
That. All drives are unreliable.
Yup, exact reason i have a Momentus XT 750. Sure, an SSD would be faster. At not providing the capacity I require... causing me to spend more of my time fucking around moving files between it and an external drive (essentially, doing a poor job of SSD/HD caching manually on a per-folder level rather than per block).
1. It is SLC NAND and far more reliable than consumer SSD style MLC. 2. Pretty sure anandtech did a piece on them mentioning that NAND failure results in regular spinning drive behaviour.