As you probably know, Windows XP is no longer going to be supported as of April 8th. So, does anybody have a way to save money? We have about 85 XP workstations currently in service. How many of you are moving to Google? I am going to find out, but most of our users have a PC to email and maybe Word now and then. I have a Surface 2, which comes with Office and it’s all most would need. Also, I lived for about 6 months in my Chromebook, with Google Docs, which would be sufficient for most.
Dump those 85 licenses on ur render boxes.
This is for my 9-5, so they are not mine to use.
Put good anty virus, spyware, firewall and just use those 85 like nothing happen.
That might not be a good idea. The 3rd party vendors (anty virus, spyware, firewall) will probably stop supporting it, too
Well, if there’s a decent IT person, you could just as easily move to Xubuntu and OpenOffice on those machines. I’ve been using it for years for email and Office. It’s easy to network to Windows machines. Downside is setting it up, and there is a bit of adjustment to using Linux - but very minor from the desktop user POV. I know it’s a long shot, but worth the thought.
I have used both Ubuntu and Open Office (LibraOffice) and I think that’s all most would need, but I don’t think I could persuade people to move in that direction. I am thinking Chromebook with Google Doc or Surface 2 with Amazon Workspaces.
Wait, are you talking about just updating the OS or replacing the machines?
Dont use ones with a subscription model. their databases will still get updated.
I dont know why this is a big deal, they’re not going to force you to uninstall xp. they’re just no longer supporting it. Leave them as they are.
Windows XP on Patch Tuesday
There has been quite a lot of talk recently about the end of support for Windows XP. After more than a decade of good service, the old girl is being put out to pasture, and this means that as of April there will be no more patches and updates released. But in the meantime, there are still some known problems that need to be fixed, and Microsoft is doing what it can to ensure that any security holes are plugged in time.
This month’s Patch Tuesday is an excellent case in point. Back in November, Microsoft issued a security advisory about a kernel vulnerability that affects both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The vulnerability does require a potential attacker to have valid login credentials and “could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users”.
But the problem is being address in this month’s Patch Tuesday. It is ranked as being as “important” update, and it is something of a landmark as there is the potential for it to become the latest update ever made to Windows XP.
Do you feel comfortable continuing to use Windows XP knowing that should a major security problem be discovered, it will not be fixed? We already know that there still are quite a number of XP users out there What happens when (and it is going to be a case of when rather than if) another problem is found and Microsoft does not fix it. Will this be enough to convince you to upgrade, or will you rely on other security tools to keep you, your computer and your data safe?
The machines are probably just as old as the O/S, so it’ll probably be hardware, too.[quote=“andybot_cg, username:andybot_cg”]
Wait, are you talking about just updating the OS or replacing the machines?
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Well the chance of u getting attacked are very slim… Unless you are secret bank or an organisation that holds lots of $$ which hackers could access… I doubt u ever had any hack attempt and I doubt u will in future as win XP as it fades out, risk of attack fades out as well simply because hackers are more itnerested in win vista(not sure if any1 is interested in this crap) but win 7/8 are main targets. So I would just get proper antyvirus and security and keep on using them like nothing ever happen.
Microsoft’s venerable Windows XP operating system is six times more likely to be successfully hacked than newer Windows 7 and Windows 8 personal computers.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybertruth/2013/10/29/windows-xp-users-six-times-more-likely-to-be-hacked/3287615/
yeah but nobody is even going to try. doesnt matter if it’s easier. nobody wants to hack your office and nobody has tried, you’re not working on half life 2 and you arent a bank.
The only thing you need to worry about is spyware from workers going on the web. but any anti spyware/virus will have you covered and work fine forever.
can I get a written guarantee 
[quote=“cubiclegangster”]
yeah but nobody is even going to try. doesnt matter if it’s easier. nobody wants to hack your office and nobody has tried, you’re not working on half life 2 and you arent a bank.
The only thing you need to worry about is spyware from workers going on the web. but any anti spyware/virus will have you covered and work fine forever.
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one in five small businesses falls victim to cybercrime each year
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046300/hackers-put-a-bulls-eye-on-small-business.html
Everything mentioned in that article is from malware or spam emails. Anti mal/spyware will handle that. teaching your employees to not be complete morons will also handle that.
Being redirected to a page that looks like your bank and despite the URL being www.totallyyourbankforrealipromise.com, still typing in your details and then having your account cleaned out is not hacking. Or receiving an email with a phone number saying ‘this is your bank we urgently need you to call us and give us all your details’, and blindly diving in to hand over as much personal information as possible is also not hacking.
Call me naive, but this sounds like zero vulnerability for me. In order for someone to exploit the security issue they cannot do it remotely and they need a valid login? Sounds reasonably secure to me for architecture work.
Be aware that things like browser exploits (just browsing to a normal website that’s been hacked) and email attachments that get through spyware/ malware detection (no AV is 100% effective, far from it) can lead to the computer being owned and used for sending out spam, botnets, etc. See: The Scrap Value of a Hacked PC, Revisited – Krebs on Security
WinXP is a much more vulnerable platform than any other Windows platform (Oh, besides win95, lol) Any computer system that scores of people are using for email and web better be much more secure, the likelihood of someone getting infected with *something* is nearly 100% if you continue with winXP
I’m in agreement here. It’s not likely that virus companies will stop supporting XP. That’s their biggest client. Win7 and 8 has much less need for it with Defender defaulted on. As an experiment I’ve been running my web only machine with nothing but defender. I scan it over the network periodically. It’s been 4 years, and no problems yet. But I know it’s been attacked a few times.
I fully support something like OpenOffice or LibreOffice. I wish we would switch at my office. Unfortunately, I have to deliver designed power point files to clients all the time. Seriously, people hire me at animation consulting rates to make their powerpoint slides. It does Not thrill me, but sometimes you gotta keep big clients happy to keep the animation work coming in. The 3rd party presentation software is just as good, but since I have to test it out on powerpoint and sometimes do complex animations, I just do the whole thing there. Stuff like that pretty much forces us to all use MS Office. Bleh
If you can get away with an open source office you can probably use linux though. Ubuntu is pretty easy. And it’s hard enough to switch over that peope that don’t know what they are doing have a pretty hard time messing things up unless you’re running Wine.
We have been looking into Linux for our office and there are some surprisingly good free CAD tools available for the platform, draftsight in particular is one that we have tested and found to be adequate for many purposes.