A better analogy would be that your old car does not meet current emission, fuel economy, and crash safety standards and years of wear-and-tear causes it to no longer operate as well as it did when it was new. Sure legally you can continue to use your car, but then something happens (whether due to a part failing or simply someone else running a red light) and then This happens
While this would've happened if you had a newer car.
sure not all of it compares, but I think the old car /old OS is a good comparison
I think it actually compares really well. If you know what you're doing and maintain your computer/car well it can last for a very long time, however you will eventually need to turn to third parties for patches and parts when the manufacturer no longer supports it. And the old system is still old, making it more risky compared to newer systems.
I came here to say exactly this. I work in IT shop and if I put it in rough percentage, 60% computers run Windows XP, 30% run Windows 7 and other 10% is either Windows Vista or Windows XP. In case you are wondering what's Vista doing there - bunch of old Acers had Vista licenses on them and were pretty cheap with it so when people were buying those, they got it almost for free and are still rocking it.
There are many things you guys aren't thinking about, and that's what kind of hardware those older computers have. Many wouldn't be able to run Windows 7 or higher with smooth performance and if you already have a very old PC, you aren't very likely to invest bunch of money to upgrade and get more RAM, SSD and possibly better CPU on a very old socket (they can all be used parts, but they still cost money). There are many many companies that still work with Windows XP and either don't want to invest money and move to Windows 7 at least or they can't afford it.
Not to mention software which is used in hospitals, schools or wherever - a lot of it was built for Windows XP, wasn't upgraded/updated properly and that's also why so many computers still run 32bit Windows - programs simply aren't compatible with 64bit and it would cost money to change that.
On top of all that, there are also old devices such as POS printers, older inkjet printers and barcode readers which quite often don't work on anything newer than Windows XP.
You should really stop thinking so simple and just because you love migrating - not everyone does and many people actually have a reason not to move. Or they simply have no reason to upgrade. Windows XP will still be used 5-10 years from now, there's no doubt about that and you just have to accept that :)
Ok first of all, you work in an IT shop and you yourself admit that 60% of your income comes from supporting XP users (plus an additional 10% that are either XP or Vista users). I'd love to have some more details about the problems those 60-70% of users come in with. How many are recurring customers? How many are not the user or OS's fault (IE: hardware failure)? How many of the customers understand the problem to the extent that they can avoid it in the future? How many problems could the user have resolved themselves if they had an explanation of what the problem was?
I sincerely do believe that many of these customers that come in with problems with XP systems sincerely do not understand how their computers function, much less how a newer OS would be beneficial to them. You talk and talk about people not upgrading because 7 and above doesn't support their bar code scanner/receipt printers/etc, and therein you reveal the flaw in your line of thinking: You are lumping consumer and business users together. Business users can potentially have THOUSANDS of dollars in equipment that will not support Windows 7 and above; but they also have IT - either in-house or a contract - that manages the computer systems and locks them down so that the lucky 1,000th visitor to that website doesn't get his prize. Sure there are probably many companies that don't have any IT system in place, but in not doing so they are opening themselves to risk and liability, even if from a disgruntled employee or customer. Consumers, on the other hand, are quite often idiots. Sure there are probably some that know what they're doing and have their system tidy and locked down tighter than a nun's knickers, but those are mostly a rarity. Quite often they simply don't know any better, and either actively refuse to learn about computers or have difficulty doing so. These are your customers. But not exactly. You only get the ones that consider their system non-functional, not the ones who paid good money because their computer told them it was infected or encrypted, or the ones that go watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy while waiting for their computers to start up. These are the majority of people running Windows XP, not just the sample that you get in your shop.
Last edited by FuturDreamz; 09 Feb 2015 at 21:10.
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