By +Tina Cruris
April 8th marks the end of an era for many computer users as Microsoft will cease to support their dinosaur edition of Windows known as XP. XP was the first operating system that I ever used when I finally caved in and bought a computer back in about 2002. My first memory of booting up the system was "Wow, look at that rolling green field; now how do I use this thing..."
April 8th marks the end of an era for many computer users as Microsoft will cease to support their dinosaur edition of Windows known as XP. XP was the first operating system that I ever used when I finally caved in and bought a computer back in about 2002. My first memory of booting up the system was "Wow, look at that rolling green field; now how do I use this thing..."
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| Time to upgrade? |
I don't usually do the computer related posts, that is +Brad Naylor's field of expertise, but since I am the only STP writer actively using Windows XP, then I am, by default, the resident expert.
In reality, the fact that Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows XP does not mean that it will cease functioning. It will still operate as slowly as it did before, but Microsoft will not be generating updates to keep your computer up to date. This may leave computers between 8 and 10 years old vulnerable to attack from hackers although there probably isn't anything worth hacking on machines still running XP.
Or is there...? Some tech groups suggest that around 95% of ATM (cash machines) run on Windows XP and to date, no provision has been made to change this. Does this mean that our bank accounts are in jeopardy? Not necessarily, but a hacked ATM may put our personal details at risk.
Many Air Traffic Control towers are powered by XP and operated by guys in tasteless polo shirts.
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| An ATM running Windows XP |
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| Air Traffic Control running Windows XP |
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| Target powered by Windows XP |
Is this enough evidence for Microsoft to reconsider their April 8th deadline? Should these businesses get off their asses and get around to upgrading sometime in the next week to protect us from malicious attacks? Are you, like me, still running Windows XP and wondering what your next step is? Share your thoughts below before my computer is obsolete and and I am unable to read them.
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1 comment :
I checked out the site stats and about 6% of our readers are using XP. That is the third highest ranked OS version of all of our readers. We could lose 6% of our readers...
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