01 April 2014

April Fool's is a Week Late This Year

Pundits have their heads up their sphincters more often than not. Humble self not included, of course.

As the Drop Dead Day approaches, not a day goes by (or so it seems) that one of the lemming pundits feigns bafflement that 25% (or thereabouts) of PCs still run XP. "Why oh why!!??!" they wail.

Here's why:
To upgrade to Windows 8.1 from Windows Vista or Windows XP, you'll need to install it from a Windows 8.1 DVD and perform a clean installation. This means you won't be able to keep any files, settings, or programs when you upgrade.

How many folks still have any installation discs? Or know where the various data files are stored? Or have sufficient backup space for them? Or have USB ports (machines of that vintage ran CD-ROM, or may be DVD)?

If M$ were serious, they'd have made an install-in-place version of 8.x, or even 7.x. But, of course, they don't want to do that. They want to extort folks into buying new machines they don't actually need. Most will likely segue to an iPad, since they're almost certainly only using the machine for infotoyment purposes, anyway.

And even then, this assumes that your decade old (or older) machine has big enough gonads to actually run 8.x. Which it likely doesn't. A $100 carrot to buy a new PC with 8.x isn't going to help. And then there's the not so widely understood fact that a considerable number ATMs are old XP machines. That should make you feel secure.
Windows XP end-of-life support is just a week away and a stunning 95 percent of ATMs around the world haven't made any changes to their platform or updated the soon to be outdated Operating System (OS). According to a recent ATMIA (ATM Industry Association) survey, only 15 percent of financial institutions are expected to react before the April 8 cut off.

I'm not at all convinced of the 95% number, if only because OS/2 was the OS of choice for ATMs. But still...

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