Could XP be made public domain?
If Microsoft could deliver the source code
for XP, as it no longer sells the product, then maybe third-party companies
could continue to enhance it? It’s a lovely idea, but it will never happen for
a number of critical reasons.
The first is that there is code in XP
that’s probably still used in Windows 8, so Microsoft wouldn’t be too keen to
allow those internal workings to be exposed mostly for security reasons.
“Corporate IT is very much influenced by
‘the devil you know’, and XP falls perfectly into that category”
the
biggest reason is Microsoft would only encourage those who like XP to keep on
using it, despite Microsoft’s best endeavors to do away with it.
Also, Microsoft licenses some technology in
XP for which it doesn’t have the rights, so those parts couldn’t be provided as
source. And probably the biggest reason is it would only encourage those who
like XP to keep on using it, despite Microsoft’s best endeavors to do away with
it.
I’m surely plenty of coders would love to
see exactly how XP is put together if only to laugh at Microsoft’s programming
efforts, but that’s a joy we’re unlikely to ever experience.
In short, as much kudos as Microsoft might
get from giving the world XP, it’s the sort of unselfish act the company just
isn’t capable of making, sadly.
Mitigation
Let’s imagine you have a Windows XP machine
you want to continue using after Microsoft pulls the plug. How should you
approach that?
In terms of security, I’d make sure you
have got a third-party anti-virus and firewall configured, as these are your
first line of protection. Although Microsoft is done with XP, I don’t’ think
that the software security companies will be interested in ignoring so many customers
and ending their support any time soon
A
screen-shot from the Walking Deal videogame form Telltale Games. Because
Windows XP refuses to die. Like a zombie. We’re here all week, by the way…
Beyond that, I’d avoid using, or maybe even
remove, Internet Explorer, because historically the browser has been a major
failure point for malware intrusion. Both Firefox and Chrome are solid if not
superior alternatives, and they’re both supporting XP updates at this time. You
could back that change up with a malware scanner, just to make sure your system
doesn’t become host to anything nasty.
The fact that Microsoft has ended support
doesn’t mean that much, because having been around so long, XP is very well
understood in terms of its weaknesses and strengths.
The long-term prospect for the OS will
mostly likely be determined by hardware, unless Microsoft does something very
unfriendly and refuses to accept activating XP, stopping the reinstallation of
retail licenses. If it does that, the only way to install a legitimate copy of
XP will be to use an activation hack, bizarrely.
My advice is to make a full backup and
address any hardware concerns before they become critical.
Microsoft has already put temptation in the
form of cheap upgrades in your path, but it’s likely to use more ‘stick’ than
‘carrot’ for those who aren’t keen to pay them again.
For business users the recent recession has
created downsizing that leaves most companies with excess unused computers and
software licenses. Many have computers in storage ready to quickly replace any
that fail in service, or which can be cannibalized. Unless the world sees a
rapid economic upturn or we all learn to love Windows 8, the likelihood of XP’s
demise stimulating new OS sales at Microsoft seems extremely unlikely.
XP forever
Much of the longevity that XP got came from
how bad Windows Vista was perceived to be. Many in software buying circles
decided to skip Vista, and instead move to Windows 7 when the time finally
came.
Worryingly
for Microsoft, 48% of those surveyed said they would use XP after this date,
though more recent numbers suggest that some of them might have mellowed on
Window s7 marginally.
In any economic downturn, IT usually bears
a disproportion of the fiscal prudence, as it’s a department that’s generally
considered to be a drain on resources. It’s exactly that logic that was behind
the results of a survey that Dimension Consulting did with IT professionals in
2010, where it asked them if they’d be using XP after the 2014 support
deadline.
Worryingly for Microsoft, 48% of those
surveyed said they would use XP after this date, though more recent numbers
suggest that some of them might have mellowed on Window s7 marginally.
Many of those people are probably mindful
of a mission critical process that happens on an XP machine in a highly
reliable fashion that they’d rather not change. Those IT people who insist on
fixing things that aren’t broke can be business liability and highly unpopular.
Together with those entirely satisfied with
their 2001 OS, there are also a sizeable number of systems where changing to
another OS would be uneconomic. If you don’t believe that, then consider the
last time you witnessed a crashed computer (or even a cash point) running an
information board. They are usually built around Windows 2000, and they’ve not
been convinced to move form that workhorse.
“Enterprises
are notoriously optimistic about future deployments, so I’d say that by the
time it reaches retirement, XP will still be on 15% to 20% of PCs.”
None of this should be news to Microsoft,
because the gap between new Windows releases and their implementation in
business has been steadily widening. In an interview that Michael Silver, and
analyst with Gartner, gave in 2012, he presented the data he’d collected on the
subject. “There’s a good chance that 10% or 15% organizations’ PCs will still
be on XP after support ends,” he said. “That wouldn’t be atypical actually, for
a Windows operating system.”
“This exposes the
somewhat surprising truth, which is that XP is done when those using it say so, not Microsoft”
Talking about the end of support entirely
in 2014, David K Johnson, of analysts Forester said, “Enterprises are
notoriously optimistic about future deployments, so I’d say that by the time it
reaches retirement, XP will still be on 15% to 20% of PCs.”
The consensus is that whatever Microsoft
does, XP will carry on in the corporate sector, with some even insisting
they’ll carry on deploying the OS after that date though their extended
licensing agreements.
