[AccessD] Future of Windows XP

Hi Brad,

Nearly all the corporate I know of and work with are moving from XP to Win 7. I don't  know of any business that is running win 8 or Office 2013, although there must be some of them out there.

Personally I find Win 8 an abomination to use.  Sure it is fast, but my god, it is a pain in the ar$e.  I haven't used it a lot, but those I know who have been using it for months still don't love it. "I am getting used to it" is the most common refrain, rather than "Wow, Now I love it!".  Urrrrrgh.  Wait for W9 I say....

In corporate land they are nearly always 2 life cycles behind the cutting edge.  This not only maximises their return on the software costs, but also minimises the upgrade risk as the initial bugs and UI issues are generally ironed out by the time the upgrade.  The loose rule is 'Never before SP1 and preferably post SP2' before even considering the upgrade.

Whislt some businesses / Corporate I work with are on Office 2007, most of them have gone from XP / Office 2003 straight to Win 7 - Office 2010.  Honestly, you can largely consider Office 2007 as the beta release for 2010 and most of the IT folks who make the decisions are onto that.  2010 is pretty good to work with, where as 2007 has plenty of annoyances, even today.

As for XP security, there would be some risk if an exploit is found that it will not be patched.  Most folks in business will upgrade when the support runs out.  But I guess that is up the them and there needs and budgets.

Good luck.

Win 7 is a nice OS, stable, quiet and fuss free.  Worth considering.  If possible give your old XP machines max RAM, 4GB if they are on less.


________________________________________
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com <accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> on behalf of Brad Marks <BradM at blackforestltd.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 20 August 2013 5:07 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Future of Windows XP

All,

I work part time for a small manufacturing firm (about 50 employees)
with a very limited IT budget.

Currently there are about 20 older PCs running Windows XP (SP3).  There
are two purchased application systems and a number of Access 2007
applications.

It is my understanding that Microsoft is dropping all support (including
security updates) for XP in April of 2014.

My background is primarily in application development and database
administration.  In the past, I have relied on fellow employees for
"Operating System issues".

I have some dumb questions.

How serious is the issue of Microsoft dropping all support for XP next
April?

What are most firms migrating to?  Win-7?  Win-8?

I would guess that either Win-7 or Win-8 will need more horsepower than
XP and neither will run very well on older PCs.  True?

Will Access 2007 applications run Okay with either Win-7 or Win-8?

Thanks,
Brad

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