[An4ximandros]

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/microsoft-offers-users-100-credit-new-pc-switch-xp/ STOP USING XP, STOP! I WILL GIVE YOU MONIES DAMMIT.

[karajorma]

If they gave the option of using Windows 7 it might work. But who the hell would use XP for 14 years and then decide to get Windows 8?

[Mongoose]

Not me, that's for damn sure.

[Nuke]

i only run xp on machines that are too old to run windows 7.

[Rodo]

I'm running XP on this work pc, century old software needs to run on century old SO!

Long live XP!!!

[Wobble73]

Our Local Authority/Council (which I work for) only use XP machines at the moment, but are due to upgrade to Windows 7 this summer. They have just installed Google Chrome as a temporary measure on all machines until this happens. (Before they just had IE 7, which is still being used for their Intranet and related programs but we can noe use Chrome for the internet access).

[Scourge of Ages]

If MS really wanted people to upgrade, they should just discount 7 and 8. Would dropping the price of 8 back to $40 hurt them at all? No, and it might encourage to upgrade of their own volition.

[Luis Dias]

If it didn't hurt them, they would have by now.

[Aardwolf]

If it didn't hurt them, they would have by now.

Probably. But it's whether a limited subset of the company's staff thinks it will help or hurt, regardless of whether they're correct about that.

[Scourge of Ages]

That was part of my point, that they don't really care if people upgrade or not, if they keep with XP despite the warnings, MS is officially relieved of responsibility for them. This seems like just an excuse to get people to buy new computers in order to convince manufacturers that bundling 8 is actually worth it.

[Klaustrophobia]

is this microsoft's response to "they'd have to pay me to use it?"

[Nuke]

that sounds a lot like prostitution. i am not a whore.*

* ok il screw anything so i guess im a whore, but i still have some standards

[Luis Dias]

yes, your standards are and I quote "anything".

[Dragon]

Well, that's still generous of MS to offer a 100$ discount at all. They could have as well just said "sorry, we're tired of supporting XP, upgrade or GTFO" and waited for XP users to switch on their own. I've tried Linux, and it's no competition to Windows, I've found even Win 8 a bit better than whatever Linux version my uni uses.

[Luis Dias]

better than having them try Ubuntu or any other linux package and run the risk of them liking it.

That's what happened to me except for the "liking" part.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I don't know if anyone else looked into this but it seem that this offer is only good on a handful of systems produced by microsoft.  You can't go out and buy any PC or build your own and get this.  So not only are you stuck upgrading to an OS you don't want to use you have to do it on hardware sold by the same people.

Most of my systems are still running XP.  Why?  It works  It's not a memory hog like 7 (lets face it 7 32bit wanting 2gig for the OS itself is nuts).  Accessing files on mapped network drives doesn't cause the OS to slow down with each directory accessed (something mickysoft defines as a feature) requiring a reboot.  I find myself using my Win 7 machine (which is my main machine) to run remote desktops into my XP machines whenever I need to do operations of files located on my network drives which are most of my files.   

[Nuke]

at least run xp-64. thats what i was running up till 7 came out. i did try vista but i rolled that back so fast.

[deathspeed]

If they gave the option of using Windows 7 it might work. But who the hell would use XP for 14 years and then decide to get Windows 8?

Not my parents - they would disown me if I put Windows 8 on their XP machine.  Or I would have to change my phone number.  I need to get rid of  XP on my wife's PC as well. 

I still dual-boot XP, for a few older games that I can't get to install on Windows 7 64-bit (something about a 16-bit installer or something), but my network adapter is disabled in XP.

[Kolgena]

That was part of my point, that they don't really care if people upgrade or not, if they keep with XP despite the warnings, MS is officially relieved of responsibility for them. This seems like just an excuse to get people to buy new computers in order to convince manufacturers that bundling 8 is actually worth it.

There's another issue of "herd immunity" that kinda sorta applies here. If a big chunk of the internet is XP and vulnerable, there isn't really anything to stop people from hijacking them and using them for DDOS or something even more than they already are. It's a lot of free computing power at your call once you crack XP open.

[jr2]

Heh, some of the computers that run the controllers at the plant where I work run Win 2K, but they aren't network connected (at least, they don't appear to be and I should hope not!)