Windows XP Phaseout Puts 13 Million Japanese PCs at Risk

[Dr.Awkward]

There's companies in the US that still use XP, and I've been trying to get on a migration team for one of the companies that are upgrading to 7 lately. The reason they don't upgrade is that the combined cost of buying the program, compatibility testing, and training is just way too much for even multimillion companies to afford.

However, they never seem to have little problem getting the latest (or next-to-latest) Windows Server version. Probably because it's costs are significantly less?

 

[MorganL4]

Lol....... The fact that people here in the US are dogging on another country's businesses because they are still using XP is so hypocritical it isn't even funny. Boeing ONLY JUST upgraded from XP to 7 LAST YEAR. Staples STILL uses the OS. I guarantee plenty of other BIG US companies use XP. So get off your high horse there folks.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

XP is compatible with a ton of software, and where I do IT work there's some computers that I can't justify upgrading to 7 or 8. The cost, plus the headaches of ensuring that older, specialized software runs on 8 is more of a pain then just keeping the XP on there if it isn't slow.

Also, Microsoft is doing some fear-mongering here, and I don't much care for it. One is not "Unsafe" because Microsoft decides not to release updates for the OS anymore. I'm pretty sure that the AVG, Superantispyware, MalwareBytes, and Spybot on my XP machines aren't going to quit getting updates, and the firewall in my router isn't going to disable itself.

Not to mention that many of these machines aren't even connected to the Internet in the fist place (I'm assuming). That's where your threats come from.

 

[lacktheknack]

using Windows XP
>not using a custom OS, even if it's Linux-based

Aaarglbwaargarbl.

Other than that... this is just sad. It's bizarre how far ahead Japan is in some areas and how so very far behind they are in others.

 

[lacktheknack]

Lol....... The fact that people here in the US are dogging on another country's businesses because they are still using XP is so hypocritical it isn't even funny. Boeing ONLY JUST upgraded from XP to 7 LAST YEAR. Staples STILL uses the OS. I guarantee plenty of other BIG US companies use XP. So get off your high horse there folks.

And the company I work for runs on Windows ME. What of it? I still think that any company that hasn't migrated to 7 is a legendary slowpoke, Japanese or other.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

And I'm just sitting here still using windows ME.

 

[michael87cn]

Who goes and cries directly to microsoft for help when their computer gets a virus, anyway? You don't fix it that way. Who cares if they no longer support it. You fix viruses with 3rd party programs, system restore, or formatting your hard drive... all of which can still be done on XP.

 

[Zipa]

Yeah any company should be migrating away from XP at this point Japanese or Western. Software has advanced an incredible amount since XPs days, the company I work for are in progress of migrating to 7 this month.

It has been planned for a long time as more and more we have found that the software and tools we need to do our jobs in todays world just will not function properly on XP.

 

[Jorpho]

Japan, which many see as a futuristic nation on the cutting edge of technology, ironically clings to office technology that the western world has long-since abandoned, such as the fax machine and Internet Explorer.

I understand there is still no practical substitute for the fax machine when it comes to secure document transmission, strange as it may sound.

I left a job at a GlaxoSmithKline in December and they still had many PC's running windows 95, 98, 2000 and ME so it would not surprise me if there were still XP machines out there 10 years from now.

I reckon they have a lot of expensive scientific equipment which is incompatible with newer operating systems and which the manufacturers do not care to keep supporting.

 

[LordLundar]

There's a lot of companies still using XP, some of them just recently changed over to it. A major reason is that they have a number of custom programs or configurations that cost a considerable amount to modify for optimal use with a new OS. The reason they do this is because it's still cheaper than the vast amounts of service calls that would be required by simply installing it on the new OS.

That said, it's the accounting departments who control when to these changeovers and they want to see the changeover investment as worthwhile so they hold off on doing the change (which can just as frequently mean a hardware replacement in addition to the software one) for as long as possible. Of course, they never consider the logistics when they decide to green light it so their best estimate for completion is several months out of date.

I swear, most of the machines I've replaced have at least 7 years worth of dust in them.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

The ATMs definitely need an uprade at least to Vista(which isn't the best choice since it will loose support in short time too), get third party updates if it's possible or get the extended embedded support if M$ allows it. At least going to Win 8 on a machine with a custom front end like an ATM would only have the possibility of driver issues. You don't need someone to learn the Trainwreck UI if your going to paste your own over it. Maybe, if M$ gave businesses a discount on XP to Win 7/8 uprades it would be as much of a financial problem, but were talking about Mr. "Charge 'em $100 just for the ugrade from Vista to 7 home edition" here. They won't do that until they get the financial hurt put on them which is hopefully soon.

Lol....... The fact that people here in the US are dogging on another country's businesses because they are still using XP is so hypocritical it isn't even funny. Boeing ONLY JUST upgraded from XP to 7 LAST YEAR. Staples STILL uses the OS. I guarantee plenty of other BIG US companies use XP. So get off your high horse there folks.

And the company I work for runs on Windows ME. What of it? I still think that any company that hasn't migrated to 7 is a legendary slowpoke, Japanese or other.

And I'm just sitting here still using windows ME.

Wow, there are people and even businesses still using ME? It might work better after some update in it's late support life, but I remember as a kid trying to get my sister's emachine with Windows Mistake Edition to even run right on a weekly basis. Burning incense and praying to the machine god was to most consistent way to get it running for a month at a time without a complete reinstall. You guys are true heros with the patience of a saint.

 

[Roxas1359]

using Windows XP
>not using a custom OS, even if it's Linux-based

Aaarglbwaargarbl.

Other than that... this is just sad. It's bizarre how far ahead Japan is in some areas and how so very far behind they are in others.

It's not just Japan, I mean hell I work for the state of California and we barely upgraded our OS to Windows 7 last year. A lot of businesses in the US still use Windows XP because it's both cheap and has great compatibility. So the fact that most of Japan still uses XP doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

And I'm just sitting here still using windows ME.

Wow, there are people and even businesses still using ME? It might work better after some update in it's late support life, but I remember as a kid trying to get my sister's emachine with Windows Mistake Edition to even run right on a weekly basis. Burning incense and praying to the machine god was to most consistent way to get it running for a month at a time without a complete reinstall. You guys are true heros with the patience of a saint.

I was just joking when I said that.
Can windows ME even access the internet? My grandma had it on her computer, and I was just at loss for words at how bad it was with... well, everything.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

The place I work at only switched to XP in the last couple of years so I very much doubt we'd pick up 7 any time soon. We are a charity though so it's not like we have money to just throw around.

We also very recently got Office 2010. I wish we could go back to Office 2003. I hate that ribbon and all the confusion it brings.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

And I'm just sitting here still using windows ME.

Wow, there are people and even businesses still using ME? It might work better after some update in it's late support life, but I remember as a kid trying to get my sister's emachine with Windows Mistake Edition to even run right on a weekly basis. Burning incense and praying to the machine god was to most consistent way to get it running for a month at a time without a complete reinstall. You guys are true heros with the patience of a saint.

I was just joking when I said that.
Can windows ME even access the internet? My grandma had it on her computer, and I was just at loss for words at how bad it was with... well, everything.

Oh, thank goodness. I really wouldn't be surprised that at least a few people still use it. They should still be able to get online with like IE 5 or something. I don't know if you can get a recent Firefox or Flash version installed on ME but I can imagine someone who is so stubborn they refuse to listen to warnings and think PC are like cars: "they may get old and loose power but it still gets me from point A to B." Or they just can't afford a new one and won't buy a dirt cheap used XP, Vista, or Win7 system.

 

[DJ_Bunce]

Yeah, I was working at a town office in Wakayama for three years... First day I sat down to my desk and booted my laptop.
"Holy balls it's XP..."
I looked for in my desk for a portable disk drive to load a textbook onto my machine.
"Holy monkey balls, this thing still eats floppy disks"

True story - Japan is only techy in Tokyo.

 

[Mortuorum]

I'm surprised XP is still suopported in Japan at all, wasn't the support in western world ceased years ago?

Nope, XP support sunsets on April 8th.

I'm not entirely sure of the point of this article. "Japan: A Nation of Procrastinators?" It's not like Microsoft has been bashful about letting people know that they're ending support for XP. My office is in the final stages of upgrading all XP devices to Windows 7, a project that's taken about a year to complete. Frankly, any IT manager anywhere in the world that hasn't put together a plan for the end of XP support (by either upgrading to a newer platform or formally accepting of the risks associated with running an unpatched OS) should be fired.