Microsoft Signs Extended Windows XP Support Deal with the United Kingdom

[sujith]

Microsoft has recently signed a deal with the United Kingdom to continue providing support for Windows XP for another 12 months, thus making sure that all computers in the public sector are upgraded to a more secure operating system without exposing data to hackers.

The software giant will thus receive £5.5 million ($9.1 million / €6.6 million) in exchange for critical and important security updates for Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has been responsible for the negotiations with Microsoft for the entire public sector, so computers used by the central and local government, charities, schools, and the NHS will also receive updates for another 12 months.

“This is an important deal, which will provide continuity for all eligible government and public sector organisations while they migrate on to alternative operating systems," said Rob Wilmot, crown representative for software at CCS, according to The Telegraph.

"It is an excellent example of collaborative purchasing and demonstrates Crown Commercial Service’s new joined-up approach to commercial arrangements to achieve best value for the taxpayer.”

All organizations that want to benefit from extended Windows XP support must come up with a plan to demonstrate that they are planning to move to a newer operating system sometime in the next 12 months.

Since so many organizations can actually move from Windows XP to a newer operating system in just 12 months, many could wonder how come the same thing wasn’t actually possible before April 8 when Microsoft is projected to pull the plug on Windows XP.

According to the same source, the CCS already has an answer for this question, as it explained that moving from Windows XP to either Windows 7 or Windows 8 can be a very complex and costly process.

“Plans are already in place for organisations to migrate to other operating systems over the next 12 months. It is anticipated that the majority will have completed upgrades by April 2015,” a Cabinet Office spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

Windows XP is still installed on 28 percent of computers worldwide, but many are very likely to remain unprotected as extended support is fairly expensive and many companies do not afford to pay Microsoft to keep their systems protected until they migrate to a newer platform. Of course, moving to a newer OS also involves hardware upgrades, which do nothing more than to confirm that this could be a very costly process.

Source

[smallhagrid]

I don't personally care for m$ 'support', but this news makes me wonder how long it will take before these extended updates get posted around the internut for regular folks who think they'll be safe as long as they have them ??

[insanedown58]

I don't personally care for m$ 'support', but this news makes me wonder how long it will take before these extended updates get posted around the internut for regular folks who think they'll be safe as long as they have them ??

I'd say the users would receive it in 2-3 days after they test to see if it works.

[dcs18]

It's come to such a sorry plight that if Windows Update is refused to XP Users, they will abandon the sinking ship and hey if Windows Update is extended, XP Users will still abandon the sinking ship (at least the ones with some percentage of IQ.) Truly who in his/her stable mind would bend backwards to pay for his/her updates in this modern era when there are so many superior alternatives (some free, too.)

The root problem is not merely about Windows Update but more about 3rd party Developers who have already decided that they have had enough to do with this prehistoric piece of $hit. BTW, the list of 3rd party Developers who are rapidly dropping support for XP is growing, by the day.

[Reefa]

Windows XP is supposed to be dead next week. But the Dutch and British governments have both inked deals with Microsoft to continue to keep it on life support, at least for them—under Microsoft’s Custom Support program.

On Wednesday, ComputerWeekly reported that the UK government agreed to pay Microsoft £5.548 million (approximately $9.1 million) for continued support of Windows XP, Office 2003, and Exchange 2003 for all British public sector customers. On Friday, the Dutch government cut its own “multi-million Euro” deal with Microsoft for custom XP support of over 30,000 computers still running the Windows XP operating system.

Those deals may be just a drop in the bucket in comparison to what the US government may have to pay for support of the hundreds of thousands of systems still running Windows XP and other end-of-life software. Despite years of foreknowledge of the end of support for the operating system, there are still a large number of systems running Windows XP within government, including computers on sensitive networks and embedded systems. Many hospitals in the US still use Windows XP on workstations and healthcare devices because software developers have not had their products certified by regulators for use with later versions of Windows.

Source

Edited April 6, 2014 by F3dupsk1Nup

[CODYQX4]

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Edited April 28, 2019 by CODYQX4

[LeeSmithG]

U.K. should had dea;t with this years ago.

A.T.M.'s a.k.a cash machines, are running mainly on NT4 and XP.

NHS is running mainly on XP.

Schools too.

It means everyone in the United Kingdom can tun XP for another year, not just business's.

[geeteam]

hehehe... the only question I ask myself is IS WINDOWS XP REALLY GOING TO END?

[dcs18]

hehehe... the only question I ask myself is IS WINDOWS XP REALLY GOING TO END?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sounds familiar. :tehe:

[geeteam]

hehehe... the only question I ask myself is IS WINDOWS XP REALLY GOING TO END?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sounds familiar. :tehe:

yeah! and no one has answered me, aside you. You are madly inlove with XP, no matter what happens :-)

[dcs18]

hehehe... the only question I ask myself is IS WINDOWS XP REALLY GOING TO END?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sounds familiar. :tehe:

yeah! and no one has answered me, aside you. You are madly inlove with XP, no matter what happens :-)

Microsoft is an organization that's grown quite greedy - they'll kill XP. While I'm personally happy with that kind of intent - it's not long before they'll kill even the 8.1 (no OS can be hopeful of lasting a decade like XP did.)

Microsoft has a change of plans, now - they'll do away with the service packs, too (they'll try to generate new revenues by releasing a new OS on a short cycle basis.) I'm OK with this line of thinking too - as long as I don't have to pay for any of it. :dunno:

[geeteam]

hehehe... the only question I ask myself is IS WINDOWS XP REALLY GOING TO END?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sounds familiar. :tehe:

yeah! and no one has answered me, aside you. You are madly inlove with XP, no matter what happens :-)

Microsoft is an organization that's grown quite greedy - they'll kill XP. While I'm personally happy with that kind of intent - it's not long before they'll kill even the 8.1 (no OS can be hopeful of lasting a decade like XP did.)

Microsoft has a change of plans, now - they'll do away with the service packs, too (they'll try to generate new revenues by releasing a new OS on a short cycle basis.) I'm OK with this line of thinking too - as long as I don't have to pay for any of it. :dunno:

Looking at the future of MS, I think they will be more focus on SaaS rather than our old traditional way of computing (as you have already mentioned).

I think the next OS will be more focus with the Cloud, allowing consumer to pay for a particular service they prefer or want. Look at what Google has done with the Chrome OS, the same applies to Steam OS and the rest. I think MS will be looking at that direction as well.