legacy-software

After a thirteen year life-cycle—which sadly seems like an unnatural longevity, something possessed, nowadays when new refrigerators and other durable appliances either and especially computers do not or are not allowed to grow so long in the tooth due to consumer proclivities and notions of life-cycle replacement schedules, the operating system Windows XP is essentially receiving its do not resuscitate orders.
Next week, Microsoft will end customer-support and quit issuing security patches for Windows XP, leaving it increasingly vulnerable to attack and logical integrity on the decline. It simply worked and was accessible, which owes a lot to its stamina—particularly in the technological environment, and I would much rather be using XP, rather than its princeling descendants with their apps and non-intuitive visual platforms. Its success and ubiquity means that some sixty percent of computers in Germany still run on XP—however it is not the hand-me-down CPU tower of ones grandparents that causes concern, rather it is the networks of cash-registers and automated teller machines, plus an undisclosed number of utility relays and other fail-safes. Foreknowledge aside, I am sure that the vacuum will not only be filled by predators but also by white-hat hackers, willing to uphold this vintage.