Keep up, boyos! 20k Win XP PCs still in use by NHS in Wales The list of public sector departments still stuck on Windows XP keeps on swelling with confirmation that almost 20,000 computers in the Welsh health service are running on the near 14-year old operating system. As we revealed, the framework support agreement negotiated between the Crown and Microsoft at a cost of £5.584m came …
How many of those machines actually have internet access? Much legacy equipment that is still running on XP would require a complete replacement of all of the hardware when there is nothing wrong with the kit. The 'security risk' is purely a situation engineered by Microsoft to exhort more money when there is no justification in many cases! Simply keep them within a secure environment and don't pay!
I was told to install our apps on a shiny new Win Server 2003 VM
Internet facing, with all the bells & whistles...
When I asked about Server 2003 being 'End of life', you'll never guess what i was told!
They quoted the roll out of their new server 2008 Suite had been delayed until 2019
And that would probably be delayed until the NHS had more funding for IT in 2022.
The establishment currently have over 1500 XP boxes and a data suite of about 100 Servers (running about 4oo vms) across the trust.
And they wonder why they can't upgrade their MRI/CT Scanner software!!
Anon incase you know me!
I think for most places, not just the NHS it's a case of "If it works use it until it doesn't".
Know of a lab that still has a windows 3.1 machine as it still works, and then can't be bothered replacing it (prints out labels and that's it).
Happier they're fixing the bugs in me than in the latest software.
Cymraeg gweddol yn yr erthygl, ond y gwaethaf gall Google Translate ei wneud gan Mr. A. Coward.
Ta beth, mae 'da ni dwsinau o gyfrifiaduron XP yn fy man gwaith, ond nid yw yr un ohonynt yn cysylltu tu allan i'r adeilad.
Mae gennym un Server 2012, ond dim ond oherwydd bu farw un o'r rhai 2003 yn diweddar.
:-)
Hwyl!
M.
...it was already clear that Windows was a dead end. Now people actually see this. If you are lucky your software written for Windows XP will run on Windows 7... but even then there is no alternative for the end of Windows 7 in sight. Windows 8 and 10 seem to be disliked even by Windows fans.
It's worth noting that companies running AS/400 systems still have no problems upgrading to new hardware... the same goes for traditional UNIX systems which can just switch to Linux or some BSD. Even MS-DOS software can easily be run with dosemu or as a Virtualbox image.
@Christian
Ah yes; AS/400. I saw one of those a few years ago. It was running a system that from a security point of view was leakier than a colander. Staff in the warehouse had worked out how to bypass some of the controls.
The finance staff hated it because it would sometimes fail part way through a print run and then couldn't restart, but had to do it all again from the start; but might then miss off some of the invoices because they had already been processed even if they hadn't printed. If the recognised printers were offline, it was a bit of a lottery if it would work with any of the newer machines.
It made data analysis a nightmare and crashed about 4 or 5 times a day. Each year, it also cost the company concerned as much as the volume licences & CALs for all of the rest of their landscape put together for a 3 year deal.
Added to that, it wouldn't handle a lot of their work; the staff were running 30,000 spreadsheets to manage data that the AS/400 couldn't.
>spreadsheets to manage data
Christ, a bunch of numpties. MMVG!
Exactly what type data can be handled in a spreadsheet that cannot be handled in an AS/400 ???
>crashed about 4 or 5 times a day
Great, is there nobody to have a look why it crashes ?
>Each year, it also cost the company concerned as much as the volume licences & CALs for all of the rest of their landscape put together for a 3 year deal.
I think AS/400 in this case is overkill. Scrap the lot, call Suse and get a 10 year deal, for a third of the price of that 3 year deal.
Just stop it.
Win2K wasn't a new operating system in 2000: it was version 5. XP wasn't even a new version in 2001: The 0.1 increment indicated that it had been recompiled with a new version of the MS C runtime library.
But that isn't the OS that Wales is still running on anyway: XP sp2 was a rebuild from the ground up. It wasn't the same as Linux Kernal 2 /3, but more than Linux kernel 2.6 and 2.7 , and rather more different than FF 21/22
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