14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues its efforts to move users from Windows XP to newer operating systems, but as far as unofficial statistics are concerned, it remains the second most popular Windows contraption on the market.
A survey conducted by UK application migration specialist Camwood and published by The Register indicates that 1 in 7 Windows XP users don’t know that Microsoft will discontinue the operating system on April 8, 2014, with analysts warning that the transition to newer software won’t be completed before this deadline.
While 15 percent of the users are unaware of Windows XP’s end, 32 percent of those who know that Microsoft would pull the plug on the 11-year-old OS are yet to begin the transition to another platform.
And, given the fact that upgrades are performed so slowly, Camwood believes that many users will still run Windows XP after the April 2014 deadline.
“Windows XP is the hackers port of call in terms of trying to get a foot hold and establish botnets. They are opening themselves up to risk. It’s like letting your car insurance expire – the car won’t stop working, but you are exposed to a lot of risk,” Kevin van Heerden, Camwood’s head of software, told the source.
While Microsoft hopes that most, if not all, Windows XP users will switch to Windows 8, experts warn that an important number of consumers might actually wait for Windows 9, the next major Windows release expected to see daylight next year.
According to Motion Computing, some have only recently upgraded to Windows 7, so making the switch to Windows 8 doesn’t make much sense now.
“Today, our customers say that Windows 7 is what they need. A lot of them are still transitioning from XP and some research suggests that businesses will skip Windows 8 altogether and go to Windows 9,” Motion Computing's Northern Europe Country Manager Ian Davies said in a statement.