With XP's End of Life, Munich Will Distribute Ubuntu CDs 426
SmartAboutThings writes "Windows XP is going to officially die and stop receiving support from Microsoft in April, 2014. After that very moment, it is said to become a gold mine for hackers all over the world who will exploit 'zero-day' vulnerabilities. The municipality of the German city of Munich wants to stop that from happening [and] has decided to distribute free CDs with Ubuntu 12.04 to users of the almost extinct XP. Munich, through its Gasteig Library, will prepare around 2000 CDs with Ubuntu 12.04 to offer to city residents affected by Windows XP's end of support. Previously, it was believed that Munich city's authorities were going to offer Lubuntu 12.04, which would have required lower system requirements with the same support period."
Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
XP rules! (Score:2, Insightful)
Going from a Windows 7 to an XP system is like night and day. Everything just works and works more smoothly. No hunting and having to search (why the fuck should I have to search for something on my own system?) for what I need. No buried menus to turn crap off.
With XP I never have to wait for the system to tell me, a minute or so later, that I mistyped a network resource, the whole time preventing me from retyping the correct path.
To use the tired phrase, "You can have my XP when you pry it from cold, dead hands."
12.04 is almost obsolete, even for a LTS version (Score:4, Insightful)
By April 2014, Ubuntu 14.04 should arrive as the next LTS version.
I would certainly want that (or a derived distribution) rather than Ubuntu 12.04, especially in a PC with AMD graphics. The open source drivers for ATI/AMD are still catching up in features and performance, and 14.04 vs. 12.04 should make a significant difference.
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux has never been a serious threat to Windows in the desktop area. What will happen is people will pick up the CD's because it is free, and never install them. As for things like loosing your existing programs, and possible your documents is a big deal. Chances are they will just see it as an opportunity to get new hardware. And will get Windows 8, they will complain and then get use to it, and not care anymore.
Re:Welcome to Unity! (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not necessarily a bad thing. The problem with work-alikes is that people are prone to think that they actually work alike. The fact that something is different and actually looks it is really not such a bad thing.
The whole problem with the GNOME3 interfaces was never so much that those interfaces suck but that they sabotaged the GNOME2 one in the process.
Re:XP rules! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds to me like you're just lazy. XP is missing all of the usability improvement that came in later versions (not necessarily counting 8). How do you snap two windows side by side in XP? Oh wait, you can't. How do you utilize more than 3GB of your memory in XP? You don't, unless you use the bastard child that was XP 64-bit, which almost nobody supports by the way. For me, 8GB is a good starting point for RAM for what I use a PC for.
There are LOTS of usability tweaks in later versions. Please, just let XP die, it's had a good run but it's time to bury it. It's also ugly as hell next to a modern OS.
I won't hesitate to guess that a majority of people are hanging on to XP only because they've got a cracked copy and don't want to buy a legitimate newer version.
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:5, Insightful)
On the downside, how many kids/grandkids are there that will know how to fix their parents/grandparents Linux machines?
Probably close to the same amount that will know how to fix their Windows 8 machine.
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows 8 is hell on Earth in UI form but at least it functions properly.
I don't really consider something as "functions properly" when it's "hell on Earth" to use.
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:5, Insightful)
In some countries in Europe, I live in the Netherlands, we see the government as a service organisation.
We know we pay taxes because in return we get good quality roads, social security (which keeps crime rate low), police to help us (we and the police are still on friendly terms), schooling (increases profit and reduces crime). And although we might bitch a bit about our taxes, most of us gladly pay it.
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't believe corporations have "a lot of agendas" I would suggest that you go look at a list of the sponsors of the American Legislative Exchange Council and then take a look at some of the laws ALEC is pushing in state legislatures around the country.
The notion that Corporations=Good and Government=Bad is pretty naive.
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:4, Insightful)
I must admit that it is difficult to find qualified people on ubuntu.
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:2, Insightful)
While I agree with your general feelings on the matter (except the part that MS has to guarantee you anything) I feel that your grammar and formatting take a lot away from your message.
Delivery counts, nerds. At least make an attempt to write on the same level as the average 6th grader.
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:5, Insightful)
I envy you. I live in the US, and if I want decent roads, a safety net in case of job loss, funding so police can do their jobs, actual functioning schools that teach something other than consume, working fire departments, and emergency medical teams who don't care more about valid health insurance cards than patient signs, I get called "socialist".
European prisons have a better quality of life than most people here in the US.
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:4, Insightful)
How are you going to google for instructions when your network card is a cheap belkin that won't work?
On your phone. Laptop. Smart TV. I have the same problem when my PC is in pieces for any reason; I use a laptop to look up stuff to get it working. Do many households have one and only one way to access the net? And how ancient a PC is it that doesn't have ethernet on board? If worst comes to worst, spend $5 on a supported card.
The only time we had a problem with Ubuntu and hardware was when we were waiting for broadband to be connected for a few days and had to use dialup. Ubuntu didn't recognise the modem port on the Dell laptop. Never needed to before or since though; I believe there are proprietary drivers but didn't bother to chase them up.
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft will pull back (Score:4, Insightful)
Cust: "I want to upgrade my PC to 8!"
Tech: "OK!, I will have to charge you $40 to look at it and clean it out, $60 for DDR2/DDR RAM that hasn't been made for 4 years, $50 for a PCIe GPU (you do want the fancy desktop right...?), $150 for the Windows 8 DVD, $100 to backup your old docs and viruses, and $150 to put windows and your viruses back on!"
Cust: "Umm where is your computer dept again?"
Re:I'm not sure how I feel about this (Score:4, Insightful)
If these people are still running Windows XP, do you think they have smartphones and smart TVs?
I do remote support for a fortune 500 company whose product is targeted at the general public, and every day I work on Windows XP machines with 512MB of RAM, etc. and these clients don't have any other machine in their house. In reality it's time to buy a new computer, but that's not an option for everyone sadly.