UK Government Pays Microsoft 5.5 million to

[jfalberti]

support Windows XP for 1 more year.  Says this gives them breathing room to make the transition.



http://www.pcworld.com/article/2139...rosoft-5-5m-to-extend-windows-xp-support.html

 

[davetranter]

Shock!! Horror!!

Unable to verify, but it wouldn't surprise me!! It's quite amazing to see some of the things that our government can find to waste OUR money upon.....

Saddened

Dave T

 

[Anachronism]

A government VOLUNTEERING to pay ransom

That is more like voluntary extortion! When I am forced to replace ALL the sortware I use because I can't get an O.S. to support it, I shall go to Linux. Updating past XP would leave all my digital book-keeping & correspondence files unaccessable. I suspect any major entity such as government would be better off using COBAL----

 

[madabouthoovers]

Yes our Government are always pleading poverty - they have all but abolished the "welfare state" and sold out the NHS, and sold the Royal Mail, but they can find money for rich billionaires like Bill Gates? Yes that's just typical of our Conservative Govt. Enrich the rich and impoverish the poor.


We are the next state of America - David Ca moron always said he wanted the UK to have a US style welfare system and UNUM inspired healthcare system, where if you aint  got the money to pay health insurance, and you get run down by a car, you'll be left to die in the street. Parts of this country are now beginning to resemble the East Side of Detroit, and its getting worse.


Soon we will have to build more US style prisons to house all those that have to turn to crime to live, as the welfare state is withdrawn, and benefits get taken away as they are now.


And yet - they consider Microsoft windows XP to be too important to loose. Unreal.

 

[Anachronism]

U.S. vs U.K.

Interesting you should mention Detroit in your comparison, I fled that village in 1967-----------. As for health care, you are correct: as a cancer survivor over 55 (67), had I not been drafted into the Viet Nam war, and thus eligible for veterans benefits, I would not be able to access ANY medical care without payment up-front---
Or, as our republican party suggests: If you can't afford medical insurance, DON'T GET SICK! Our 3rd party insurance system is run by for-profit insurance companies whose offices resemble palaces, and whose claims adjusters consider any claim to be theft from the stock-holders. Many of our physicians are controlled by pharmaceutical companies, and the main course of treatment is to prescribe a pill rather than explore the cause of the malady.

 

[madabouthoovers]

You might think this is a scene from downtown Detroit, but no, our wonderful Conservative Government are turning our once beautiful towns into scenes like this. This building is in the once great city of Glasgow, now its fast becoming a slum, just like Detroit.


Welcome to the United States of Europe people - 2014 Conservatism!


You Americans have to thank the Lord you don't have a Republican Government - We have an election next year, we only hope we get the UK version of the Democrats back in power - the UK Labour Party.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Take a look of how the UK press report on the plight of Detroit - dubbed the USA's poorest city, its a deeply saddening read at how such a once iconic city, famous for car production , has now been left to rot.



http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...an-city-why-does-anyone-still-live-in-detroit

 

[madabouthoovers]

Its when I read and see scenes like these, and see how much our countries are suffering at the hands of these political morons, that I get angry when I read about our Government paying out so much money just on a whim, to a rich billionaire American who is holding Microsoft XP users to ransom. It is a despicable state of affairs in a bent and corrupt society.

 

[Anachronism]

While on a visit to Windsor, Ontario, Canada a few years ago I looked across the Detroit River at the city where I was raised, and was reminded of the photos of Dresden, Germany in 1945.

Unfortunately, part of our problem is the human desire to get 'something for nothing'. The only people with enough income to buy U.S. made goods were the U.S. workers who made them, but instead they flocked to retailers like Walmart to buy the cheapest crap to come out of the 3rd world sweat shops, leading their employers to ship the jobs off-shore.

Since we have one of the finest governments money can buy, the rich simply pocket the profits, and will continue to do so until the rest of us are too poor to BUY anything. Hopefully I am old enough that I won't live to see the final outcome, unless we revert to cottage industries & a barter system for us common folk.

 

[davetranter]

Old enough

Ouch!! the Dresden comparison certainly hits home!!

I, too, am glad that I will be gone (probably, unless they REALLY mess up) before the final collapse of western civilisation as we know it. I really pity children growing up now. Not only will they not have any 'society' worth calling to support them, but they won't (as discussed in a thread elsewhere) have the skills to look after themselves in a land where they will have to make many things for themselves from 'scratch', or at least from salvage.... (or, of course, have useful skills which would enable them to move to the surviving economies of the Far East)

Welcome to 'Hell on Earth', and it's greed and 'short term-ism' which is to blame.... "There is no such thing as a 'free lunch'" and payback time is fast approaching.... God help us all.... :-(

Still saddened

Dave T

 

[beko1987]

Whereas they could lock several Linux boffins in a room and get a Linux distro that would work!

Would cost a damn sight less than 5.5mil and make the aeging hardware the NHS use last longer. I'd put my hand up to help test it for free doughnuts and coffee!