{"id":25370,"date":"2013-08-07T01:01:20","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T05:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=25370"},"modified":"2013-08-07T01:01:20","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T05:01:20","slug":"xp-warning-protecting-your-computer-from-scheduled-obsolescence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/08\/xp-warning-protecting-your-computer-from-scheduled-obsolescence\/","title":{"rendered":"XP Warning-Protecting Your Computer from scheduled obsolescence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"April 18, 2014\u2026Microsoft announces that as of this day, it will no longer support Windows XP.<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope that my readers will consider this moment in geekness as just a notch below the attention level we Floridians typically give to hurricane warnings. Just as we want to avoid being in that cone of uncertainty or worse yet, in the direct path of a storm, computer users \u00a0need to know what will happen when the proverbial lights go out on your operating system.<\/p>\n

I began this piece with an announcement that Microsoft will cease supporting their XP version of Windows next April, at which point XP will go the way of Windows 95, 98, 2000 and ME versions. \u00a0But what does this really mean to you? It\u2019s a mixed bag, actually. To begin with, you\u2019ll no longer receive those often annoying automatic updates. But along with that comes the absence of security patches, which will most likely expose vulnerabilities in your computer\u2019s coding that professional hackers are already scheduling their time to exploit. And, bringing up the rear is the eventual inevitability that Windows will crash, the screen will go dark and you\u2019re left with nothing but an especially heavy paperweight.<\/p>\n

Your choices are to upgrade to Windows 7, primarily sold through resellers who get machines in off \u00a0corporate leases, an option I recommend to my customers who are hesitant or completely adverse to upgrading to Windows 8, the colorful, but much ballyhooed latest version with those tiles mirroring tablet but without the familiar start button and other functions traditionally-oriented users(including many IT professionals) prefer.<\/p>\n

A viable alternative gaining in popularity is going to an Open Source system such as Linux. Open Source options have the added attraction of being completely legal, absolutely free and compatible with most Microsoft and Apple operating systems. These Open Source systems, used extensively in Europe, adhere to goals for providing vehicles supporting a more open community of users. Because they do not copyright their systems, there are no licensing fees, a major revenue source for companies like Microsoft, and these substantial savings are passed along to the consumer.<\/p>\n

Readers can sign up for my free e-newsletter which provides more of the specifics about Open Source \u00a0operating systems and software but here are the broad strokes. Disks available for distribution contain a fully integrated package: an operating system (Linux) semantically equal to Windows, a complete Office suite (Libre Office) mirroring all the functions of Microsoft Office, a choice of two web access portals for surfing the internet,\u00a0 establishing and communicating via email as well as accessing familiar search engines. With some minor insignificant differences such as the absence of copyrighted logos and icons, the screens are virtually indistinguishable from the software you\u2019re already using.<\/p>\n

Concluding comments: All Word documents, PDF\u2019s and other previously scanned documents are fully compatible with this system. Users can easily send and receive documents that are readable, meaning that they\u2019ll \u201copen up,\u201d ensuring that none of your files are lost in translation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 18, 2014\u2026Microsoft announces that as of this day, it will no longer support Windows XP. I hope that my readers will consider this moment in geekness as just a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}