AmIRunningXP.com

[Vendetta]

I think the cost of new operating systems is going to carry on trending downwards.

iOS and Android are training people to expect their operating system upgrades for free. Apple have already recognised this and so Mavericks is a free upgrade to any version from 10.6 onwards.

I wouldn't be surprised if by the time Windows 9 comes out it's cheap as chips.

[Purple]

If you have proprietary software that you absolutely require and which is not available for Linux or does not have an equivalent replacement there

Does that not describe something like 90% of all consumer software and games ignoring of course various crap free alternatives?

I wouldn't be surprised if by the time Windows 9 comes out it's cheap as chips.

That's what I am personally waiting for.

[Edi]

If you have proprietary software that you absolutely require and which is not available for Linux or does not have an equivalent replacement there

Does that not describe something like 90% of all consumer software and games ignoring of course various crap free alternatives?

Describes most games, but you'd probably be surprised at how many different tools there are for consumer oriented and task specific software that can be switched for something else. It does require looking them up and a bit of learning to get used to a new program, but it is not as hard as you make it out. Of course, if you absolutely must have that exact same program, then there are likely to be problems.

It would help knowing what the program is that he requires and what he generally needs to do with his machines.

[Mr Bean]

To describe how screwed one of my customers is let me describe.
Before I came to the job he had amassed 18 computers and a server all running Windows XP because his software suite was made by a company that he worked with from 1993 to 2005 when they went out of business. He's spent many hours training all of his employees how to manage ordering items, entering in customers, managing their accounts. Handling any issues and generating data on customers. I'll say simply he's in the medical field and leave it at that.

This software he uses has alternatives, it has five easy alternatives none of which he can switch to. We've tried several times but the suite he uses won't run in Vista or Windows 7 (And refuses to install in Windows . When XP support ends he's going to need to switch to a different management software, retrain all of his employees and buy a bunch of new computers.

Three problems
1. We are pretty sure he does not have the money to buy more than a few computers
2 We know for a fact that this suite is shit about exporting patent information. It won't even export to excel and everything is in a custom file format only the suite can open
3. His newest computer has 2 gigs of ram because in 2008 when he last bought a new computer rather than going to us he went to a local kid to spec out four new computers and load them with XP. The rest are a mix of 256 megs of DDR 1 machines or 512 DDR 2 machines. He had a first generation pentium IV machine that cooked themselves to death and he went out himself and got new(old) PIV cpus to swap in since everything else was still good.

There is serious talk of us just dropping him as a client because the coming EoS is just going to be way to much work for little possible return.

[Zaune]

Does that not describe something like 90% of all consumer software and games ignoring of course various crap free alternatives?

Other than games, I really doubt it makes much difference. Is someone who can't afford to spend maybe $300 on a budget Window 7 Starter box really likely to own much software that isn't freeware? The only potential deal-breakers I can think of are TurboTax, Netflix and maybe MS Office if they work from home and do a lot of complicated spreadsheet work.

[DaZergRock54444]

The program is an older version of Cakewalk Pyro (5 I believe), and aside from some rather minor studio functions the machine is essentially a word processor and internet access device because my father (for whom I was getting this set up for) wants to have his main system offline entirely.

In other news, Windows Update functioned after manually installing SP3, but there was a BSoD that occurred at some point. However, the point is now moot as I am almost 6 hours away from said machine.

[Edi]

The program is an older version of Cakewalk Pyro (5 I believe), and aside from some rather minor studio functions the machine is essentially a word processor and internet access device because my father (for whom I was getting this set up for) wants to have his main system offline entirely.

In other news, Windows Update functioned after manually installing SP3, but there was a BSoD that occurred at some point. However, the point is now moot as I am almost 6 hours away from said machine.

If it's audio editing, just a simple googling with the search term music editing software for linux brings up quite a few options (e.g. Linux Multimedia Studio, Audacity, Muse) and digging deeper may well find more. So next time you are in those parts, take this into consideration.