It has been a long time in coming, some might say. After all, all good things do come to an end eventually, and with Microsoft’s venerable Windows XP operating system which proved to be many peoples’ favorite, the looking April 8th deadline is getting closer and closer, as that would be the day that marks the end of Microsoft’s support for Windows XP. In fact, Microsoft has recently urged holdouts to make the upgrade to Windows 8. Well, it seems that such advice has fallen on deaf ears, at least where the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is concerned. It seems that the UK’s NHS, which can be somewhat equated to the U.S. Public Health Service, is currently discussing with Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP for its computer systems that still run on that version of the operating system.
Part of the talks touched on Microsoft offering software patches for the NHS’ 1 million plus Windows XP PCs until those machines go through an upgrade phase to finally catch up with the rest of the world and plunge headlong into the 21st century. So far, there has been no mention of a specific price tag for this additional support, but if it were to happen, it would not be the first time that such a thing has happened as Microsoft did offer large businesses and organizations what it calls “Custom Support” for legacy programs before. Analysts believe that this could cost up to $200 annually for each PC under a “Custom Support” plan like this, which would burden the NHS’ coffers even more.
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft and Windows Xp.