4 ms·

>>> the flaw... only exploitable on Windows 7 and older Windows systems, which are end-of-life and no longer supported by Microsoft Windows 7 is supported unti

>>> the flaw... only exploitable on Windows 7 and older Windows systems, which are end-of-life and no longer supported by Microsoft Windows 7 is supported until 2023 in enterprise. Wouldn't be surprised if it's a quarter of the userbase.

imglorp 6y ago
Yup, 21% plus some older stragglers. That's horrifying. W7 was released in 2009. https://www.statista.com/statistics/993868/worldwide-windows-operating-system-market-share/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/993868/worldwide-windows...
- forgotmypw17 6y ago
  Why is it so horrifying? What's wrong with using old software, especially when it works better than the new?
  - Magodo 6y ago
    Seriously! I just today pulled out a raspberry pi I bought in 2011 and was overjoyed that it booted up noobs with absolutely no issues.
  - ajzinsbwbs 6y ago
    Old software is fine when you’re not running untrusted new software inside of it.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    People always say that, at least until they get hit with $RANSOMWARE_OF_THE_YEAR or $RANDOM_VIRUS
    - forgotmypw17 6y ago
      I didn't realize that Windows 10 is immune to ransomware and viruses.
      - Shared404 6y ago
        Of course it's not. Nothing is. Not Win 10. Not Mac. Not Linux. Not BSD. Not Plan 9. But an up to date anything is better than Windows 7.
        forgotmypw17 6y ago
        I think if someone's been using Windows 7 this long and not succumbed to malware, they probably know how to secure it, or just happen to have set it up in a secure fashion. If you're behind a NAT and don't browse strange websites and don't open email attachments and don't plug in strange devices, how are you going to get malwared?
        fsociety 6y ago
        Because you can’t play that game with information asymmetry. Your attack surface is too large to defend. It just depends on if you care or not.
        tpxl 6y ago
        Hello, I'm one of the dudes running Windows 7 on unsupported hardware (Ryzen 3900x, some mobo that isn't supported by W7 and modified drivers from some random Chinese dude on the internet so it actually works). I'm using it mostly to play games that don't support Linux (anti-cheat spyware, as someone nicely put it), while daily driving linux on the same machine on another HDD (can't be hit by cryptolockers because windows doesn't detect it ;) ). Windows 10 is garbage. It's a mobile OS - the "File" menu in Microsoft Word opens across the whole screen with most of it being empty space, the start menu fucking shows ads and search can't help itself but do random internet searches. Always on "Cortana" for god knows what reason that you can't turn off without editing registry (can you even do that anymore). On top of that, it's basically spyware. How can you protect yourself from malware by installing more malware?
        ta17711771 6y ago
        You can't protect your privacy by shooting holes in your security.
- nikanj 6y ago
  It's been less than two months since we last ran across a large prospective customer who is still on XP. This was in the UK, and they handle highly confidential information on those computers. Supporting XP makes dollars, so supporting XP makes sense. Though it does make me want to tear my eyeballs out.
miles 6y ago
> Windows 7 is supported until 2023 in enterprise Not just enterprise; even a single user can easily acquire ESU: https://tinyapps.org/blog/202001220700_windows_7_esu_smb.html https://tinyapps.org/blog/202001220700_windows_7_esu_smb.htm...
- amatecha 6y ago
  Hey this is amazing, I didn't know about this! Thanks for the link :)
  - nonbirithm 6y ago
    I don't know if it's a good or bad thing in the context of the article that you can keep using Windows 7. I want it to be a good thing, but reality doesn't go away. 7 was really the last version of Windows I liked before the move to hybrid tablet PCs and Metro. It's the last one with the Classic theme which is more visually appealing to me. And there are no forced rolling updates. But if a corporation is just not going to release security patches allowing for exploits like this then it slowly makes using it untenable. It's just like with phones. I would be happy with my first generation OnePlus One if only the OS updates with the security patches didn't also tie in so many other features that decrease performance to unbearable levels. With Apple especially I feel like they're just updating things for the sake of updating them even though they already worked fine before, and Catalina is the end result of that strategy. We're running out of things to innovate on in the technology sphere so about all we can do is stick another two cameras on the back of the latest flagship on top of the previous three and call it progress. I once read a review that said something to the effect of, "but it only has two rear cameras." And we can't go back either. Even though High Sierra is less annoying to use than Catalina, there's still another release cycle ahead. And another after that. Downgrading is not a sustainable business model, from people's perspective. Reddit won't just throw away their redesign and go back to old.reddit.com by default because it means taking away the livelihoods of the people they hired to "improve" everything. It means admitting it failed, and I don't think that's how they see their efforts. So what's the way out? And software vendors will eventually start using Windows 10-exclusive APIs because they'd see no point in supporting a "dead" OS, so eventually you'd have no choice to upgrade if your requirement is running that software. It's just out of our control.

imglorp 6y ago

Yup, 21% plus some older stragglers. That's horrifying. W7 was released in 2009. https://www.statista.com/statistics/993868/worldwide-windows-operating-system-market-share/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/993868/worldwide-windows...

forgotmypw17 6y ago
Why is it so horrifying? What's wrong with using old software, especially when it works better than the new?
- Magodo 6y ago
  Seriously! I just today pulled out a raspberry pi I bought in 2011 and was overjoyed that it booted up noobs with absolutely no issues.
- ajzinsbwbs 6y ago
  Old software is fine when you’re not running untrusted new software inside of it.
- Shared404 6y ago
  People always say that, at least until they get hit with $RANSOMWARE_OF_THE_YEAR or $RANDOM_VIRUS
  - forgotmypw17 6y ago
    I didn't realize that Windows 10 is immune to ransomware and viruses.
    - Shared404 6y ago
      Of course it's not. Nothing is. Not Win 10. Not Mac. Not Linux. Not BSD. Not Plan 9. But an up to date anything is better than Windows 7.
      - forgotmypw17 6y ago
        I think if someone's been using Windows 7 this long and not succumbed to malware, they probably know how to secure it, or just happen to have set it up in a secure fashion. If you're behind a NAT and don't browse strange websites and don't open email attachments and don't plug in strange devices, how are you going to get malwared?
        fsociety 6y ago
        Because you can’t play that game with information asymmetry. Your attack surface is too large to defend. It just depends on if you care or not.
        tpxl 6y ago
        Hello, I'm one of the dudes running Windows 7 on unsupported hardware (Ryzen 3900x, some mobo that isn't supported by W7 and modified drivers from some random Chinese dude on the internet so it actually works). I'm using it mostly to play games that don't support Linux (anti-cheat spyware, as someone nicely put it), while daily driving linux on the same machine on another HDD (can't be hit by cryptolockers because windows doesn't detect it ;) ). Windows 10 is garbage. It's a mobile OS - the "File" menu in Microsoft Word opens across the whole screen with most of it being empty space, the start menu fucking shows ads and search can't help itself but do random internet searches. Always on "Cortana" for god knows what reason that you can't turn off without editing registry (can you even do that anymore). On top of that, it's basically spyware. How can you protect yourself from malware by installing more malware?
        ta17711771 6y ago
        You can't protect your privacy by shooting holes in your security.
nikanj 6y ago
It's been less than two months since we last ran across a large prospective customer who is still on XP. This was in the UK, and they handle highly confidential information on those computers. Supporting XP makes dollars, so supporting XP makes sense. Though it does make me want to tear my eyeballs out.

miles 6y ago

> Windows 7 is supported until 2023 in enterprise Not just enterprise; even a single user can easily acquire ESU: https://tinyapps.org/blog/202001220700_windows_7_esu_smb.html https://tinyapps.org/blog/202001220700_windows_7_esu_smb.htm...

amatecha 6y ago
Hey this is amazing, I didn't know about this! Thanks for the link :)
- nonbirithm 6y ago
  I don't know if it's a good or bad thing in the context of the article that you can keep using Windows 7. I want it to be a good thing, but reality doesn't go away. 7 was really the last version of Windows I liked before the move to hybrid tablet PCs and Metro. It's the last one with the Classic theme which is more visually appealing to me. And there are no forced rolling updates. But if a corporation is just not going to release security patches allowing for exploits like this then it slowly makes using it untenable. It's just like with phones. I would be happy with my first generation OnePlus One if only the OS updates with the security patches didn't also tie in so many other features that decrease performance to unbearable levels. With Apple especially I feel like they're just updating things for the sake of updating them even though they already worked fine before, and Catalina is the end result of that strategy. We're running out of things to innovate on in the technology sphere so about all we can do is stick another two cameras on the back of the latest flagship on top of the previous three and call it progress. I once read a review that said something to the effect of, "but it only has two rear cameras." And we can't go back either. Even though High Sierra is less annoying to use than Catalina, there's still another release cycle ahead. And another after that. Downgrading is not a sustainable business model, from people's perspective. Reddit won't just throw away their redesign and go back to old.reddit.com by default because it means taking away the livelihoods of the people they hired to "improve" everything. It means admitting it failed, and I don't think that's how they see their efforts. So what's the way out? And software vendors will eventually start using Windows 10-exclusive APIs because they'd see no point in supporting a "dead" OS, so eventually you'd have no choice to upgrade if your requirement is running that software. It's just out of our control.