8 ms·

We still standardize on XP on the corporate images at my work (where we have more employees than many cities have residents), and are just now starting to even

We still standardize on XP on the corporate images at my work (where we have more employees than many cities have residents), and are just now starting to even consider running a trial build of Windows 7. We had to skip over Vista completely, as a year after it was released there were still loads of applications that didn't work on it (including our VPN software, which boggles the mind as it's not exactly like Vista was a surprise). We had a few security applications we use day-to-day that prevented us from even installing XP Service Pack 2, as the changes to the raw socket support broke them. Were it not for Microsoft preventing newer versions of IE from being installed, I think we'd probably stay on XP forever.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago
What software specifically stopped working (and are you aware of why)? Have you researched alternatives?
- m0nastic 15y ago
  If you're referring to our VPN software, the version distributed by the vendor would crash upon initialization every time for a good year after Vista was released. I presume they eventually released a version that was stable, but my company had already decided to skip Vista by that point. As to the applications which wouldn't work with XP SP2, WebInspect was a specific one (they eventually fixed it), but I recall there were a few others (basically any scanner that used raw sockets). As to researching alternatives, I don't work in IT at my company, but if you're testing out a new version of the operating system that you deploy to all of your employees, and the VPN client doesn't work, you don't research alternative VPN solutions. You just decide to hold off on upgrading several hundred thousand systems until everything works.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    I'm afraid I don't understand; why don't you research alternatives? Is it a training thing?
    - VladRussian 15y ago
      there is huge difference between upgrading to new OS and [upgrading to new OS plus simultaneous replacement of the VPN solution company wide]
      - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
        With Group Policy you can install a new VPN solution to everyone in your company at once. I think this has more to do with training (and IT having other priorities).
        throwawayday 15y ago
        you obviously have a very limited view: if you're talking 10 or 20 machines, no problem. If you're talking 1000 or 2000 (or 10 or 20 thousand) then it's a whole different ballgame. Doing this would be career suicide. Imagine Monday morning, and half your upgrades cause people to have to change their way of doing things. Suddenly your HelpDesk is swamped. What do you tell your boss? Start off with a phased approach, IT first (the good IT people), then a couple of groups of power users. Allow them time to get aclimatized to it and you learn the sharp edges. Then gradually roll it out to the rest of your user population. Group policy is for changing all your backgrounds at once. But event then, you risk pissing off people in positions of power.
    - m0nastic 15y ago
      I don't think training has anything to do with it. Rule number 1 for corporate IT: Keep operations going (i.e.: make sure everything works). At some point you see that Microsoft is releasing a new version of their operating system: 1.) You build some test images to see what the upgrade process would be like 2.) You discover that your VPN client doesn't work with the new version, so you see if the vendor has an updated version that works. 3.) It turns out that they don't, so you hold off with the upgrade until such time as they do. 4.) Enough time goes by where to where you decide that it doesn't make sense at this point to bother with this version of the operating system, so you decide to just skip it (and when you ask around, it turns out a really large amount of other enterprises are doing the same thing). The idea of replacing your existing (working) VPN solution enterprise-wide just to enable you to use a newer version of the operating system isn't something you seriously consider (as it goes against IT rule number 1).

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

What software specifically stopped working (and are you aware of why)? Have you researched alternatives?

m0nastic 15y ago
If you're referring to our VPN software, the version distributed by the vendor would crash upon initialization every time for a good year after Vista was released. I presume they eventually released a version that was stable, but my company had already decided to skip Vista by that point. As to the applications which wouldn't work with XP SP2, WebInspect was a specific one (they eventually fixed it), but I recall there were a few others (basically any scanner that used raw sockets). As to researching alternatives, I don't work in IT at my company, but if you're testing out a new version of the operating system that you deploy to all of your employees, and the VPN client doesn't work, you don't research alternative VPN solutions. You just decide to hold off on upgrading several hundred thousand systems until everything works.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  I'm afraid I don't understand; why don't you research alternatives? Is it a training thing?
  - VladRussian 15y ago
    there is huge difference between upgrading to new OS and [upgrading to new OS plus simultaneous replacement of the VPN solution company wide]
    - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
      With Group Policy you can install a new VPN solution to everyone in your company at once. I think this has more to do with training (and IT having other priorities).
      - throwawayday 15y ago
        you obviously have a very limited view: if you're talking 10 or 20 machines, no problem. If you're talking 1000 or 2000 (or 10 or 20 thousand) then it's a whole different ballgame. Doing this would be career suicide. Imagine Monday morning, and half your upgrades cause people to have to change their way of doing things. Suddenly your HelpDesk is swamped. What do you tell your boss? Start off with a phased approach, IT first (the good IT people), then a couple of groups of power users. Allow them time to get aclimatized to it and you learn the sharp edges. Then gradually roll it out to the rest of your user population. Group policy is for changing all your backgrounds at once. But event then, you risk pissing off people in positions of power.
  - m0nastic 15y ago
    I don't think training has anything to do with it. Rule number 1 for corporate IT: Keep operations going (i.e.: make sure everything works). At some point you see that Microsoft is releasing a new version of their operating system: 1.) You build some test images to see what the upgrade process would be like 2.) You discover that your VPN client doesn't work with the new version, so you see if the vendor has an updated version that works. 3.) It turns out that they don't, so you hold off with the upgrade until such time as they do. 4.) Enough time goes by where to where you decide that it doesn't make sense at this point to bother with this version of the operating system, so you decide to just skip it (and when you ask around, it turns out a really large amount of other enterprises are doing the same thing). The idea of replacing your existing (working) VPN solution enterprise-wide just to enable you to use a newer version of the operating system isn't something you seriously consider (as it goes against IT rule number 1).