4 ms·

It may not be advisable, but tell that to the XP-for-life or 7-for-life people. It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to mal

It may not be advisable, but tell that to the XP-for-life or 7-for-life people. It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to malware.

Silhouette 4y ago
It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to malware. The biggest threats haven't come from direct external assaults on the OS for years. I expect a typical consumer device is more at risk from an out of date browser than any other type of vulnerability now. The biggest risk for most of us as personal users is someone stealing our data via a hack, which often doesn't require root/administrator access to the host system anyway if you can compromise something already Internet-connected like a browser or messaging app. Of course old versions of Windows not getting updates from Microsoft any more is a concern on some level but it's probably a long way down the list for anyone who actually has a good reason to still be using the old versions. I know quite a few people with quite a few different and entirely rational reasons for doing so, though many of those reasons involve some other form of predatory business model by some other big company that makes hardware and/or software. (Hardware that was declared EOL and doesn't have drivers for newer Windows versions, software with some sort of DRM that ties it to running on a specific system, that kind of thing.)
- i_am_proteus 4y ago
  It has been several years since WannaCry, but absolutely nothing guarantees that another such vulnerability does not surface.
  - Silhouette 4y ago
    Ransomware, like the old data trashing viruses of the past, is trivially defeated by having backups.
    - i_am_proteus 4y ago
      Read up on the mechanism by which WannaCry spread and report back.
      - Silhouette 4y ago
        You mean EternalBlue? How exactly is a remote attacker going to use a vulnerability in a local networking protocol to attack a typical home user's PC? First you need a way into their network where you can even see the PC to attack. If you have that then you're already dangerous. As I said before this kind of vulnerability is still a concern. Obviously it's a much greater concern if you're talking about something like a laptop that might be connected to an untrusted network, which would be crazy with an unsupported or unpatched OS. But for a home user who stays on their own network it's probably quite a long way down the list of things to be worried about.
  - 7speter 4y ago
    We also dont know if some bad actor has already found that vulnerability and are building/already built and exploit.
- themacguffinman 4y ago
  Browsers and messaging apps also rely on OS security to a degree, it's part of why they don't support old operating system versions.
- bruce511 4y ago
  Your hardware point is interesting in the sense that it represents the non-saas model, but also appears to not be working. So I get it, they bought the hardware with a one-time purchase. The maker moved on. One day the OS moves on. But the hardware company is predatory for not writing a (free?) driver for their obsolete hardware on a new OS? Surely if the model is "buy once" then there's no expectation to return to the well for "software updates"? The solution is, as you noted, to freeze the OS. Which is perfectly fine, as long as you are happy doing that.
  - Silhouette 4y ago
    But the hardware company is predatory for not writing a (free?) driver for their obsolete hardware on a new OS? The rest of the world deals with this problem by adopting standards. There are plenty of peripheral makers in the PC world who could perfectly well have followed or established standards too and then their equipment might be useful indefinitely through generic, long-lived drivers. In reality many of them chose to use proprietary protocols with no public documentation available instead. Building in artificial obsolescence is certainly a predatory business model.
winternett 4y ago
Eventually after an OS passes it EOL... Even security threats decrease as the OS falls out of popular use. I ran a totally offline NT server for many years after EOL and it was glorious, CD-ROM and all.
i_am_toaster 4y ago
Tell that to my graphics card. Had to update to 10 from 7 about 1-2 years ago because my graphics card started making very scary loud sounds when playing games.

It may not be advisable, but tell that to the XP-for-life or 7-for-life people. It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to malware.

Silhouette 4y ago

It won't actually stop working, it just means you're much more vulnerable to malware. The biggest threats haven't come from direct external assaults on the OS for years. I expect a typical consumer device is more at risk from an out of date browser than any other type of vulnerability now. The biggest risk for most of us as personal users is someone stealing our data via a hack, which often doesn't require root/administrator access to the host system anyway if you can compromise something already Internet-connected like a browser or messaging app. Of course old versions of Windows not getting updates from Microsoft any more is a concern on some level but it's probably a long way down the list for anyone who actually has a good reason to still be using the old versions. I know quite a few people with quite a few different and entirely rational reasons for doing so, though many of those reasons involve some other form of predatory business model by some other big company that makes hardware and/or software. (Hardware that was declared EOL and doesn't have drivers for newer Windows versions, software with some sort of DRM that ties it to running on a specific system, that kind of thing.)

i_am_proteus 4y ago
It has been several years since WannaCry, but absolutely nothing guarantees that another such vulnerability does not surface.
- Silhouette 4y ago
  Ransomware, like the old data trashing viruses of the past, is trivially defeated by having backups.
  - i_am_proteus 4y ago
    Read up on the mechanism by which WannaCry spread and report back.
    - Silhouette 4y ago
      You mean EternalBlue? How exactly is a remote attacker going to use a vulnerability in a local networking protocol to attack a typical home user's PC? First you need a way into their network where you can even see the PC to attack. If you have that then you're already dangerous. As I said before this kind of vulnerability is still a concern. Obviously it's a much greater concern if you're talking about something like a laptop that might be connected to an untrusted network, which would be crazy with an unsupported or unpatched OS. But for a home user who stays on their own network it's probably quite a long way down the list of things to be worried about.
- 7speter 4y ago
  We also dont know if some bad actor has already found that vulnerability and are building/already built and exploit.
themacguffinman 4y ago
Browsers and messaging apps also rely on OS security to a degree, it's part of why they don't support old operating system versions.
bruce511 4y ago
Your hardware point is interesting in the sense that it represents the non-saas model, but also appears to not be working. So I get it, they bought the hardware with a one-time purchase. The maker moved on. One day the OS moves on. But the hardware company is predatory for not writing a (free?) driver for their obsolete hardware on a new OS? Surely if the model is "buy once" then there's no expectation to return to the well for "software updates"? The solution is, as you noted, to freeze the OS. Which is perfectly fine, as long as you are happy doing that.
- Silhouette 4y ago
  But the hardware company is predatory for not writing a (free?) driver for their obsolete hardware on a new OS? The rest of the world deals with this problem by adopting standards. There are plenty of peripheral makers in the PC world who could perfectly well have followed or established standards too and then their equipment might be useful indefinitely through generic, long-lived drivers. In reality many of them chose to use proprietary protocols with no public documentation available instead. Building in artificial obsolescence is certainly a predatory business model.

winternett 4y ago

Eventually after an OS passes it EOL... Even security threats decrease as the OS falls out of popular use. I ran a totally offline NT server for many years after EOL and it was glorious, CD-ROM and all.

i_am_toaster 4y ago

Tell that to my graphics card. Had to update to 10 from 7 about 1-2 years ago because my graphics card started making very scary loud sounds when playing games.