There was some discussion the other day on the avimark yahoo group about the looming drop dead date this spring of xp. One concern that I hadn't thought of was those clinics that run their credit card machines through the internet will not be allowed to continue using xp. A user has several choices.
1. Keep running xp and hope for the best. Probably not as high risk as some might think as long as you stay local and off the internet behind a firewall.... but who does that. Your users WILL fire up the web browser... so say goodby to xp
2. Upgrade workstations to Win7. Well thank you very much microsoft, you killed the upgrade package with the intro of Win8. You still can get Win7 in the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) version, but there are varying interpretations of whether mere mortals are allowed to do this to older hardware. As far as microsoft support goes you will be on your own.. you become in effect the OEM, and provide support to your end user.. who happens to be ..you.
3. Upgrade to Win8.. just say no.. the new top layer will drive business users batty, and very likely legacy equipment may not run it well anyway.
4. Buy new hardware. $$$$ For the business environment, be advised you can still get Win7 on new hardware from certain vendors.. see number 3
5. Go with Linux. Free.
More about 5. If you are running rdp sessions off of a true windows server, then this is a no brainer. Ubuntu 12.04 lts (long term stable) version has about 3 years remaining on it's support cycle. It will install itself either as a dual boot beside your existing win xp install, and you can still go back to xp for historical purposes, or you can do a fresh install. The install is actually smoother nicer and quicker than any windows install I have done. The ubuntu installation iso can be downloaded, and then burned to a cd on your windows machine. Then just boot from the cd to start the process. it will let you test drive from the cd before any installation or modification of your machine is done. Support is wonderful Paid support is available, but Google is your friend and really all you need to answer almost any question.
Install, press the little round ubuntu icon in the upper left, type in Remmina to bring up the rdp program, and log in to your server. Wahoo.. No changes in settings on the server, and it's free.
If you are running local sessions loaded off of an xp or win7 "server" in peer to peer fashion, you can still do the ubuntu install, but you probably have to wait for me to get off my keester and write the cookbook on how to run Avimark on a peer linux workstaion under WINE. It can be done, and with no mods to your peer "server" other than maybe creating a new user account.
Note that neither of these scenarios are putting you on a Linux server like I am running. You are just salvaging existing machinery, but making it safe and secure, instead of the inevitable xp vulnerabilities that will arise with the end of service.
