Microsoft Under Pressure from China to Keep Windows XP

While the rest of the world probably is coming to terms with the fact that Windows XP is no more, the Chinese government is taking a stand. Call it the last stand, if you wish, but China is certainly putting pressure on the software giant to continue support for what could very well be the best Microsoft operating system to have been created.

According to a report by TechWeb, Yan Xiaohong, who is the deputy director of China’s National Copyright Administration, has been busy meeting with Microsoft in an attempt to convince them to change their decision about stopping support for Windows XP. The site is in Chinese, but Google Translate does an okay job – as long as you exert a little effort to make sense of the translation. The same article mentions that Microsoft is not the only software company that Yan Xiaohong has been meeting with.

What is interesting about this report is the nuance that the plea is largely based on “serious security risks for many machines in the PRC, with opportunistic cyber criminals looking to exploit vulnerabilities in the software once security updates end on April 8th 2014.” (Source)

That’s because a huge chunk of the Chinese market still relies on Windows XP.

Of course, the highlight of this whole issue is piracy.

It is common knowledge that China is a piracy haven. Or maybe, it was. This year, the government has taken a drastic step by actually purchasing legal software for its central and provincial offices. Needless to say, prior to that, the government offices used pirated software. Now what if they had spent a huge part of the supposedly $160 million of software purchases on Windows XP?

Quite understandable that the government will try to dissuade Microsoft from discontinuing support for the operating system, yeah? Then again, whoever was in charge of the software purchasing should be held liable. After all, it’s not like Microsoft hadn’t been talking about the future (or non-future) of Windows XP way back!

How do you think Microsoft will respond to this pressure?

[Images via eyeonwindows]