April 16, 2009 By Hilton Collins
Microsoft dropped free support this week for Windows XP and Office 2003, leaving state and local governments wondering when they'll be forced to move computers to a newer operating system.
PCMag.com reported that, as of Tuesday, customers now have to pay for Windows incident reports, design changes and warranty support, as well as free bug fixes not directly related to security issues. XP and Office 2003 customers previously got this assistance for free.
How do state and local government officials feel about it?
"To now charge us more for something we already bought and paid for that they can support easily, that most of the users are staying with in a time of economic downturn -- I think it's unconscionable, if not outright extortion," said Hap Cluff, the director of information technology for Norfolk, Va.
Lisa Moorehead, the director of management information systems in the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, said her department doesn't have the budget to pay for repeated incident-report calls.
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