Quite a few people on XP are there because its what they know. It also is all they need. Personal example, I would love to replace my mom's computer but she likes her version of Office which was the version we installed when she obtained her PC, which runs XP. I suspect she isn't alone in not wanting to change something that works.
For many people tech is just the annoyance they have to put with to do what they want to do. Top that off with hundred dollar or more to upgrade and why should people do it? At least Apple got it right, FINALLY, after many years of charging for OS upgrades to not doing so.
Having helped organizations with donated computers I am not sure there is a real alternative. Linux? Really? Its hard enough sourcing decent used machines for people, I certainly am not game to loading Linux and then teaching them to use it. Perhaps if there were one install and software was available at the store... do you understand?
For someone that doesn't know what google is, and are barely able to click on that Internet Explorer icon - much less use it once it does open, my mother is far from what I'm worried about.
My sister, clicking everything that looks flashy, though... Her, I'm worried about.
Would be interesting to know. Based on anecdotal reports, I would guess that we are now today in a situation in which more people than ever are running an unpatched, Internet-connected computer - I'm hypothesising that XP is by far the most 'un-upgraded' OS we've had since mass adoption of the Internet.
There's Linux distros that specifically try and look like Windows to make the transition easier.
Last I checked Zorin OS[1] was one of them but looking at their website now it seems they've decided to take a different route. It's certainly gone a lot more, um, sci-fi since then.
Actually, that's just what I did for my mother. She got emailed by her bank that using Windows XP would not be safe anymore and worriedly asked what to do: "do I have to buy a new computer?"
Since all she basically used was OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Chrome she's now running those three apps in Window Maker on Debian.
>> "She got emailed by her bank that using Windows XP would not be safe anymore"
Before switching to Linux I'd recommend checking the bank supports it. I know a couple of banks in my country that use weird security systems that won't run on Linux/Mac.
Assuming there aren't any plugins or applets involved in the authentication process. Sweden, for example, is moving to a system where you use a smart card and USB card reader for authentication on most/all bank and government sites.
The smart-card based banking systems I am aware of don't run in the browser (not saying they couldn't have chosen to work via a plugin, they just don't seem to). Gnucash has for several smart card systems, and at least HBCI/Fints support is good [1,2].
In Belgium, they used to bundle a java app with some certificates or keys on a floppy disk years ago. Fortunately most of them have switched to a custom calculator-like device that spits out verification numbers and doesn't require any connection to the computer or the network.
At my place, all the non-technical people rush out and buy new overpriced computer with win7. Only one of my neighbors decided to let me show him linux. The lokal store dont care, they are very happy to sell some old intel i3 prozessor, Onboard-graphics, and windows 7 for €800+
