In roughly two weeks, on April 8, Microsoft (News - Alert) will officially end support for Windows XP. Despite the fact that the OS was released about 12 years ago, many companies believe that XP’s end of support has come too soon — especially those in the financial services industry. As a result, some companies in the space are starting to look into alternative options for their ATM fleets, according to ComputerWorld.

Currently, Windows XP powers almost 95 percent of ATMS around the world. Obviously, this will create something of a problem when Microsoft cuts off support for the OS as ATM operators who haven’t upgraded to a newer version of Windows by that time will essentially be running their systems on obsolete software that’s devoid of technical support. Because of this, many are considering opting out of Microsoft’s upgrade cycle completely by choosing Linux to run their ATMs.

Even with Microsoft bribing users to try out Windows 8 in lieu of XP, it seems the company’s latest OS just isn’t attractive enough for ATM operators and neither is Windows 7. Meanwhile, staying with XP just doesn’t seem to be a viable option.

Sure, it’s possible financial services companies could opt for third-party support of some kind, but they will also have to meet “certain compensating controls” dictated by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI (News - Alert) SSI) to continue being considered PCI compliant. This amounts to quite a hassle and potentially quite a bit of expense — especially since a new ATM can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $60,000.

Windows XP, especially the embedded version of the OS, has been a success among ATM operators because of its support for very low-level hardware. The only other operating system that could run on this same hardware would have to be Linux-based. Even Windows 8, which runs quite nicely on ARM (News - Alert)-based architecture, would require new machines as well as a seemingly unwanted shift to ARM.

Some ATM operators are still switching to Windows 7; it’s just hard to say how many. With so many not willing to put up with the inevitable end of support for that version of Windows, though, it seems Linux may find its foothold in another market. 


Edited by Rory J. Thompson