Why is XP used in so many shop terminals?

[lister]

Anyone else notice how often you see XP as an OS for cash terminals? Just wondered why? I know that XP has a reputation as being a solid OS, less so Vista and very good with W7

[colemic]

Because it came out over 11 years ago, and had vista not sucked so bad, more might have upgraded. Plus, POS terminals aren't usually resource intensive, so if it ain't broke...

[ptilsen]

Because it came out over 11 years ago, and had vista not sucked so bad, more might have upgraded. Plus, POS terminals aren't usually resource intensive, so if it ain't broke...

Agreed. It's the age of the systems and the time it takes to develop a new one and train people on it. There's generally little incentive to replace them proactively. I would expect to see XP on such systems well past EoL.

There's still some 9x and NT systems out there running legacy hardware and software that organizations haven't replaced. Unlike NT and 9x, XP is rock stable and has extremely wide hardware compatibility and will for the foreseeable future.

[NOLAJ]

I think 5-10 years from now the same thing will be said for Windows 7. Like the others said, just solid OS's.

[discount81]

I was at the self paying terminal at the movies a few months back, and my terminal crashed, I noticed after it rebooted it was running Windows 98..
XP will be seen around for a while yet due to the very low adoption rate of Vista.

[panik]

There is also the issue of the hardware platform that these sort of device run on.

Industrial PCs and POS terminals tend to have very long life times with little chance to repair, upgrade or replace hardware. They also need to be as cheap as possible while running for years in hot, dusty exposed environments.

So they end up being PCs that are 3 or 4 years behind the latest and greatest.

It is only when it is cheaper to replace the platform with new hardware, a new OS and re-write the custom applications that they run that they will be upgraded.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Getting programmers to spend weeks re-writing a application is more expensive than you think.

[Devilsbane]

I rebooted one of those touch screen games that sits on the bar a few weeks ago and was surprise to see Windows 98 pop up and launch a batch file.

[Complete_IT_Professional]

I was in a department store a few months ago and saw their cash register computers running some kind of custom DOS program.

I just about cringed!

[Corndork2]

Fun fact -- Most POS Terminals used to be Windows 95, but MSFT finally end of life'd it, causing everyone to go to XP. Before that, it was Windows 3.1.

POS Terminals are so light weight and low power that they need a light weight OS. Win 7, and Win Vista are definitely not that, leaving just one other candidate -- XP. And I'm sure it will be here for quite some time longer.