Dutch government to pay millions of euros to Microsoft for extended Windows XP support

Following in the footsteps of the UK government, the Netherlands is also reportedly spending a lot of their taxpayer money to Microsoft so it can continue to support its many government PCs that are still running the 12 year old Windows XP operating system.

Webwereld.nl reports that the deal will result in Microsoft getting millions of euros from the government, but a specific number was not mentioned. The agreement will cover between 34,000 and 40,000 PCs that have XP installed from now until early January. Microsoft will release the last updates and security patches for the OS on Tuesday to the general public. One of the parts of the agreement with Microsoft is that the PCs used by the government must be updated to either Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Two of the five local councils in The Netherlands are also still using Windows XP on their PCs, but this new government deal does not cover any additional support for those local regions.

As we have previously reported, Windows XP is still being used by over a quarter of the world's PCs. Although a large number of them are believed to be in China, XP is still the second most used PC OS in a majority of countries around the world.

Source: Webwereld.nl | Image via Microsoft