businessweek.com — It's been five years since the last release of Microsoft's Windows operating system, and more than three since the previous iteration of Office . So now that businesses can purchase the two, you might think there would be a lot of pent-up demand. Not so much.
Dec 1, 2006 View in Crawl 4
madddogDec 1, 2006
Why spend vasts amounts of money on something that works? The only reason I can see businesses and/or governments upgrading is because Microsoft cuts off support for older operating systems. Cutting off your customers is not a good way of doing business.
derrekitoDec 2, 2006
The only thing remotely appealing is DX10 and the driver support for my Razer products, so I'll keep Linux on my laptop and put Vista on my Desktop... god I hope Wine ramps up.@8177M$ tried that for what 10 years? It didn't work, so they scrapped Longhorn and started over.
thepanzerDec 2, 2006
I work at a university, and they are dreading the upgrade. Most people here do not want to spend the money to upgrade systems when everything is already going great.
Closed AccountDec 2, 2006
I've upgraded all the systems I manage to the "latest" version of Windows each time it comes out, including my personal systems.This time, for the first time, I've "rolled back" to the previous version (wiping Vista and reformatting with a clean copy of XP).The "unsigned driver" issue with 64 bit Vista is a ticking time bomb. Having to press F8 each time you load the OS is unnaceptable, especially with perfectly good 64 bit drivers. Some companies will never get their certificate/approval from MS and their drivers will stay "unsigned". Who is going to press F8 each time they boot an OS? Moreover, MS has no obligation to keep supporting the unsigned bypass - they may deprecate it at any time, leaving you unable to boot.There are serious problems ahead for MS regarding their "approved driver" signing plan. I do not support them in this, and for such an ardent Windows user (which I am), I would say they have a problem.
santeDec 2, 2006
"One thing that has to be remembered is that the most important thing to most companies is not how flashy, or in some cases, even how stable, the OS is. It's whether or not the companies LoB, ERP, or CRM app will run on it."Bingo. These are the exact drivers of OS deployment at my company. Our 250 desktops still run Win2K just fine, thanks, and we only recently switched to deploying XP with new laptops, and even then it was only because the Intel PROSet wireless software doesn't like Novell BorderManager VPN client software on Windows 2000."That volume license for XP is going to come in real handy as we need to replace PCs."Amen. XP volume license + SysPrep 2.0 + DriverPacks + SysPrep Driver Scanner + Ghost = happy PC support tech. :)DriverPacks<a class="user" href="http://www.driverpacks.net">http://www.driverpacks.net</a>SysPrep Driver Scanner<a class="user" href="http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml">http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml</a>
andrewdevlinDec 2, 2006
Exactly...it will take large enterprises 18-24 months to start rolling Vista out...it's not a question of choosing to roll out on a certain date in 2008, the work has already begun. As much as people think that Vista is just XP + Aero, it's a huge change internally that requires months and months of porting and testing. Nevermind the fact that most business users don't know the difference between XP and 98...user training will take forever.
obkenobiDec 3, 2006
Windows has steadily gone downhill since 2K.
obkenobiDec 3, 2006
[quote]Not true. XP was hyped, but not wanted by everyone. In fact, it's reception was almost exactly the same as Vista's is right now.[/quote]I don't remember that. I remember most Win98 users looking forward to XP. The response to Vista so far has been lukewarm, and even hostile. I don't remember Windows users being upset at XP saying it was WORSE than XP. With Vista, many are questioning just that. Is Vista really better, or just bigger?Unlike the Win98-XP switch, Vista requires a significant hardware upgrade and a bigger learning curve. The new Explorer confuses noobs. The new security stuff is annoying and poorly implemented. Much touted features like search were never really popular.And then there is the administration of it. The authentication and reinstallation hassles.I think that's probably the best word to describe Vista: Hassle. It's a bloated mess that treats you like a prisoner.
kilraqDec 4, 2006
The two biggest issue I see here, and the only reason I can see business really not really taking up vista come its release are these. Money, Training.Its going to be a huge investment to change all the codes and software and speciality programs that corportations run. That is a huge deal to investors and except for a few bodys with heavy geek "first adapoters" IT's, there will be little push for the change.Then the real hurdle, training. XP and its younger cousins are WELL know and VERY documented. There is ton of training and certifcations for people versed in this knowledge. There isn't much that I know of in ready available training for Vista. If there is I remove this comment, but I am not aware of it.