Don't get hopeful about Windows 7 on your work PC

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Geoff Spick15 April 2009, 10:30 AM

Despite the love-in for Windows 7's stability and compatibility, businesses are still cool on taking the plunge of upgrading from XP.


The majority of those who have tried the Windows 7 beta have complemented the OS on its reliability compared with the launch-era Windows Vista. Improved speed, working on lesser specified machines, better driver support and with many of Vista's annoyances removed, it is looking like an OS ready for prime time.

However, according to a survey from Dimensional Research for KACE, almost half of businesses are looking at a one to three year time frame for installing the operating system on their computers. Not surprising is the large number of companies planning to go straight from XP to Windows 7.

Now, obviously businesses are not in as much of a hurry to upgrade from something that is working well and with the current economic situation, most places are holding off spending money on replacement kettles, yet alone big-ticket items like an enterprise-wide OS upgrade.


Image: Dimensional Research/KACE

Among the reasons for the delay are concerns about software compatibility (nearly 90%), hardware requirements (just over 70%) with performance and security (markedly lower at below 50%). Expect Microsoft to make a big sell to business about its success in dealing with the top two issues in the coming months and how it has already soothed concerns about the second pair.

According to the report, a summary of findings from the survey include:
  • 84 percent of survey respondents have no plans to upgrade existing Windows desktops and laptops to Windows 7 next year;
  • 72 percent indicated they are more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than staying with an outdated XP operating system;
  • 50 percent revealed they have considered moving from Windows to an alternative operating system, and 27 percent of those cited Mac OS as the top alternative;
  • Almost 60 percent of survey respondents do not presently have a tool in place that automates operating system migration;
  • Economic factors, such as budget freezes and staff reductions, were cited as other reasons to not immediately adopt Windows 7.
You can read a summary of the report here and download the whole thing here (free registration required), it surveyed over 1,100 IT professionals of whom 17% had tried the beta. Perhaps these guys are seriously busy running intensive environments, but 17%? Sounds like a serious lack of curiosity among the people who should be diving into all things tech.

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Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

The majority of those who have tried the Windows 7 beta have complemented the OS on its reliability compared with the launch-era Windows Vista.

While I don't necessarily question the responses of the beta users, I'd have to suggest that the beta user group is essentially the enthusiasts and PC professionals. That sample group doesn't represent MA & Pa Clicker or those who use PCs as a business tool.

I'm yet to see any answer on what these newer versions of Windows OS actually provide that will justify the expense.

Upgrades are essentially uneconomic on existing hardware. Microsoft has really shot themselves in the foot in two ways for business users.

Firstly the price disparity between boxed software and bundled versions, rules out the prior as a serious consideration.

Secondly MS penchant for incompatibility makes it exceedingly difficult to migrate anything but an entire enterprise in one hit.

GFC has made business look very hard at expenditure and cash flow and it's hard to justify OS upgrade. It's all expenditure with very little in the way of return. Making the life of the IT team easier may seem like a good idea until you do the business case against the required hardware cost.

While Win 7 is looking a better proposition than Vista it still fails to deliver a compelling argument for upgrade. MS really needs to have a re-think from the perspective of the consumer.

15 April 2009, 11:49 AM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

BrownieBoy (User):

>> IT professionals of whom 17% had tried the beta....
>> but 17%? Sounds like a serious lack of curiosity
>> among the people who should be diving into all things tech.

Still, with APC banging the Windows 7 drum as hard as it can, I'm sure we can turn those numbers around in no time.

Anybody else notice how the navigation tab for the Windows section on the APC's home page now says "Windows 7"? Not "Windows", and certainly not "Vista", which has become like Trotsky: airbrushed out of the revolution.

You guys do realise that the damned thing's not even been released yet?


15 April 2009, 1:16 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Aubrey (Cornerstone member):

You have to feel a bit sorry for MS (well, sort of). After the Vista disaster they seem to have done their best to actually listen to some of their critics and have clearly put a heck of a lot of hardwork into Windows 7.

Now they look like being creamed by the GFC.

If:

a) their pricing strategy wasn't so off planet
b) their FUD-based marketing wasn't so objectionable, and
c) they didn't use the patents system as a weapon

I'd even consider trying Windows 7. Is there a Live CD?

15 April 2009, 2:02 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Phred (Cornerstone member):

"17%? Sounds like a serious lack of curiosity among the people who should be diving into all things tech."

In all honesty, what's the point of a business using valuable time and resources test driving a beta OS? The changes between Beta, RC, and Final/Gold can be enormous.

15 April 2009, 2:09 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Phil in NZ (User):

Yawn... I am a CIO of a mid size company (200 desktops). The impediment to moving to Vista has been
1) legacy PC's that could never run it
2) Servers - 2003 R2 works well with XP

Mac OS is seldom considered as a viable alternative. Most businesses have a lot of windows licenses for Office etc and windows based productivity applications. The Operating system OS and PC hardware itself is only one small part of the equation. Further their server infrastructure, and management tools are, well not up to it.

It was the same for windows NT 4. Windows 2000 was overlooked and organizations moved straight to XP. This is not a new trend, but the reality of the real world.

Just my 2 cents



given that all of our PC's will be capable of running windows 7 by the end of next year due to natural attrition and upgrade cycles, 1) will no longer be the case. Further the move towards 2008 server makes the move to windows 7 more compelling.

15 April 2009, 2:14 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

pukoh (New user):

it really doesn't make any sense for operating system makers (windows/mac) to cram so much functions in an operating system.

OSs should be as bareboned as possible running on as little processor power as possible.

People use computers to run programs not to run Operating systems.

15 April 2009, 8:13 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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