Slow Road to Vista
I can't believe Vista has been out for a year-and-a-half. I still call it new
-- because I barely know anyone that uses it!
Forrester Research and Kace Research explain that my experience is the rule,
not the exception. According to Forrester, Vista's enterprise penetration is
less
than 9 percent. With the amount of PC turnover, IT actually has to go out
of its way to not use Vista. This means downgrading machines or making
special provisions with Microsoft or OEMs to get units with XP -- not the new
OS.
I've covered Microsoft since around 1984 and have never seen so much trouble
moving to a new OS. Even DOS to Windows was a cakewalk compared to this. I upgraded
four or five old machines from Windows 95/98 to XP, and in each case it was
a breeze. I'm not sure why Vista went so wrong and I'm not sure how Microsoft
can fix it other than with Windows 7, which is years away.
My prediction is that IT will keep going the extra mile to install XP, and
that despite the Vista debacle, Microsoft will maintain a hold on its desktop
monopoly. Now, that's one strong monopoly to survive Vista.
What is your most and least favorite Microsoft OS? Answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 30, 2008