Microsoft may allow businesses to skip Vista, go direct from XP to Windows 7
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Microsoft has done everything but admit Vista was a failure, it has skipped around the term with Steve Ballmer saying that it is “a work in progress.” Well, it may be but after trying to fit in every feature possible, DRM bloat (which may or may not be the cause of system sluggishness); the company is now once again trying to please everyone that is dissatisfied with Vista and will do everything possible to make Windows 7 everything that Vista wasn’t.
The company has already hinted that Windows 7 would make an appearance in the late 2009 or early 2010 time frame but could it be earlier than that? TechReblic thinks it may.
“Microsoft will use smoke and mirrors to conjure up an early release of Windows 7, the next edition of the world’s most widely-used operating system. Then they will quietly and unofficially allow IT departments to migrate straight from Windows XP to Windows 7.”
The author also suggests that some features of Vista should be stripped out or minimized starting with User Account Controls; leave the virtualization feature but tear everything else out. Other suggestions include,
Simplify the interface back to something closer to Windows XP Reduce backward compatibility in order to streamline the code base Work much harder with vendors to ensure driver and software compatibility with new hardware and applications Reduce the cost of Windows in retail boxes Release Windows 7 by the end of 2009 and market it as the simplest and easiest Windows ever
History is once again repeating itself. Windows ME tried to be everything and failed; it was quickly swept under the rug by the completely redesigned Windows XP that magically appeared just one year later. Windows Vista tried to be everything which failed and is going to be quickly done away with by Windows 7 which Jason Hiner calls, “Windows Vista Service Pack 2.”
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April 21st, 2008
Well, XP was hardly a Service Pack for ME, so I think calling W7 Vista Service Pack 2 would not be in sync with the pattern you mentioned. In fact, if the pattern from ME to XP you mentioned happens with Vista to W7, I would then expect W7 to be an excellent and stable OS, much like XP was and is.
April 21st, 2008
“Microsoft may allow businesses to skip Vista, go direct from XP to Windows 7″
A much better title would have been Businesses may allow Microsoft to remain on their computers. Without the Corporate sector, MSFT would be just another software company.
MSFT is lucky the Vista issues didn’t get the Corporate world start looking elsewhere.
Companies are cutting back, laying off workers, consolidating, tightening budgets in this recession and staying with XP because of Vista’s compatibility issues and slow performance.
New computers, new hardware, more expensive licenses are less important now in corporate than it was say five or six years ago.
Just because MSFT releases a new OS it no longer means a automatic migration to the newer system anymore. Our company still has Windows 98 and Windows 2000 on a few machines, though the majority run XP Pro with minimal specs.
Since MSFT doesn’t seem to care about the average user out there, they better pay attention to their corporate customers and what they have to say.
April 22nd, 2008
Large businesses always had the ability to downgrade to an earlier version, it’s part of the VPA. Microsoft still gets a licensing fee either way.
It’s the hosing of small to midsized business that’s worrying Redmond. They had pretty much let OEM licensing become the cheapest way to do business. I was quite pissed I couldn’t use Ghost to image workstations anymore back in 2001 when they started Software Assurance. That was also when we started to use Red Hat for file servers.
April 22nd, 2008
Isn’t the solution to this whole Vista debacle actually rather obvious?? The solution is actually Windows Server 2008. Microsoft should officially make a “Workstation” role, and release it!!
Now, they have Vista Enterprise which is supposed to fit this role, so if they have problems with branding, take it off the market, and release Windows 2008 Workstation in it’s place, and perhaps brand it “Windows Vista Enterprise R2″. DONE!
Seriously, I hope someone at Microsoft reads this. Corporate adoption will increase tremendously, and even the the Windows XP diehards will want this version. It’s the solution that the whole industry wants…now.