Former Vista doom-mongers now singing of sunshine
Last month saw Microsoft slam a report by analysts Forrester Research dubbing Vista as New Coke. Now Forrester has published another report, this time highlighting how use of Vista among businesses is up around 75% since last October.
The new report is pretty explicit in its conclusions: the summary outright says IT administrators “should deploy Windows Vista”. The logic behind that argument seems to be that it’s been long enough since Vista’s release that businesses should have all their software and hardware ready to work effectively and reliably with the system.
The report makes three specific points why it’s Vista time:
- Support cycles for both Microsoft and other software producers make Vista the priority now
- Vista is the best current option for productivity and security
- Firms can be confident that running software on Vista now will make the jump to Windows 7 relatively smooth.
Writer Benjamin Gray (picture right) also gives four possible factors which could make 2009 will be a big year for Vista upgrades:
- Firms will continue to need to replace outdated computers (and the XP downgrade loophole may not last forever)
- Microsoft’s upcoming campaign could lessen the Vista stigma
- 2GB of memory could become more commonplace, making Vista more practical
- XP will be another year older and seem more outdated
You may remember that when Forrester analyst Thomas Mendel (pictured left) threw out the ‘New Coke’ comparison, Microsoft responded by dubbing the research firm as ‘schizophrenic’. Their point is somewhat proven by the fact that the new report is based on the same study of 50,000 business users as Mendel’s commentary. Indeed, where Mendel pointed out that only 8.8% of businesses were using Vista, Gray highlights the quick rise from the 5% figure last October.
Microsoft is yet to comment on the new report, though it’s probably a fair guess that if they do, they’ll be praising the message rather than shooting the messenger.
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August 23rd, 2008
… on poisoning and supplanting standards in order to perpetuate its monopoly. Therefore, not only is there no compelling case for “upgrading” to Vista, it is in fact far preferable to avoid Microsoft altogether. The business world is well aware of this, as the continuing shift to Linux and Open Source clearly indicate. The analysts at Forrester Research also understand this, and their apparent change of tune betrays nothing more than the hand of Microsoft. Is anyone really surprised?
August 23rd, 2008
[Part 1 of 2; see above for part 2]
Microsoft is a dead company walking, and the biggest millstone around its neck is Vista. The future of computing is the Internet, and the Internet depends on openness and interoperability – both of which have always been, and remain, anathema to Microsoft.
In fact, Microsoft is continuing is efforts to “embrace, extend and extinguish” to this day, and is particularly focussed …
August 25th, 2008
Vista up 75% ? Unless that means of course a company has to buy a Vista license to get the preferred XP.
So businesses are upgrading to Vista, and then late next year when Windows 7 is released..they will upgrade again? Whats wrong with this picture?
I am sure enterprises are ecstatic to piss away money on useless upgrades…after all…anything to make Microsoft be happy and damn the bottom line…and those “pesky” stockholders.
Anyone can “cook the books” to make something look like its a “success”. Much like when your favorite football team loses, but the hometown sportscaster praises all the great plays that the team did…despite the loss. But still the team lost, but thats not important in the “hype” of things.
So is this latest “survey” a part of that $300 million “Vista Makeover” campaign? Nah…that would never happen…
At least some of us who still have a level of intelligence won’t buy into this tripe.
August 29th, 2008
I do agree that there is no compelling reason to upgrade from XP to Vista ON AN EXISTING PC. However, as users (both home and business) purchase new computers, they’ll end up coming with Vista anyway.
Since SP1 and the 50+ updates afterward, Vista has improved in stability at least. Of course it doesn’t really shine until people cross the 64-bit barrier…which is starting to happen! I saw a few Vista Home Premium x64 machines at a local Circuit City! Two of them had 4 GB of RAM, while one of them had 5 GB (an unusual number, I know).
As for jumping to Linux, very few people that:
a) are not in the IT profession
b) do not know any close friends in the IT profession
c) do not fit the de facto stereotypes of “nerd,” “dork,” or “geek”
…are doing so. If they were to jump ship, it’d probably be to Mac instead of Linux.