I am going to add my 2 cents before all the Apple fanbois bash on MS.
I think the biggest reason that companies do not want to change is the requirements. It's not that Vista is bad but take for example the company I work for.
We currently run some older Gateway profile PC's and there P4's with 512-1 GB of memory. Thats not going to cut it with Vista. Not to mention the Video card is onboard (It's a profile)
Being the network admin, in order for us to properly transition over to the new OS we would need to replace all of our PC's. Now I am gradually phasing out these gateways and replacing them with Dell Precision PC's. Something that is designed to take that kind of work load.
But until then it still cost allot of money to upgrade all our PC's. This is why I am not transitioning as of right now.
I work for a company that develops alot of in-house applications, some of them dating back to 1999. To transition a few PC's would be useless, and usually its contractual. If a contract ends with one supplier, then they go with another, hand back all the PC's, and start fresh with new PC's. Or, if the lease ends on the current batch of PC's, then they get rid of them all and get a new batch.
The company would have to do alot of in-house testing of all their applications to make sure they are all compatible with Vista, which isnt worth the money right now. And its not that it wont work in Vista, because most (if not all) the apps should, but no company takes the chance without doing a full round of QA and testing before confirming that everything is good to go.
In the business world, OS's are hard to transition to. Its not like a single consumer who has nothing but music and movies on their computer.
The requirements make it bad for a lot of people. I wanted a cheap laptop with a small screen, but the only decently-priced ones start at about 15" because scaling down the components needed to run vista costs much more, to the extent where the models that suited my purpose were either a OSless laptop or a macbook for £600, which is what I settled with.
Several versions could have been a good idea, they need a streamlined edition though for office computers that only see the likes of, well, office, and the general poor like me.
But I see what you mean, Vista's not bad, it's certainly an improvement on Vista, but it becomes de facto next June without being suitable for everybody. And windows needs to be the OS that works on everything.
Some businesses actually maintain the policy of keeping one generation of OS behind, partly for security, partly so employees don't have to be trained so much, partly to avoid non-compatibility issues. Which basically means that quite a few businesses are still in the process of upgrading to XP.
"In the business world, OS's are hard to transition to. Its not like a single consumer who has nothing but music and movies on their computer."
I know this is going to sound like Linux fanboy banter, but if you had bought/written all your applications to work on Linux, some of them might need a recompile, but most (90%+) you could just transfer from the old PC/distribution to the new one and they would still work. Microsoft's old model (and in my opinion the newer model) for the Operating System does not cater well to backwards compatibility. I also think that this is by design. What better way to keep you coming back with your wallet open.
Has anyone had the thing with Windows Vista where after you install the updates, every time you reboot or load up the machine, right after the desktop shows up the screen flashes for a second and the mouse cursor is smack dab in the middle of the screen. Every time I boot up that happens and I f’n hate it so much, it’s like being kicked in the balls first thing before you even start working on your computer.
if apple was truly vicious, they would license out OSX right when people didn't want to change to vista and they didn't want to stay with XP, this would be an opportune time to strike while MS is down
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Drakin @ Sep 28th 2007 4:02PM
I am going to add my 2 cents before all the Apple fanbois bash on MS.
I think the biggest reason that companies do not want to change is the requirements. It's not that Vista is bad but take for example the company I work for.
We currently run some older Gateway profile PC's and there P4's with 512-1 GB of memory. Thats not going to cut it with Vista. Not to mention the Video card is onboard (It's a profile)
Being the network admin, in order for us to properly transition over to the new OS we would need to replace all of our PC's. Now I am gradually phasing out these gateways and replacing them with Dell Precision PC's. Something that is designed to take that kind of work load.
But until then it still cost allot of money to upgrade all our PC's. This is why I am not transitioning as of right now.
Ruben @ Sep 28th 2007 4:09PM
Finally, some logic!!!
I work for a company that develops alot of in-house applications, some of them dating back to 1999. To transition a few PC's would be useless, and usually its contractual. If a contract ends with one supplier, then they go with another, hand back all the PC's, and start fresh with new PC's. Or, if the lease ends on the current batch of PC's, then they get rid of them all and get a new batch.
The company would have to do alot of in-house testing of all their applications to make sure they are all compatible with Vista, which isnt worth the money right now. And its not that it wont work in Vista, because most (if not all) the apps should, but no company takes the chance without doing a full round of QA and testing before confirming that everything is good to go.
In the business world, OS's are hard to transition to. Its not like a single consumer who has nothing but music and movies on their computer.
Ethan @ Sep 28th 2007 4:15PM
The requirements make it bad for a lot of people. I wanted a cheap laptop with a small screen, but the only decently-priced ones start at about 15" because scaling down the components needed to run vista costs much more, to the extent where the models that suited my purpose were either a OSless laptop or a macbook for £600, which is what I settled with.
Several versions could have been a good idea, they need a streamlined edition though for office computers that only see the likes of, well, office, and the general poor like me.
But I see what you mean, Vista's not bad, it's certainly an improvement on Vista, but it becomes de facto next June without being suitable for everybody. And windows needs to be the OS that works on everything.
Ignacio @ Sep 28th 2007 4:43PM
The problem is that this "downgrade option" also has to do with new machines that come with Vista preinstalled:
"Can I downgrade my OEM version of Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional?
Yes. OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms."
From:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:QhRPqUZGi9kJ:download.microsoft.com/download/d/2/3/d23b9533-169d-4996-b198-7b9d3fe15611/downgrade_chart.doc+microsft+vista+xp+downgrade&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a
chezzo @ Sep 28th 2007 4:48PM
Some businesses actually maintain the policy of keeping one generation of OS behind, partly for security, partly so employees don't have to be trained so much, partly to avoid non-compatibility issues.
Which basically means that quite a few businesses are still in the process of upgrading to XP.
Andir3.0 @ Sep 28th 2007 5:14PM
"In the business world, OS's are hard to transition to. Its not like a single consumer who has nothing but music and movies on their computer."
I know this is going to sound like Linux fanboy banter, but if you had bought/written all your applications to work on Linux, some of them might need a recompile, but most (90%+) you could just transfer from the old PC/distribution to the new one and they would still work. Microsoft's old model (and in my opinion the newer model) for the Operating System does not cater well to backwards compatibility. I also think that this is by design. What better way to keep you coming back with your wallet open.
AmazingRobie @ Sep 28th 2007 5:31PM
Has anyone had the thing with Windows Vista where after you install the updates, every time you reboot or load up the machine, right after the desktop shows up the screen flashes for a second and the mouse cursor is smack dab in the middle of the screen. Every time I boot up that happens and I f’n hate it so much, it’s like being kicked in the balls first thing before you even start working on your computer.
ukickmydog (NDF - Earth) @ Sep 28th 2007 6:49PM
if apple was truly vicious, they would license out OSX right when people didn't want to change to vista and they didn't want to stay with XP, this would be an opportune time to strike while MS is down