Gartner: Large businesses shouldn't skip Vista

Planning to skip Windows Vista altogether, waiting for Microsoft's next operating system?

For some companies, it's a tempting option, but they need to consider it carefully, or they could end up feeling some pain down the line, according to analyst group Gartner.

Gartner said companies have "significantly delayed" the start of their Windows Vista migrations, with most planning to begin deployment in late 2008 or even 2009, making some think of skipping Vista altogether.

But Gartner research vice president Michael Silver has warned that the next version of Windows, code-named "Windows 7," may also suffer from the delays that dogged Vista and be just as difficult to adopt.

"Organizations that tried to skip Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP often had ISV (independent software vendor) support issues, and a difficult and rushed or forced migration. Organizations that try to skip Windows Vista are likely to undergo the same perils," the Gartner research warned.

For example, while Microsoft will support business versions of Windows for at least 10 years, and Windows XP is expected to be supported with security fixes until 2014, many software vendors won't support their products on Windows XP for that long, nor will they support new versions of their software on older operating systems.

For Windows XP, software suppliers will probably start dropping support in early 2010 and, by 2012, it will be common for software vendors not to support Windows XP for their new versions or applications.

Gartner also warned that, while Microsoft said it would deliver Windows 7 about three years after Vista shipped, "Microsoft's track record for shipping new versions of Windows is not good." The research firm pointed to the delays of both Windows 2000 and Vista.

If the next version of Windows--likely to be a fairly major release--ships late, then companies trying to skip Vista will end up running large numbers of Windows XP PCs longer than they would like, and are likely to be forced to adopt Windows 7 before their vendors all support it.

For companies struggling to build a business case for upgrading to Vista, the analyst house suggested bringing in the new operating system on new hardware only--which means it could take a three- or four-year hardware replacement cycle to eliminate an old operating system and bring in a new one.

But Gartner also said skipping Windows Vista might be the right decision for smaller organizations because they don't have the scale to support multiple operating systems on an ongoing basis, making a full-scale "forklift" migration project more efficient.

Gartner also advised that larger organizations with lots of in-house developed applications should consider forklift deployments, because their developers would be responsible for supporting all homegrown applications on multiple operating systems, which would "greatly increase application development costs."

Steve Ranger of Silicon.com reported from London.

[basraw]

XP Pro has everything for business needs

Microsoft has done itself a disservice by making a stable operating system that doesn't blue screen or crash every 2 hours.

No more reason to upgrade.

I'm sure they'll start a new program, "Windows Upgrade Path" - and start blasting XP machines with reminders to upgrade to Vista!!!!

[ppgreat]

No business case to upgrade

There has been nothing shown to the enterprise to justify
upgrading to Vista.

Increased security? It can be had in XP if people change a few
settings and buy (even from Microsoft!) the necessary software
they have for years.

Eye candy? Not compelling enough to launch an expensive
upgrade cycle in software and hardware.

Office 2007 runs in XP just dandy if you feel the need to go that
route. But again, for the average user, there is no need to
upgrade.

I think a lot of average IT folk just go along with MS's upgrade
path as a matter of rote and, often, job security. Build a
department, protect your budget, maintain your size, keep your
job.

A smart CEO should be busting the chops of any CIO or IT
personnel that toe the MS line when it comes to due diligence
and IT deployment/expenditures.

[basraw]

All our apps run within the browser!

We don't run any must have progams (other than word/excel/powerpoint) outside of the browser.

All our apps are within the browser.

[john55440]

Waiting for Windows 7 - A Silly Idea

First, you wait years for Windows 7.

Then, you wait another year or so for Windows 7 SP1.

And, you wait for Windows 7 applications.

And, as the article notes, while you are doing all this waiting, support for WinXP applications evaporates.

[Ian Kirkland]

Skip Vista

Upgrade to Mac OSX 10.5. You can run MS Office and your legacy
apps in an XP partition at the same time as all the great Mac stuff.
Play's well with others.

[fire115]

Xp support will ?evaporate? only after 7 is out

Windows xp support will ?evaporate??. By 2012?. Think before you speak. If you were a software development company looking at Vista adoption rate it would be a financial suicide not to include Xp support right now? And in a few years you mean to tell me software will support only vista while win 7 is still not out?. silly rabbits. Xp support will ?evaporate? only after 7 is out

[ppgreat]

Well, there's always security concerns...

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/140387/microsoft
_vistas_ipv6_raises_new_security_doncerns.html

[GEBERWEIN]

Skip or wait - a business must. not option.

Large businesses often have to weigh the cost of replacing many other programs or whole networks of equipment they use that works in XP and not in Vista.

A good example is a county government that has a radio equipment vendor whose network and equipment diagnostics and management software is not Vista compatible. Any radio system repairs and configuration adjustments can't be loaded onto a Vista OS machine. By the way the radio system is by one of the largest companies in the world.

But, this is not an isolated case, there are many, many other financial, testing and MIS programs that simply do not work in Vista.

Not only are big businesses and governments in this situation; my own personal home lighting and security system is not yet Vista compatible. It would cost about $8000 to convert over to a different brand. I believe that is a little much to put out for my own personal vanity of having a Vista machine.

The marketing engine will probably force the migration in the future and hopefully by then the software of my non-microsoft systems will have caught up to it. But, for now, both my county government and I will wait until our equipment vendor catches up or Microsoft is a little more compatible with other guy's things (particularily when it isn't a market they are into).

[jawallaby]

Typical Gartner Garbage

Why am I not surprised? Gartner group is recommending that companies should adopt a flailing version of windows for silly, poorly contructed reasons. Shocking.

The reference to the delay in adopting XP failed to remind people that the reason for the delay was that Pre-SP2 XP was terrible. That is almost always true of Windows versions and certainly is true of Vista.

Instead, why not spend the money corporations will waste on another windows upgrade on something useful like eliminating their applications that rely on the client OS for anything other than browser support?

Gartner group is simply another marketing agency for the huge software companies and should be ignored in same way we all ignore spam, home loan commercials and presidential debates.

[Randall Lind]

How the heck can you listen to Gartner?

They said Vista sucks now they telling businesses to install Vista.

We all know Windows 7 will be delayed. Name one product release on time?

[alflanagan]

Since No Else Said It Yet

If you've got to switch OS's anyway, take a look at Ubuntu. You might be surprised.

[iprsvp]

how much did Gartner

got from Microsoft for this. Vista is failure as they tried to mimic the coolness of Mac desktops. that's just one man say.

[sanenazok]

Same story Every Single Windows Version

Hah, I remember people complaining about the requirements and looks of XP (toy-like). There were plenty of articles then about skipping XP and waiting for Longhorn. Now that Longhorn/Vista is here, it's time to skip it too:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035-1040570.html

[JohnH83]

Yeah skip it..ANYTHING but Vista...

At my office we have XP boxes and Macs and one (thankfully)
Vista laptop. While it'd be so much easier if they were all Macs
(our Mac Mini server is approaching 6 months of problem-free
uninterrupted use), at least the XP boxes either totally work on
the network or inexplicably fail to work. The Vista laptop is a
maddening mess of intermittent failures, inability to back up to
the file server--but then it works again!, frequent and random
vanishing from the workgroup, lack of driver support for our
brand new HP printer!, and an utter impossibility to get anything
properly configured. It was so bad that after 6 months of pain,
when we needed to get a new laptop for our accountant for
Quickbooks, I told her "get ANYTHING but a Vista machine." At
least the Macs work and the XP boxes either work or they dont.
So, we ordered a XP dell notebook. Believe us, we would have
got another Mac and banished MS forever but there were specific
functions that only Quickbooks for Windows has that we need. If
skipping Vista is going to cause pain, so will using it. Then
comes Windows 7 and if, history is any guide, more pain.

[Boomer867]

Windows 8

I'm skipping windows 7, Windows 98 fo' life! My AMD 333 mhz processor with 64mb of ram is all I need.

[daftkey]

Thin Clients

What Gartner fails to consider as well is that most "large" business applications where this is a real concern are not run on the workstations anyway - Enterprise software is almost exclusively run through a TS or Citrix session in any medium-to-large business environment.. It doesn't matter what OS the client is running, so long as the thin client can run on it (TS and Citrix both have up-to-date clients for Mac OSX as well as Windows 2000 through Vista, and Citrix has Linux clients as well)

The Presentation/Terminal server software is the real place where the Enterprise software vendors need to watch for compatibility, and they usually offer support for a few versions back (for example, you can still run Dynamics GP 10 on NT Server w/Terminal Services and SQL 2000)

[mjm01010101]

"For example, while Microsoft will support business versions of Windows..."

"For example, while Microsoft will support business versions of Windows for at least 10 years, and Windows XP is expected to be supported with security fixes until 2014, many software vendors won't support their products on Windows XP for that long, nor will they support new versions of their software on older operating systems."

Then I simply won't use those vendors. Vista has no compelling reason for me as an IT manager to upgrade. 2014 is a long time, and my network is stable currently.

[Renegade Knight]

Vendors Will Support Whatever Their Customes Use

If Big Business Sticks with XP then vendors who try to only support Vista will lose business. In the end Vendors rely on their customers, more than their customers rely on them.

[ubnyan]

SP3 for XP

A lot of people I know at work/school have downgraded to XP, bought a new system with XP or are buying New MACs for the Holidays. This sounds like people are well aware of Vista's issues and don't want to buy a new system that will just be slowed down by Vista's poorly performace. Microsoft is well aware of people's dissaproval for Vista. I wouldn't be surprise if - in a sneaky way - they manage to make SP3 for XP unstable and buggy after a period of time so people will then consider upgrading. With all their conditions, difficult adoptions, lack of support, etc Microsoft is making itself a victim of its own practices forcing consumers to switch to less expensive alternatives. Hello, I am a Mac...

[aquariumpro]

Windows 7??? Author has it wrong!!!

These shills that sell Microsoft products don't have a clue. Here's the scoop. By the time Win7 is released, Vista will be stable and worth buying. The smart customer is always one version BEHIND the manufacturer!