83% Of Businesses Won't Go Windows 7 Next Year

I don't think it's really any kind of special knock against Win7 if businesses don't immediately upgrade. I've never seen a "serious" roll out of a new version of Windows until *at least* SP1 was available.

Agree with 3vi1. The computers at work use Windows 98.

If they're running Win98... they might just be cheap. LoL!

It's one thing to wait for a new platform to become somewhat stable... it's another thing entirely when you run a production environment on an OS that ceased being supported three years ago.

haha i installed 98 on a virtual machine to play old games.. it's like woo

I still have my Win98 CDs from back when I had an MSDN subscription. I haven't booted it in a year, but it ran great under Qemu, as I recall. I was using it back when ClrMamePro wouldn't run under Wine.

Windows 7 is NOT really a major release. It is more like Vista R2. Or, Vista with all the nuances worked out and additional features. Just like MS did for Windows Server 2003. I don't see how these "IT Professionals" plan to continue using XP when it and the downgrade options to it on new PC's will no longer be available after June. When my clients order new PC's after June I will just have to switch to Vista and update Active Directory policies accordingly to accommodate them. In a thriving business computers need to be replaced or added from time to time and they will have to choose the lesser of two evils which at this point looks to be Windows 7. Microsoft has the metrics for Windows 7 in the wild and it has the highest number of users for any OS beta they have ever released by far. That's why they went to the trouble of showing 7 users how to upgrade their beta to the RC once it comes available.

Depends how good Windows 7 is and what advantages it gives vs old OS's.

I've been playing with it and it's not a big difference (I never gamed on it yet), but my friend almost got double his score in 3DMark Vantage.

My theory is Windows 7 uses the drivers much better and takes full advantage of the hardware though I haven't really played that much with it.

>> Windows 7 is NOT really a major release.

I would love to agree with you there, but I'm not so sure that will be the case by the time it's released. When I first heard about it, it seemed pretty much equivalent to the jump from Win98 to Win98SE. Now, it's looking to be like it could end up hopping a bit beyond Win98SE, but still not to the Win2k level.

>> I don't see how these "IT Professionals" plan to continue using XP when it and the downgrade options to it on new PC's will no longer be available after June

The downgrade has been extended, and even Win7 will have a "Downgrade to XP" option, according to Microsoft.

>> and it has the highest number of users for any OS beta they have ever released by far.

Microsoft artificially caps the number of beta users by dictating the time the beta is available, so such numbers are unfortunately meaningless to us.

(COOL sig, btw)

Who's sig?

Windows 7 better do good or Microsoft will truly be on the path to darkness, good or bad?

        >>The downgrade has been extended, and even Win7 will have a "Downgrade to XP" option, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft has extended the downgrade to XP option through April 2010 but companies like HP have not agreed to do this yet. As it stands our rep (we are an HP partner/Reseller) says that the downgrade option will end in June.

You have to consider the extra burden placed on OEMs in providing a downgrade option and the support that goes with it.

        >>Microsoft artificially caps the number of beta users by dictating the time the beta is available, so such numbers are unfortunately meaningless to us

I dont get your point on this. If x number of copies are downloaded and activated compared to x number of previous OS betas it is easy to calculate the metrics.

>> I dont get your point on this. If x number of copies are downloaded and activated compared to x number of previous OS betas it is easy to calculate the metrics.

But what do the numbers mean? Many "normal" people weren't even aware of the limited Vista beta, and didn't you need an MSDN subscription to get the XP beta? The number of copies downloaded is a function of a) how much Microsoft promoted the beta in the media and b) the fact that Microsoft didn't enforce the original 2.5M downloads limit.

The numbers could indicate that there is increased level of broadband adoption as much as anything else.

That's because the beta isn't meant for the mainstream, just people with higher technology knowledge.

3vi1:

If they're running Win98... they might just be cheap. LoL!

It's one thing to wait for a new platform to become somewhat stable... it's another thing entirely when you run a production environment on an OS that ceased being supported three years ago.

Yeah, but they are not hooked to the internet and they run touchscreen micros software fullscreen so the only reason I even know that is from booting them up in the morning.

Where I worked over the summer they were switching from XP to Vista...

At my work, a local PC repair shop Canampak Computers we have Vista, XP and even 7. Not to mention Ubuntu too. Do that so if a PC has XP and needs repairing we work with our XP machine and vice versa. Makes a lot of sense if you think about it. :)