Should we wait for Windows 7?

Written by IT News on 10:02 AM

With Windows 7 poised to begin testing private any time now and the end of the ship by 2009, many business users are wondering whether they should simply skip Windows Vista and all together, instead of waiting windows 7.

Microsoft, not surprisingly, is advising clients against taking on the map of Vista. As part of a new white paper aimed at influencing business users who are evaluating when and whether to move to Windows Vista, Microsoft is undertaking advocating users must migrate to Vista-sooner than later.

White Paper - "Business Value of Windows Vista: five reasons to deploy now" - does not include many new data, instead, it again business functions built into Microsoft Vista and highlights some of the new tools for deployment and the case - study examples of companies which are transferred to Vista. But it does not offer Microsoft's official guidelines for Windows 7 deployment. Paper:

“There is no need to wait for Windows 7. It is a goal of the Windows 7 release to minimize application compatibility for customers who have deployed Windows Vista since there was considerable kernel and device level innovation in Windows Vista. The Windows 7 release is expected to have only minor changes in these areas. Customers who are still using Windows XP when Windows 7 releases will have a similar application compatibility experience moving to Windows 7 as exists moving to Windows Vista from Windows XP.”

Lee Nicholls, director of global solutions with Getronics - a Microsoft integration partner that sells heavily in the financial services and manufacturing - agreed with Microsoft's compatibility warning.

"There might be even less compatibility between Windows XP and 7," based on what Microsoft ends in terms of providing new tools for migration and deployment, said Nicholls.

In the jump between Windows XP and Windows 7 could be a big one, as one of Windows Vista to 7 must be quite negligible, said Nicholls. And given that "Windows 7 will be replaced on Windows Vista, this is not really something worth waiting for," added Nicholls.

In its new white paper, Microsoft also use one argument time to convince business users to upgrade now:

“Historically, mainstream deployment occurs not when Microsoft releases a product but 18 months later. While the mainstream deployment cycle is beginning for Windows Vista now, it isn’t expected to begin for Windows 7 until at least mid-2011. With Microsoft set to release a new version of Windows every three years, there will always be a new version on the horizon during a typical evaluation period. This means that customers should not base their deployment decisions on the anticipated release-to-market (RTM) date but on an ‘evaluation completion date,’ sometime after RTM and dependent on the customer.”

Microsoft pointed out a recent report from Gartner Group, entitled "Windows Vista not miss entirely," the further fodder.

"XP goes life before the (Windows) 7 go," said Nicholls partner. (The main support from Microsoft XP to the end of April 2009. Customers who want continued support from Microsoft will have to pay for it thereafter.)

Getronics is advising clients that would not be in amount throughout their IT budgets just to pay for extending their support for Windows XP, rather than biting a bullet and move to Vista, he said.

This article was previously write by Mary-Jo Foley, click here for detail

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