I feel like Statler and Waldorf ... observing, with glee and cackling hilarity, the tremendous mass of Windows Seven transforming slowly into a Marketing Train Wreck due to the patented Microsoft mix of hubris and dumbness.

and appears to have all the hallmarks of an overlarge organisation that is not sharing stuff internally sufficiently well and against it's own good?

For home users Vista is OK, it's not worth the bother of installing XP. For businesses with bespoke applications then Vista can be an unnessasary headache. It seems to offer no advantages and plenty of potential problems.

Windows 7 gets you a more modern OS which actually seems better than both Vista and XP. Companies ought to try and use this, it will help them. It can even work on older hardware as good as XP provided you have 1GB RAM or more (1GB RAM is true of XP now).

Microsoft should really stop pushing Vista on people, netbook type computers are better with XP version of Windows and businesses are better with XP.

Why not say that all XP and Windows 7 licences are equivelent from now on.?

All this only highlights how useful is Gartner advice for those that shell out the cash to hear their "pieces of wisdom" It was about time that someone put on the table that their "strategic" advice amounts to little more to common sense mixed with wisdom gathered over business lunches with IT executives.

I certainly can provide the same level of quality advice for a pint. At least they have stopped using those ridiculous probability statements, remember those? I only miss not having betted against them, I would be rich by now.

Common sense advice for IT managers: ignore Gartner, just do what do you think is best for your business. Use Gartner only when you want to support your point of view by impressing IT ignorant people.

Microsoft are still shipping Windows XP with new machines. That being the case, and knowing also that corporate customers are usually slow to upgrade, ISVs have an enormous incentive to ensure that their software targets *XP* and not anything later.

Microsoft have also committed to providing security patches until the middle of the next decade. That being the case, if XP meets your needs, there's no reason to upgrade.

Microsoft also know that this is the same situation they faced when Vista came out, and customers responded by not upgrading. If they (MS) take the same approach as last time, they can expect the same outcome.

And the longer they leave it, the longer others have to polish their support for the *de facto* Windows standard that we call XP.

If for no other reason than the fact they do know how to lovingly treat those loyal corporate customers who have kept them in business so long.

I know my former corporation is already pulling hair and gnashing teeth over this but have decided they simply must remain loyal to the end and "keep the OEM suppliers healthy".

I so love a good clown act and these guys are just the very best.

Since most businesses I know are still on XP and there is apparently NO upgrade possibility to WIN7, they will be forced to wait until they replace all their current crop of pc's in order to move their user base to WIN7. Many are still getting new machines with XP....so it will be 3-4-5 years before they are ready to move to WIN7...by which time MS will be up to WIN8 and wondering why their sales have been so crappy.

it's teh upgrade and migration path stupid!

You can upgrade to Ubuntu no matter when you buy your PC...

Windows goes back to its endless upgrade model, which earned it so much money. hmm I always thought the real money was in support. Heck anyone want to pay me my $100/hour for this comment?

But if I'm migrating to 7, why would I want to downgrade to XP? Surely I'd be back where I started?

Surely you just buy new machines/upgrade the ones you want to migrate, and not the ones you don't?

Simples!

IE to Firefox I can see. But Outlook to TB? And MSO to OO? Within 18 months? I don't think this is achievable even with a fleet of IT trainers holding users' hands.

Even so, I would be willing to suspend disbelief and salute your OSS passion. Perhaps your environment doesn't use any of Outlook's productivity features. Maybe your employees are happy with the compatibility problems as soon as you start sending documents in and out between MSO and OO. But when you say you've got designers ditching Photoshop in favour of GIMP, that's when the tale starts to reek of fantasy.

Don't get me wrong; I like GIMP. I use it at work and at home, it's a really good product. For the price. But Photoshop offers a lot more, and I've never met a designer who's willing to use something else when they've been used to it. Not to mention the fact that any design department is going to face serious problems sending work to printers/clients/anyone external if they're using GIMP.

So I can only assume your story is a dream of how business software could be in a perfect world. Which is nice. Sadly though in the real world that would be a nightmare of support and unhappy users.

PS: The story would've been better with more Paris.

I see what you did there. :-)

I hope AC's comment above is wrong, Steve - say it ain't so!

Otherwise I congratulate you on a job well done - but don't let the naysayers get away with it.

The more (true) stories like this the better

"It can even work on older hardware as good as XP provided you have 1GB RAM or more (1GB RAM is true of XP now)."

XP SP3 runs perfectly fine with only 512 MB RAM. In fact, before SP2 arrived, you could run XP in only 256 MB without it swapping all over the place.

The number of times I see "reps" from companies, in forums, saying that they have only just moved to XP, seems very high. Has MS reached a saturation point in business customers? I haven't seen many businesses raising the Vista flag, most seem to shy away either due to bad experiences or simply waiting for the next MS release. Hardly any even contemplating W7, ours desktops in our shop moved to XP about 9 months ago, about to lose our W2K support. There has been no mention in my shop of W7 save a few who are playing with the RC just for a laugh, nothing serious though.

Apart from OEM sales and the usual diehard fanbois, I can't see W7 being any bigger hit on release day than XP or Vista were. This latest confusion, if it gets into the minds of the CTOs and managers with the already tight purse strings, will not help MS sustain the hold Windows has on PCs. Should be an interesting release, this one!

( Mines the one with the Snow Leopard beta and legally ripped off Ubuntu Live distro in the pocket! )

I look forward to seeing the Windows 7 logo on the departure screens at the train station. It will give me that special M$ fanboi feeling... Knowing that without BG people would have abandoned computers and gone back playing pinball and listening to Buddy Holly on the AM radio.

I've just walked out of a meeting where the licence guys were having a fit about this. Actions so far are to ramp up the "Linux on the desktop" pilot project, freeze all further Windows purchasing and get a hit-list of applications to move off Windows and on to Unix servers, ranked by how easy it would be to move, get an alternative or even rewrite.

Little steps in the right direction, but the mood was clear - the management have had enough of the cost and the downtime.

......Smug mode ----- ENGAGED....

:)

I hope all you other admin's are reading Steve Roper's 'upgrade' path. It save you money and you most probably will be wondering why you never thought of this long ago. Most if not all users on Ubuntu will thing they have had a machine speed upgrade.

Paris because I am sure she to, remains open to the source.

Why all the fuss is made?

Who want to turn Windows 7 into XP anyway if they are letting you try Vista instead? Vista goes much faster than the Linux and it has the extra security pop-ups so this would be your best choice.

Congratulations - you have just put your company on a path to total disaster.

Presumably you will just walk away though when it all starts to unravel?

Is this flame bait? Are you serious? I can't tell if this is sardonic sarcasm or you actually believe this.

One can only imagine how good a world without BG and his Nazi business tactics would have been. Xerox, Apple and IBM all had windowed OS before Windows. "windows" on a computer were popular at the time, That's why the weasels trademarked "windows". Never mind that they got the idea from an existing product, and it was an existing term in use.

Image if FOX news came along and patented the word TV. Has anyone done this yet? probably not, but it's in common use so the Trademark office shouldn't allow FOX to do that now. FOX TV would then want everyone else to stop using the word TV. (Other channels and TV guide would not like that much.) Because "windows" was popular, but only in the small geek world at the time, MS patents it, and now Apple Xerox and IBM all have to stop calling their new fancy OS's "windowed" operating systems. (Was there a court case no, but doesn't mean these companies weren't scarred off from using the word anyways)

I wont even go into the depths of ways that MS breaks standards, and purposely thwarts the interoperability meant to be inherent in PC's. The have F&*cked up standards for C programming language, HTML standards (i.e. only my Arse!) and just about anything else they touch. (Hey Microsoft you don't understand what a "Domain" is). They purposely pushed their Direct3d API over at the time better open standards since it would give them control over the game development market, and lock gamers to their platform.

Then there is the aggressive no-compete monopolistic tactics. MS and Intel both have gotten in trouble in NUMEROUS countries, NUMEROUS times for paying companies not use the competition, or forcing them not to by denying them inventory if they sell competitor products. That is nasty business ethics, and should be criminal. (It is in the US! BTW)

MS has been an excellent business at recognizing other people's success, and either stealing it (disk duplicator, tabbed browsing) or buying it outright (Visio, HotMail, Halo). They have been excellent at pushing the legal limit of the law and destroying competitor companies, only to pay out a insignificant fine to the few executives left at the company they ran under. (Netscape, Caldera, etc).

Bill Gates is a shrewd business man, and if you consider that he hasn't served jail time he is either really good at getting away with crime, or even better at walking that thin gray line of business ethics. He is NOT an inventor, he did NOT create or give anything to the world. Even his old MS-DOS program was sneakily purchased from a buddy, and sold to IBM in a Shelby Cobra style deal that would have landed most people in jail.

If you are stock holder in MS then I suppose I could understand the comment that you like BG, and what he has done for YOU individually.

Even his Damned charity makes more money in interest than it pays out. And Gates has used it's relief funds as a carrot, only giving support to countries that abandon their plans to move to Open source, or in exchange for more government purchases of MS licenses.

Abandon computing!!

I just couldn't let a comment that ridiculously stupid lie.

He has easily set us back 10-20 years with all the Sh*T he has introduced to the marketplace. Let's not get started on the security costs and issues MS boxes have brought to the world.

For anyone who is not a MS employee or stock holder, this is one of the suckiest companies that every sucked. And boy do they suck! Pinball....Jesus people can be dumb!

BTW I have never seen a Windows "Logo" in airport or ATM, only Blue Screen of Death error screens. If this is what you meant and you were really joking... apologies... looked like you were serious. But hey, it is good that people not forget why so many of us really hate that guy.

Well done Steve! The average office worker can be just as productive on open source products and the cost savings in licenses can be redirected to either assist with the migration or training. Modern database packages should have a webfront end and can be accessed on linux, OSX, smart phones and windows.

I have worked with a lot of bean counters who can only see savings in making staff redundant yet fail to see the savings that can be made in free software.

If more It departments could enlighten the bean counters as to the benefits we could stop Microsoft and others from taking money out of our pockets.

...and anyone works in this field knows it very well.

these so-called "IT analysts" are sometimes almost as clueless as financial ones - and that's something.

All these companies are nothing more than paid mouthpieces/rent-an-analyst whores, usually zero or little clue for actually forecasting anything beyond the most obvious.

Yes, going from WinXP to CentOS on a box at work required working the backchannel as GNU/Linux is the Bast**** Stepchild of IT here to get a workstation on the old trashheap headed hardware. Despite that it older generation hardware it's still faster and snappier. More stable I may add.

It's says something about a product when you push, much less charge more for a DOWNgrade.....seems rather fishy. Going to GNU/Linux, NetBSD or other FOSS is the only real UPgrade there is.