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November 30, 2006
Justification for Skepticism
Article: Microsoft Vista goes on sale.
Today marks the launch of the long awaited Microsoft Windows Vista. It is the first new personal operating system to be released in five years and whether or not this system will success is still in question. Microsoft is heavily relying on its success because most of its revenue and almost all of its profits comes from Windows and Office. These revenues and profits allow the company to expand into other areas to produce video games as well as music players.
There are many reasons why people doubt that businesses will immediately transition from the current Windows XP operating system to Vista. First of all, many companines have no complaints about XP and see no reason to change to Vista. They understand the new security features of Vista, but find that the 2004 release of Service Pack 2 sufficiently fulfills those needs. Secondly, upgrading to Vista can be very costly and complicated for large organizations. Due to the number of computers that would need to be switched, contractors would usually be hired to help, often at a high price. Thirdly, the transition can take years before businesses are fully operating to Vistas. According to Gartner Dataquest, not until 2010 will Vistas outnumber XP on business computers. That is three years of adjustments and possible confusion that businesses will have to endure.
CNN gives a clear example explaining the process.
A company with 10,000 employees, for example, likely has 1,000 business applications, many of which need to be tested on Vista before a company can switch its PCs to the new operating system, said Gartner analyst Michael Silver. That process often takes 12 to 18 months and lots of labor by the technology staff. (In other words, for a large business to implement Vista right away would probably require it to have been an eager-beaver type that experimented with Vista during its "beta" phase that began in mid-2005).
Clearly, the transition to Windows Vista will not be easy. XP has become a staple in the PC world. It will be very difficult to get users to change because they are already so familiar with it. I remember when other operating systems like Windows NT and ME were available, but I cannot remember how I transitioned from one to another. However, it is clear that the transition to XP was far more successful than that of ME. With Vista’s release less than two weeks old, there are many skeptics, myself included, wondering if this is just another repeat of the ME or if this could be a better XP. As CNN reports, I believe that it could take years before people are comfortable using Vista. It will take even longer for Vista to become the personal operating system of choice. I have no doubt that Vista has many new and user-friendly things to offer, however, I currently have no need for them yet. I think that after I work on a Vista operating system at my future job for a while, I will then consider switching from XP to Vista on my personal computer. It will save me the time of transitioning through it alone and the money if Vista flops. With the growing population of Apple computers, Windows needs Vista to keep its customers. I think everyone just wants what is user-friendly and efficient. Vista has had a lot of hype about being just that. I hope, for Microsoft’s sake, that its performance can live up to its hype.
Posted by catchao at November 30, 2006 02:46 PM