We’ve had our chit-chats about XP vs. Vista in the past. While I prefer the XP, I’m not fanatic about it. But the fact that so many millions are doing everything they can to hang onto it says that Microsoft fumbled on something when they put Vista together. I think their main object was to incorporate much better security features that XP was missing (and had been criticized for), but during the redesign of the program they let the geeks who spend 20 hrs. a day in their cubicles completely change the “comfort” zones that everybody was used to. Like hiding the Menu Bar.
What really hit them in the pocketbook was the reluctance of major business-users to install the Vista program on their existing computers. MS was banking on corporations buying the program by the hundreds, or thousands, to update their office computers and it didn’t happen. Dell still offers XP as an option on most of their home PC models and researches estimate that as many as 35% of new PC’s are downgraded to XP. Earlier this year MS announced that they would discontinue upgrades and maintenance of XP in January of ’09. Then last month they relented and extended full service until July of next year. A lot of industry speculators are guessing that they did that to bring the expiration date closer to a speeded-up introduction of their next operating system that will replace Vista. They’re feeling the heat.
That leads me to a story coming out of England earlier this week when a technology consulting firm had to issue a press release reassuring Londoners that the London Ambulance Service will not be migrating its computer dispatch and control system to Vista anytime soon.
Camwood, an application migration and change specialist (their words, not mine), was hired to study and oversee the switchover and found that: The results of the assessment showed that initially only 61% of the applications would migrate easily to Vista. However, adopting the recommended remediation actions, Camwood was able to increase the compatible applications to 82%. This left the London Ambulance Service with 11% of their applications that required upgrades from the vendor and a further 7% that needed further testing.
A spokeswoman for the LAS stated, “We explored the possibility of running Vista, but have no plans to go ahead and migrate… We looked at what’s in place and decided other things had a much higher priority.”
The Windows 7 operating system is expected to have its pre-Beta release later this month. Some insiders at MS have hinted that the completed program will go public as soon as July of next year.
But we can’t wait that long to get this equipment checked out. While you get started on that, I’ll go make some more coffee.
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