Reports: Intel to skip Vista upgrade

[MUff1N]

Story + links to more: Reports: Intel to skip Vista upgrade | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com

This doesn't say much for the Vista OS...If Intel won't use it.
I've been told by quite a few software programmers that I personally know that "Vista is a POS that I will never install!!!"

For any given release of Windows, there are companies that choose to skip it. But when the company is Intel, it's a big deal.

Following a report Monday on the Inquirer, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Intel's IT department "found no compelling case" for upgrading. Ouch.

And that's despite the fact that it's been nearly seven years since XP debuted. It's not a good thing, if your customers are electing to stick with 7-year-old technology. (In fairness, XP did get a fairly big update with Windows XP Service Pack 2, but even that is four years old at this point.)

Microsoft, which once predicted businesses would adopt Vista at twice the rate they moved to XP, has scaled back its ambitions and these days talks a lot about how long the adoption curve is for businesses when it comes to new operating systems.

More... New York Times

Et Tu, Intel? Chip Giant Won’t Embrace Microsoft’s Windows Vista

By Steve Lohr

Intel, the giant chip maker and longtime partner of Microsoft, has decided against upgrading the computers of its own 80,000 employees to Microsoft’s Vista operating system, a person with direct knowledge of the company’s plans said.

The person, who has been briefed on the situation but requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of Intel’s relationship with Microsoft, said the company made its decision after a lengthy analysis by its internal technology staff of the costs and potential benefits of moving to Windows Vista, which has drawn fire from many customers as a buggy, bloated program that requires costly hardware upgrades to run smoothly.

“This isn’t a matter of dissing Microsoft, but Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista,” the person said.

An Intel spokesman said the company was testing and deploying Vista in certain departments, but not across the company.

Intel’s decision is certain to sting Microsoft because the two companies have worked closely to align hardware and software from the earliest days of the personal computer. Indeed, the corporate duo is known as “Wintel” in the PC industry.

Could Intel change its mind? Quite possibly. Microsoft’s chief executive, Steven Ballmer, has few equals as a forceful, persuasive salesman, and he and Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive, meet regularly.

Word of Intel’s lukewarm response to Vista appeared Monday in The Inquirer, an irreverent London-based technology Web site.

Intel is hardly alone in its reluctance to embrace Microsoft’s latest operating system, which was available to corporate customers in November 2006 and to consumers in January 2007. Large companies routinely hold off a year or so after a new version of Windows is introduced before adopting it, waiting for initial bugs to be eliminated and for applications to be written. “But by 18 months, you’d expect to see a significant uptake, and we haven’t seen that,” said David Smith, a Gartner analyst. “There’s not much excitement.”

His Gartner colleague, Michael Silver, said that about 30 percent of corporate customers skip any given new version of Windows. But the percentage will be higher for Vista, Mr. Silver predicted. Gartner’s corporate clients that plan to skip Vista, like Intel, do not see value of this upgrade, particularly since it requires new PC hardware at the time when the economy is weak and corporate budgets are tight.

Still, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be suffering too much from the resistance to Vista by some large corporations. Microsoft says there are more than 140 million copies of Vista installed on machines worldwide. Consumers and small businesses simply get the operating system that is on a new machine when they buy a PC, and that is Vista.

Meanwhile, the Microsoft operating system engine chugs on, phasing out the old and proclaiming the new. The company reiterated this week that, despite some customer protests, it would halt shipments of the previous version of Windows, XP, to retail stores and stop most licensing of XP to PC makers next week. Microsoft also announced that the next version of its operating system, Windows 7, is scheduled to go on sale in January 2010.

[Áedán]

There are lots of reasons for a corporate not to upgrade an OS or an application! Part of that is the cost of training people on how to use a new OS/application. How much does it cost for training sessions for 80,000 users? How long does it take to confirm that applications are not adversely affected by a new OS?

That said, I know of companies that are using OSes that are considerably older than XP (and I mean older than Windows 2000, although I still see a lot of 2K). The cost of moving core applications to another OS is more than they are currently willing to pay, especially when the current OS continues to work just fine.

[Daniel ~]

I think MS largely got a pass on Vista. I know a ton of people complained, but a ton more installed it anyway. I think MS' next OS better deliver, I foresee a great deal less welcoming environment as a whole. Slow, but Linux is making progress. Alternatives are starting to become a practical choice for many as a desktop...a free desktop...spread free over 80,000 seats...

OK guys tell me where I missed the boat? ":O}

[Gizmo]

The argument can be made that Linux isn't truly 'free' (as in beer). After all, it takes a certain amount of time to learn Linux and be able to support it. The same is true for Windows, of course, but the argument goes that there are a lot more people out there who know Windows, and so getting help is easier. In addition, support contracts for some distros (Redhat comes to mind) can actually cost MORE than support contracts from Microsoft, or so I've heard.

In general, though, I agree: MS got a pass on Vista this round mostly because there really wasn't anything else. In addition, those that rejected Vista outright are generally the more technically savvy people. This, IMO represents a giant problem for MS. As you have correctly observed, Windows 7 had better really hit the mark. Linux is coming along nicely and if Windows 7 can't do the job, enough of those technically savvy folks will have acquired expertise with Linux to start really driving adoption of Linux in the general market.

[Daniel ~]

Thank you Gizmo, once again you've rounded out and completed my though rather nicely! ":O}

[cloasters]

I wonder if XP will be sold beyond the said cutoff point? Is MS going to cut off its nose to spite its face? With Bill leaving the company soon the future is a bit rocky for Redmond.