This week sees the launch of Windows XP, the latest version of
Microsoft's flagship operating system. Microsoft sees XP as its
most significant release since Windows 95. But what do users and
analysts think?
There seems little doubt among UK users that Windows XP packs some
valuable technical enhancements. But these may not be enough to
convince them of the need to upgrade their desktops for a while
yet.
The general consensus is that the release of the new operating
system has come too soon after Windows 2000, which many companies
have just implemented or are in the process of rolling out.
"The big challenge for Microsoft is to convince users they need to
upgrade," said John Handby, chief executive of IT directors forum
CIO Connect. "Chief information officers have put a lot of effort
into switching to Windows 2000 and the launch of Windows XP has
made many IT managers feel like they are on a rack."
Microsoft needs to engage in more dialogue with user organisations
to demonstrate why companies should upgrade and what the value
would be, Handby added.
Mike Loveless, head of the IT Standards Unit at Staffordshire
Council, said he could not see a "compelling business reason" to
upgrade to XP yet, as the council is only just migrating its
desktops to Windows 2000 from 95.
"Operating systems in themselves are not very exciting," he said.
"They really only matter where applications require them, or the
usability of the systems is somehow compromised, for example, where
you need to use security features."
But others in the public sector said they would consider buying XP.
Jack Hamilton, ICT technical strategy manager at Lewisham Council,
welcomed the improved stability, performance and manageability of
XP over previous versions of Windows.
However, Hamilton said any decision would have to be balanced
against the cost of the desktop software and any necessary
upgrades.
"We must also bear in mind the possibility of delivering desktop
services by a combination of XP and other means," he said.
Implementations
While most businesses are not planning
to roll out Windows XP at this stage, a select number of
organisations have decided to take the plunge.
Online bank Egg has upgraded 800 desktops in its sales centres to
the new system, to provide a platform for its Web-based Mortgage
Calculator service. The desktops were previously running a mix of
Windows 95 and 2000.
The service, launched to coincide with the XP release, uses the
remote assistance tool in XP to provide customers with instant
online support. Egg sales staff will be able to take control of a
machine remotely, should a customer using the service to enquire
about a mortgage have any problems, said Dana Cuffe, Egg's chief
information officer.
"Customers are accustomed to using online services, such as
applying for credit cards, without any assistance, but mortgages
are a much more complex matter," he explained.
Cuffe said Egg shared Microsoft's .net vision - supplying software
as a service via the Web - and explained this was a prime factor
behind the decision to roll out XP immediately.
Egg plans to roll out Windows XP to all 2,000 of its desktops over
the coming months and will make more use of XP's customer alert
technology. The bank has also signed up to Microsoft's Passport
service for user authentication.
A number of smaller companies have joined Egg in rolling out XP on
release, including bottle supplier Stride Group, accountancy
consultancy Shorthouse & Martin and lens distributor Firstsight
Vision.
Meanwhile, Cornwall County Council said it will have upgraded the
whole authority to both Windows XP and Office XP, Microsoft's
office productivity suite, by the end of the month.
Public sector organisations are rarely early adopters of new
technology, but Cornwall Council has agreed a deal with Microsoft
for the council to be used as a "national public sector reference
site" in return for preferential rates for the software.
The council will pay Microsoft a one-off sum of £1.2m to upgrade
the whole authority. This will save it an estimated £2.6m over the
next three years. Stuart Pryor, head of IT at Cornwall, said
replacing the council's obsolete Windows 95 and Office 95 software
was a priority.
Analysts
Windows XP is more robust, reliable and
manageable than its predecessors, but there is not enough in the
new operating system to encourage widespread early adoption,
analysts said.
Tony Lock, senior analyst at Bloor Research, said the overall
resilience of the platform - built on the Windows NT/2000 kernel -
is greatly enhanced compared with NT. But, he added, companies will
not change their upgrade cycles simply because a new operating
system has been released. "It is more likely that organisations
will evaluate the platform and, where appropriate, include it in
their next corporate upgrade cycle," he said.
Dan Kusnetzky, vice-president of system software at IDC, agreed
that companies are unlikely to upgrade to XP for the sake of it. He
said only companies that view IT as a competitive weapon - less
than 50% of firms according to IDC figures - should consider
testing XP to see if it fits into their IT infrastructure.
Microsoft has faced a barrage of criticism over its controversial
licensing regime and the analysts agreed this could have an adverse
effect on the take-up of XP.
Kusnetzky said IDC surveys show that most respondents do not
understand the new licensing regime or have not had time to
determine its impact on their organisation.
"The adoption of Windows XP and other Microsoft software will be
delayed until people understand the new rules of the game," he
said. "Many will play the new game once they understand it. Others
will choose not to."
Four things to know about Windows XP:
- Better compatibility
Upgrading from Windows 2000
is straightforward because the program code that drives Windows XP
is basically the same as that of the earlier system. The Windows
95, 98 and ME desktop operating systems are based on a different
code base and software written for these systems is incompatible.
But XP has an emulation mode which automatically recognises these
applications. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all programs
and some may not run.
- Basic configuration
PCs that are more than two
years old will not run Windows XP without hardware upgrades,
because the minimum requirement is a 300MHz Pentium-class processor
and 128Mbytes of memory.
If you only have 64Mbytes of Ram the machine will crawl along. To
get the best results the processor speed should be at least
600MHz.
- Power-up speed
Lab results from eTesting Labs show
that XP will load and run applications faster than any previous
version of Windows. However, Computer Weekly's experience is that
boot-up is slower than Windows 98.
- Training
A new interface means additional training
costs, but Windows XP can be made to look similar to previous
versions. When staff are confident with XP, machines can be
switched to the XP interface.
Additional reporting by CW360.com