Have you finalised your plans for upgrading toWindows Vista? Time is
running out to do so.
Windows XP Pro was introduced in 2001 and
Microsoft has a 10-year lifecycle policy, so
the end is in sight. Indeed, support for
Windows XP Support Pack 1 ended last
year.
Back in 2004, I speculated that if the release of what we used
to call Longhorn was delayed as long as 2007, then Linux might be
just about ready to take over as a general purpose business
operating system on the desktop.
Sadly, it isn’t. (If you think it is, good luck – you will need
it.) That means we are in for a fourth wave of Windows, and Vista
is almost certainly going to take over just like Windows 3, Windows
95, and Windows 2000/XP did before.
So the question is not if, but when to upgrade.
Curiously, Microsoft is not driving the change as hard as it
might. It will obviously benefit financially if companies switch to
Vista and Office 2007. However, Microsoft is making some of the new
features of Vista available for XP and earlier versions of
Office.
These include the Internet Explorer 7 browser, Windows
Presentation Foundation (which uses XAML), and Office Open XML file
format support.
Vista also comes with a classic mode to make the changeover
slightly simpler for XP users. I suspect this is not intended to
discourage users from switching. It is more likely to be about
making it easier for organisations to survive mixed
installations.
And given that most PC manufacturers will stop selling XP-based
machines in 12 months or less, it may well be necessary.
But are there any benefits to moving? Microsoft’s Cynthia
Crossley, who runs Windows client in the UK, says lowering IT costs
is the main benefit.
“It is a business value message. We are getting a lot of
traction from having the information management discussion,” she
said.
The image-based installation and software tools also make it
easier to deploy Vista, so more IT departments should be able to
roll it out before it becomes obsolete.
The second reason is
security, with, too many features to list,
said Crossley. Among these security features, user account
controls, the ability to block specific devices attached to USB
ports, and Bitlocker drive encryption will appeal to
enterprises, especially if they have lots of notebook PCs.
Either way, Vista has improved security, which should make it
fundamentally safer than XP Service Pack 2.
But we have not yet arrived at the hard part.
Today, the business desktop is standardised on Windows XP
running mostly on 32-bit single-core Intel processors. By 2010, it
will probably have standardised on Windows Vista running on 64-bit
dual or quad-core chips.
How many of your organisation’s essential applications are
64-bit clean and multi-threaded? How many of your devices have
working Longhorn Display Driver Model drivers?
Bully for you if you are already testing. If not, you could
start looking for a purchase order.
Jack Schofield is computer editor at The
Guardian
Read more about
Vista
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Vista security 'will drive use in the long term'
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