Enterprises will snub Microsoft's faster release tempo by sticking...

[A Guy]

Enterprises will snub Microsoft's faster release tempo by sticking with Windows 7

Enterprises will standardize on Windows 7 and Office 2010 and will ignore Microsoft's newer operating system and suite for years, research firm Gartner predicted.

"There's a good chance that enterprises will stay on Windows 7 as long as possible," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver in an interview last week after hosting an hourlong presentation at the firm's annual IT conference in Orlando, Fla.

Silver based his forecast on the tactics he saw available to enterprises as they try to adapt to Microsoft's double-whammy of quickening the pace of Windows releases and shifting to a new user interface (UI), dubbed "Modern" or "Metro," that eschews legacy applications for touch-based, mobile-like "apps."

"In a year or two, there will be another release of Windows 8, [and] that will have another release of IE on it. Meanwhile, the Windows desktop is not changing much ... it's essentially on life support," Silver reasoned.

Source

A Guy

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The advice given in the article is pretty much the path I've already chosen other than I will wait longer to upgrade from Win 7/Office 2010 than the article recommended (but, then, I have fewer computers—two—to deal with than most enterprises).

 

[Dallas 7]

Like many others I'm sure, I used to look forward to M$'s new releases. Unfortunately, Microsoft ruined that with their "one size fits all" W8 brain storm.
Like those "enterprises", I'm going to run W7 till it drops or till M$ gets their heads out of rear ends.

 

[Layback Bear]

Microsoft is telling business to shift to cloud and keep up to date all the time. Business's are telling Microsoft NO.
We want operating system and programs in house so we can decide what and when to update.
One wrong cloud update can shut down a business or cost them a fortune to get thing working properly again.
Business's basically are telling Microsoft they don't trust Microsoft to make those decisions for them. Business's like things to be constant and predictable.

Like my grandpa use to say:

Don't piss in my back pocket and tell me it's raining.

 

[jimbo45]

Enterprises will snub Microsoft's faster release tempo by sticking with Windows 7

Enterprises will standardize on Windows 7 and Office 2010 and will ignore Microsoft's newer operating system and suite for years, research firm Gartner predicted.

"There's a good chance that enterprises will stay on Windows 7 as long as possible," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver in an interview last week after hosting an hourlong presentation at the firm's annual IT conference in Orlando, Fla.

Silver based his forecast on the tactics he saw available to enterprises as they try to adapt to Microsoft's double-whammy of quickening the pace of Windows releases and shifting to a new user interface (UI), dubbed "Modern" or "Metro," that eschews legacy applications for touch-based, mobile-like "apps."

"In a year or two, there will be another release of Windows 8, [and] that will have another release of IE on it. Meanwhile, the Windows desktop is not changing much ... it's essentially on life support," Silver reasoned.

Source

A Guy

Hi there
If Gartner says that then you can be 100% sure IT WON'T HAPPEN.

Businesses are embracing BYOD's today and this trend will continue -- makes perfect sense too -- saves the mega purchasing every few years or so and also on the number of individual licenses needed etc.

Of course the extra load on I.T depts is not trivial but still infinitely cheaper than mass hardware buying -- and using Datacentres these days is an increasingly growing trend -- with decent virtualisation you could almost give every user THEIR OWN desktop environment - regardless of the front end devices used (in theory at least).

Gartner is so RUBBISH I'm surprised they are even still in existence any more.

In any case most large businesses usually outsource their actual backend hardware so the Cloud issue is largely irrelevant. These business have SLA's with the provider and the Back end (even if it's a Virtual server or a set of virtual servers) is still under the control of the business - unlike a Cloud system.

Applications etc are still (thankfully) kept in house in a lot of instances -- off shoring everything has not proved a mega success - but these can run on wherever the backend hardware s located - even on Planet Jupiter - provided the network is fast enough.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[DreadStarX]

This doesn't surprise me at all. Not in the slightest.


I knew, the second Windows 7 / Office 2010 were released, they would be the new standard. The latest version of Office is slick, and neat but monthly/year subscriptions? Fudge that! Windows 8 is fantastic for those who like it, but it is NOT a Business Friendly device. However, businesses, like Clinics or Hospitals, tablets with W8.1 are great.

Though, Microsoft is currently on the path to Destruction. I read an article awhile back from Microsoft, that said they planned to go cloud based by Windows "10", essentially. (Another BAD freaking idea). Anyways. My 2 cents,

 

[Wrend]

"The cloud" is pretty much just marketing jargon anyway. I have my own in-house "cloud" with effectively limitless storage, secure active monitoring and control, accessibility from anywhere at any time, using Windows 7 computers and mobile devices (with optionally more OS and hardware compatibility and support), for free forever (well, with no additional costs than otherwise, and provided the whole world doesn't get nuked at the same time).

That's just the tip of the iceberg though. The "cloud" isn't on the devices, the devices are on the "cloud" with their own customizable rule-sets and/or templates.

Kind of tough to beat that.

Anyway, yeah, I'm not going to be "upgrading" the systems I'm in charge of to Windows 8+ anytime soon, if ever, I can grantee you that. I couldn't begin to describe the nightmare doing anything else, as it is currently, would be.

As someone of some intelligence once said: Work smarter, not harder.

 

[Fantail]

Just a little funny but we still have customers / end-users holding onto XP, just now migrating to 7 for the next foreseeable chunk of years. I would say 5% or less moving to 8.

 

[TanyaC]

I have 10 PCs here at home, 3 have been "upgraded" to Linux within the last 3 months, the Server will eventually migrate to Linux by mid next year, and the rest...

Maybe Steam's gaming platform, or Linux, but they certainly won't move off Windows 7 to any other M$ product.

All our phones are either Android or IOS. Kids don;t see the need for tablets with their smartphones, ipods and a laptop.

Windows 8 killed Microsoft in this household.

Any I;ve removed Windows 8 from more customer PCs than I;ve installed it on, particularly business customers

 

[Gornot]

It's too bad really. And yet I just don't understand how Microsoft made Windows 8 with thoughts of pushing it into the enterprise market.

I have a basic low-spec PC at work with Windows 8; it just sits there doing nothing, it has no internet connection, no software, no Metro apps - it was just a fresh install + Java + security camera monitoring software installed on the desktop... and that's it. We didn't bother with adding anything else. Nobody in their right mind actually uses it for anything else and instead we bring our own Win7 laptops to work.

Yes, Win8 is funky and somewhat cool for individuals and common users, but for businesses? Hell no!

 

[noobvious]

I've got a desktop with 7 Ultimate, and 2 laptops with 7 Home Premium, and I certainly wouldn't spend the money to move up to Windows 8, at least not right now when money is tight.

That said, the one laptop might actually benefit from Windows 8 at some point....the AMD E-450 CPU is pretty slow compared to my other computers, and if Win 8.1 runs so well on tablets with even less powerful chips, then it might speed that laptop up.

 

[SIW2]

SteamOS may be quite a big breakthrough,. It is not just for running steam games. Nvidia and Amd are all for it. It is open source. Wouldn't be surprised to see that do well.

 

[whs]

Whether Gartner is right or wrong we'll see in a few years. But their statement that the desktop is "on life support" is my impression too and that is worrysome. For people that do not operate in a touch environment the new UI is cumbersome and will be difficult to accept.

I did stock up on Windows 7 and Office 2010 licenses and should be safe for a few years. I will, however, watch the Windows 8 developments closely with the one and only Windows 8 license that I run under VMware Player. That setup allows me to use it on all my systems (even from an external SSD) which is convenient for me because I am living in 3 locations.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

Not sure all these people realize that most professionals need desktops (CAD, accounting etc.). the trend at professional workplaces is to have 2 (or even 4) monitors and also to get 30"+ monitors. there is no use for touch (unless you want to pretent to be in "Minority report"). So I hope a desktop OS will appear at some point.

MS really screws business costumers. Which IT department wants to update every year? Most skip one OS (with 3 year cycle that means 6 years). Businesses have to train IT staff, train users, validate drivers for thousands of devices, .... this all costs 20 times more than the OS license. There is no way these 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 updates will be welcome.

I hope in 2015 MS comes out with W9 and hope W9 is usable in 9.0 version, not requiring annual updates. so long I stick with W7.

 

[Gornot]

SteamOS may be quite a big breakthrough,. It is not just for running steam games. Nvidia and Amd are all for it. It is open source. Wouldn't be surprised to see that do well.

I am genuinely curious about SteamOS since it's based on Linux. Somehow the idea of Steam breaking into the desktop environment as a media-centered OS doesn't sound that far-fetched at all. Though SteamOS on computers won't happen any time soon, even if it were technically possible.

 

[severedsolo]

SteamOS may be quite a big breakthrough,. It is not just for running steam games. Nvidia and Amd are all for it. It is open source. Wouldn't be surprised to see that do well.

I think Linux in general is about to take off in a big way. One of the big things that stopped people (including me) from moving was usability, and gaming.

You've got distros like Mint and Ubuntu working their a**es off trying to make it usable for "normal people", they aren't there yet, but it's getting there. Yes the advanced stuff is a bit of a headache, but hey isn't it on Windows?

With steam on board for linux now, and many indie games (which at the moment is all that is really interesting me.) also porting to Linux, I think that it might just pull itself out of the gutter.

Of course people have been saying that Linuxes rise is nigh for donkeys years, so what do I know?

 

[whs]

I find Mint (I use Mint Mate) just as easy to use as Windows - in some aspects even easier. Here are some Mint Mate tutorials I made for those who like to venture into that. Just download this PDF file which gives you the links to 9 tutorials.

PS: I highly recommend to install Mint (or any other Linux) in a virtual partition with VMware Player. That makes life a lot easier, runs just as well as native and you can run it side by side with your host system. One of the linked tutorials describes the procedure.

 

[lehnerus2000]

I find Mint (I use Mint Mate) just as easy to use as Windows - in some aspects even easier. Here are some Mint Mate tutorials I made for those who like to venture into that. Just download this PDF file which gives you the links to 9 tutorials.

Agreed.

PS: I highly recommend to install Mint (or any other Linux) in a virtual partition with VMware Player. That makes life a lot easier, runs just as well as native and you can run it side by side with your host system. One of the linked tutorials describes the procedure.

I find that VMware Player runs better on Linux than it does on Windows.

Ironically, I have to run W8.1 in VMware Player on Linux Mint (my version of VMware Workstation is too old to run W8 on W7).

 

[mrjimphelps]

My thought is that many companies will stick with Windows 7, but some will adopt Windows 8 with one of the Start Button/Start Menu add-ins, such as the one I use, StartIsBack.

For those who go with Windows 8 and an add-in, a lot of them will go with local, rather than Microsoft, user accounts.

I would go with Windows 8 and one of the add-ins, so that I can keep getting Windows patches and updates.