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03 Aug 2010
The decline in Windows XP use has been slowing, according to data from Net Applications.
The research firm said in its Top Operating System Share Trend report that XP still makes up over 60 per cent of the operating system market, down from around 80 per cent two years ago. However, its rate of decline has slowed to less one per cent over the past quarter.
Windows 7 users have overtaken Vista users to account for nearly 15 per cent of the market. Microsoft recently announced the end of support for XP SP2, and the operating system will no longer be updated from 2014.
"XP had a very enthusiastic uptake, largely because of the unpopularity of Windows 98 coupled with the extended age of Windows NT," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
"The two biggest factors are how long Microsoft extends support and pricing. I would expect to see some really aggressive pricing towards the end of this year on new systems."
King explained that companies are being very cautious about IT investments that do not show an identifiable cost saving, which means that desktop upgrades are behind server virtualisation and storage management on the priory list.
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Windows 7 is a dumbed down OS
Windows 7 removes a lot of XP features and adds some nice ones. Why should users have to trade old features for new ones? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_7 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista
Posted by: anonymous 04 Aug 2010
Automation can reduce the cost of Windows 7 migration
It?s encouraging to see such a high level of Windows 7 adoption. However, it is likely that some businesses are delaying the upgrade due to the associated high costs of migration. A simple way to off-set this expense is to reduce the time taken to roll out Windows 7 through automation. There are tools readily available that can quickly, easily and reliably automate the migration process of any new operating system, including Windows 7. Whether that is using discovery tools to automatically identify any incompatibilities with existing IT assets or accelerating the testing and deployment phases through the use of a central management system. The latter can swiftly deploy any patches or hotfixes needed in the future. This reduces the operational costs of the infrastructure as well as the burden on the IT department dramatically. - Matt Fisher, Director, FrontRange Solutions
Posted by: Matt Fisher, Director, FrontRange Solutions 04 Aug 2010