By Peter Judge, 26 November 2007 09:21
NEWS
Almost a year on from the release of Microsoft's Windows Vista, only 13 per cent of companies say they expect to move all desktops to the OS, according to a survey released this week. Furthermore, adoption of Linux continues to gather pace, with a particular emphasis on the desktop emerging.
A survey of 961 independently selected IT professionals found 90 per cent still have concerns about the migration to Vista and 48 per cent have not yet deployed Vista in any way. Forty-four per cent said they are "considering" alternative operating systems - mostly Mac OS X, Red Hat Linux, Suse Linux and Ubuntu.
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But analyst Clive Longbottom of Quocirca advised caution when interpreting the figures. "Very few places are looking at Linux as a replacement for Microsoft," he said.
Longbottom disputes the widely held belief that users will find it easier to upgrade to Linux than to adapt to Vista's new GUI. "It does take a bit of time to find things on Vista but most people do the majority of the transfer themselves and require less than an hour's worth of training," he said. And, while Linux might be free, there could be a lot of effort involved in transferring things like Word and Excel macros, he warned.
Longbottom said: "Microsoft's big problem is not Linux but the difficulty of upgrading desktops to Vista. Old hardware has to be checked, so Vista is a new-build, new-install solution."
Many users are waiting to see if Vista Service Pack 1 improves the situation, Longbottom said, and are worried about software compatibility. "Microsoft has done a very bad job of getting people to sign up to say their software is compatible with Vista."
Early results from the Linux Foundation's annual survey of Linux use indicate that, in those businesses and organisations that have deployed Linux desktops, just under 40 per cent are running Linux on more than half of their machines. And, in most of these places, Linux is more common on desktops than servers - apparently contradicting the common belief that Linux is, and will continue to be, mainly a server OS.
Again though, Longbottom sounds a note of caution. Citing hard usage data of OS' used to access popular websites, he said: "It's still less than one per cent, after 15 years of Linux at the desktop - that's less than Vista has achieved in one year."
Peter Judge writes for ZDNet.co.uk
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Andrew Robb
I recently bought a new laptop and very quickly got fed up with the bundled Vista Home Premium. I have dumped it and am now reasonably happy with xubuntu.
I will try Vista again when SP2 comes out in a couple of years.
2. Mark Hosey
I feel Microsoft has missed the boat with Vista. They have given us what appears to be a technological veneer, a lot of makeup plastered onto the face of a no better than adequate operating system. Vista looks great but it doesn’t appear to deliver much more than flashy graphics and a “Gee Whiz!” user interface. And in order to get that many of us will have to upgrade our PC’s, an expense most companies are not prepared meet. There is little in Vista which will add to the efficiency of their workers with the result there is a low perceived benefit to cost ratio.
It looks to me as though Microsoft have made the same mistake a lot of companies are making now-a-days. They are trying the “listen to the customer” approach but have forgotten that those with the biggest voice are not necessarily those with the biggest pockets. Or perhaps in Vista they are trying to please everyone but instead of designing a sleek thorough-bred horse they have ended up with a rather splendid looking 3 humped camel.
3. Graham Coles
'Hard usage data from websites'?
Surely this analyst cannot be serious.
Other browsers, especially on Linux, frequently adopt an IE user agent to accommodate poorly written websites that won't work properly with standard html. Just because the UA on the web log says it was accessed by IE on Vista doesn't mean it was by any means.
4. Karen Challinor
Windows ME 2007
nuff sed ?
5. Nick Cole
Further to Mark Hosey's comment.
Microsoft may be listening to a 'handful' of customers who are wholly in favour of whatever MS produce. But they are not listening to the majority as is usual nowadays. Mpst companies may undertake a survey, possibly implement what they perceive as the majority solution, and ignore the fact that it does not suit the remainder. And the end-result often makes life worse for that remainder.
The biggest reason for the poor uptake is the hardware churn that is necessary, merely to get back to whatever the standard was previously sufficient. And, on top of all this is the growing realisation that every new iteration produces a raft of bugs and incompatbilities that need to be re-learnt or re-fixed. So it is hardly surprising that not only businesses but individuals want to reap some benefit from their investment before embarking on what is frankly a totally unneccesary change - merely to standstill!
Microsoft and others need to start looking outside their ivory towers.
6. Andy Robb
The problem with most microsoft o/s releases are they are too full of bugs when first released. In the company I work for we are always a couple of versions back as all the bugs/features have already been discovered. So it's less of a risk to the business. xubuntu is good especially if your running low spec machines.