ARTICLE: Users Not Upgrading XP to Vista (Even with SP1)

Posted May 20, 2008 · May 20, 2008

My comment:

People want proof that vista is a pile of poo poo... and I tell them, you

want proof on a platter? Screw you! Do some surfing and you will run into

millions of

pages that state how bad Vista is and how much people absolutely hate it!

Users Not Upgrading XP to Vista (Even with SP1), SP3 Didn't Do it

ARTICLE:

Over a year after the general availability of Windows Vista (January 30,

2007), and a year and a half after the business launch of the latest Windows

client (November 30, 2006), the product has yet to receive the love

forecasted by Microsoft. While predicting nothing short of Wow experiences,

it is waking up following the availability of Windows Vista Service Pack 1

to the sound of silence where upgrades from Windows XP to Windows Vista

should have been. This realization seems difficult to sink in for the

Redmond company.

"During the conference call my team had on Friday, we were discussing the

upcoming content we are planning for the August-December timeframe. One of

my team members who shall remain nameless stated that most of the customers

he has talked to aren't upgrading existing Windows XP machines to Windows

Vista. Instead, they are just buying new machines with Windows Vista as the

old XP machines roll off the books and are re-purposed, or die," revealed

Keith Combs, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist.

According to statistics provided by Microsoft, Windows Vista had sold in

excess of 140 million licenses by March 2008. Data published by Net

Applications give Vista a 14.57% share of the operating system market at the

end of April 2008. By comparison, Windows XP accounts for a share of 73.07%,

down from a high of 85.02% back in January 2007. With worldwide shipments of

PCs reaching over 250 million items the past year, it is clear that Vista's

growth comes largely from acquisitions of new machines rather than from

upgrades.

"None of the security, network, search, etc. improvements warrant an upgrade

of an existing machine, even with Aero glass turned off so that it performs

on par or better than Windows XP?" Combs asked rhetorically. But the real

question was "Is that accurate? Is that what you are doing?" with Combs

referring to the customers' failure to upgrade. The comments wrote in

response to Combs' post indicate that customers are steering clear of

Windows Vista, and sticking to what they already know, namely XP.

The reasons for doing this are multiple, and they are related to the now

year old problems of the operating system that caused a barrage of bad

publicity. Vista is avoided due to performance issues, compatibility

problems, but also the cost of the upgrade, although Microsoft has

continually touted that the operating system would deliver a lower TCO in

the end. However, the total cost of ownership does not generally include the

costs of the upgrade. But one thing is clear: none of the users mentioned

Service Pack 3 as the reason why the move to Vista was avoided. At the same

time, SP1 for Windows Vista also failed to catalyze a new wave of upgrades

to the latest Windows client.

"Are you running mixed environments of old and new machines with each OS? I

understand for small and small medium businesses that's unlikely, but what

about when you have several hundred PCs up? Are you buying new machines with

WinXP or flattening them and installing WinXP? What happens when we stop

selling Windows XP in a few weeks?" Combs asked.

Posted May 20, 2008 · May 20, 2008

Re: ARTICLE: Users Not Upgrading XP to Vista (Even with SP1)

People "hear" that there are problems with Vista. And that is the problem.

Its no worse on old hardware than what occurred with any new version of

Windows.

I recall when a co-worker told me he would not buy Windows because he would

have to upgrade his memory to 4 MBytes (note: not GigaBytes but MegaBytes).

So he would stick with Dos.

Back then, an upgrade like that would have cost hundreds of dollars, and

that's not even adjusting for inflation.

Another aside, I was watching the 1994 Movie "Clear and Present Danger"

yesterday and noticed in one scene there is a machine inside a glass

enclosed cabinet in an office filled with computers. The machine has a

mechanical arm that retrieves data tapes. I recall reading about that

machine in a magazine when it was introduced and it was the equivalent of 1

TeraByte of tape storage.

I have a 'WD My Book' sitting on my shelf that has the same capacity, and a

few orders of magnitude cheaper.

Microsoft's historical success is largely due to thinking about future

computing hardware. And Vista matches that pattern.

Posted May 20, 2008 · May 20, 2008

Re: ARTICLE: Users Not Upgrading XP to Vista (Even with SP1)

"Clear Windows" <carlferedeck@wizzmail.com> wrote in message

news:48328e09$1@newsgate.x-privat.org...

> My comment:

> People want proof that vista is a pile of poo poo... and I tell them, you

> want proof on a platter? Screw you! Do some surfing and you will run into

> millions of

> pages that state how bad Vista is and how much people absolutely hate it!

>

> Users Not Upgrading XP to Vista (Even with SP1), SP3 Didn't Do it

>

> ARTICLE:

> Over a year after the general availability of Windows Vista (January 30,

> 2007), and a year and a half after the business launch of the latest

> Windows client (November 30, 2006), the product has yet to receive the

> love forecasted by Microsoft. While predicting nothing short of Wow

> experiences, it is waking up following the availability of Windows Vista

> Service Pack 1 to the sound of silence where upgrades from Windows XP to

> Windows Vista should have been. This realization seems difficult to sink

> in for the Redmond company.

>

> "During the conference call my team had on Friday, we were discussing the

> upcoming content we are planning for the August-December timeframe. One of

> my team members who shall remain nameless stated that most of the

> customers he has talked to aren't upgrading existing Windows XP machines

> to Windows Vista. Instead, they are just buying new machines with Windows

> Vista as the old XP machines roll off the books and are re-purposed, or

> die," revealed Keith Combs, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist.

>

> According to statistics provided by Microsoft, Windows Vista had sold in

> excess of 140 million licenses by March 2008. Data published by Net

> Applications give Vista a 14.57% share of the operating system market at

> the end of April 2008. By comparison, Windows XP accounts for a share of

> 73.07%, down from a high of 85.02% back in January 2007. With worldwide

> shipments of PCs reaching over 250 million items the past year, it is

> clear that Vista's growth comes largely from acquisitions of new machines

> rather than from upgrades.

>

> "None of the security, network, search, etc. improvements warrant an

> upgrade of an existing machine, even with Aero glass turned off so that it

> performs on par or better than Windows XP?" Combs asked rhetorically. But

> the real question was "Is that accurate? Is that what you are doing?" with

> Combs referring to the customers' failure to upgrade. The comments wrote

> in response to Combs' post indicate that customers are steering clear of

> Windows Vista, and sticking to what they already know, namely XP.

>

> The reasons for doing this are multiple, and they are related to the now

> year old problems of the operating system that caused a barrage of bad

> publicity. Vista is avoided due to performance issues, compatibility

> problems, but also the cost of the upgrade, although Microsoft has

> continually touted that the operating system would deliver a lower TCO in

> the end. However, the total cost of ownership does not generally include

> the costs of the upgrade. But one thing is clear: none of the users

> mentioned Service Pack 3 as the reason why the move to Vista was avoided.

> At the same time, SP1 for Windows Vista also failed to catalyze a new wave

> of upgrades to the latest Windows client.

>

> "Are you running mixed environments of old and new machines with each OS?

> I understand for small and small medium businesses that's unlikely, but

> what about when you have several hundred PCs up? Are you buying new

> machines with WinXP or flattening them and installing WinXP? What happens

> when we stop selling Windows XP in a few weeks?" Combs asked.

>

It's probably fair to say that a lot depends on your perceptions and

expectations. I know 2 people who speak very highly of Vista themselves and

can't really see what the fuss is about. As both are translators, their

power applications are internet, e-mail and word processing, all run on a

core 2 quad processor. As non of those are remotely demanding, it is

perhaps not unsurprising that Vista copes well. They both like the eye

candy, but freely admit that that they rarely use it.

On the other hand, a visit to the forums of a well known video editing

application shows considerable problems with user trying to edit and produce

high definition video. Of those having major problems, there are two common

factors which seem to prevent the editor working the way users expect, one

is running it on any PC with a lesser processor than a core 2 duo (or core 2

quad for the really demanding formats). The other is running it under

Vista, not because it shouldn't run under Vista, but because Vista hogs too

many resources and leaves too little free for the editor to do its stuff.

I have PCs that use both operating systems (Vista was preinstalled on my

laptop). I find it frustrating that once you discount the relatively

useless eye candy, Vista actually seems to have less functionality overall

than XP (not counting the software and hardware that doesn't work under

Vista - which only makes it worse). I know it includes extra functions like

DVD writing, but this could be added under XP using freeware third party

utilities.

I don't run heavy power applications on the laptop so if pushed I would

describe the Vista operating system as adequate, but I wouldn't mind

upgrading to XP, if only I could source motherboard chipset drivers.

Posted May 20, 2008 · May 20, 2008

Re: ARTICLE: Users Not Upgrading XP to Vista (Even with SP1)

Anyone ever tell you that you have an attidude problem?