Companies Adopt "Just Say No" Policy On Vista, Wait For Windows 7

[SRTDodge05]

GM becomes the latest big business customer to consider rejecting Vista

Microsoft, typically known for a self-confident business approach has been sending clearly mixed signals on the health of Windows Vista that are perhaps indicative of the problems the OS is experiencing. The situation, rather uncharacteristic for Microsoft, which has had a long string of successes, is best summed up in the words of its own executives.

While Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently described that Vista was moving units at a "rapid sales rate", Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Ballmer told executives in a recent meeting that Vista was a "work in progress". The Microsoft designers who made Vista's unpopular User Account Control (UAC) admitted that it was designed to "annoy" the standard user. Perhaps even more revealing, Ballmer, while praising adoption rates at MIX 08 admitted to problems with the OS stating, "we did make the choice to kind of hurt compatibility, and our customers have let us know that has been very painful."

DailyTech - Companies Adopt "Just Say No" Policy On Vista, Wait For Windows 7

[Cogar]

Link?

The potential GM rejection has to hurt though.

[zsaz1029]

Think this is it... link

[Cogar]

Thank you, zsaz1029.

Microsoft is also experiencing severe struggles in the business sector. According to BusinessWeek, a growing number of business are adopting a "Just Say No" policy on Vista, and are waiting until Windows 7, which should be due in 2010. These companies mostly use XP and a major factor for many of them is that Vista is simply not lean enough for their infrastructure.

I believe that this is true for our company. We cannot afford to give everyone a new computer every few years, let alone upgrade everyone in a single year just because the new OS is a resource hog. We are still purchasing computers (from Dell in our case) that come preloaded with Windows XP. We have, however, compromised with regard to Microsoft Office and people can have either Office 2003 or 2007 (their choice). I think that choice is running about 50/50 right now.

[maraud]

Since Vista is now a short term solution as stated by M$ Exec's, any business or individual that purchases Vista now is only throwing money down a rat hole. In the last week we have been invited to the funeral of XP and now the funeral of Vista. I sure hope that Windows 7 is a better product and that the UAC has been eliminated from the product.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by SRTDodge05

...

Vista was a "work in progress".

...

admitted that it was designed to "annoy" the standard user.

...

"we did make the choice to kind of hurt compatibility, ...."

Hmmmmmm. The policies of the company known as Microsoft.

Now you know. Will you support it?

[BoWevil_abx]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SRTDodge05
...

Vista was a "work in progress"....

admitted that it was designed to "annoy" the standard user....

"we did make the choice to kind of hurt compatibility, ...."

These are astounding and damning admissions. Ballmer must be suffering from some kind of foot in mouth disease. Any other CEO making public statements like these would be immediately sent packing by the Board of Directors. He just confirmed what a lot of people suspected. Microsoft doesn't care one bit about their customers.

[Cogar]

Originally Posted by BoWevil_abx

These are astounding and damning admissions. Ballmer must be suffering from some kind of foot in mouth disease. Any other CEO making public statements like these would be immediately sent packing by the Board of Directors. He just confirmed what a lot of people suspected. Microsoft doesn't care one bit about their customers.

This is not the first time he has made such outrageous statements. At the risk of being accused of a "conspiracy theorist" I have always wondered if he is asked to make such statements on purpose (perhaps by someone who wants to keep away from public criticism such as Gates) to see the public reaction.

[maraud]

Originally Posted by Cogar

This is not the first time he has made such outrageous statements. At the risk of being accused of a "conspiracy theorist" I have always wondered if he is asked to make such statements on purpose (perhaps by someone who wants to keep away from public criticism such as Gates) to see the public reaction.

I think Bill Gates is smart enough to assess public reaction without making Bolmer look like an inept buffoon, Bolmer is responsible for the dimwit remarks.

[ctal]

Originally Posted by Cogar

I believe that this is true for our company. We cannot afford to give everyone a new computer every few years, let alone upgrade everyone in a single year just because the new OS is a resource hog. We are still purchasing computers (from Dell in our case) that come preloaded with Windows XP. We have, however, compromised with regard to Microsoft Office and people can have either Office 2003 or 2007 (their choice). I think that choice is running about 50/50 right now.

Interesting observations. And I would add that even if the company could afford new computers for everyone every few years, in the case of Vista what would the company's payback be for this investment (the investment being both the direct costs of upgrading and the costs of lessened productivity due to the time required for user familiarization)? That is the main problem I see with Vista -- Microsoft forcing businesses, IT departments, and countless users to invest significant time and money, with little or no payback.

Regards,
-- Al

[k0NG0]

Where I work they skipped XP and are gearing up for a Vista transition this fall. It will certainly be an improvement, Win2k is a dog.

[Deer Slayer]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Where I work they skipped XP and are gearing up for a Vista transition this fall. It will certainly be an improvement, Win2k is a dog.

I dunno man, win2k isn't a whole lot different than XP IF you get it tuned properly. If you think 2k is a dog, get ready to bark at the moon!!!! Given a choice, I'd rather have 2k than vista! Vista is SLOW on older hardware, I'd much rather skip Vista than 2k, unfortunately your workplace is about to spend a BUNCH of $$$ on GARBAGE. I seriously doubt Vista will make a positive imapct in your workplace.

I'd say so far that Vista ranks with windows ME in terms of products that SHOULD have been skipped.

[k0NG0]

Well, Win2k is unsupported, or is about to be. I wouldn't run Win2k on my home computer, not for a second. Vista has all the improvements of XP plus more (new networking stack). Sure, it's got warts and wasn't a huge upgrade from XP, but if you skipped XP you won't care about that. Win2k doesn't support SpeedStep, for example. Which is a must-have feature in my book.

And who said something about old hardware? The laptop I was allocated sports a 2GHz Core 2 Duo and has the mobile ATi FireGL graphics and 2 gigs of RAM.

Hating Vista has become a religion for some. I'm pretty sure a company wouldn't just set fire to the heap of money it will take to upgrade to Vista unless there's a need for it.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Where I work they skipped XP and are gearing up for a Vista transition this fall. It will certainly be an improvement, Win2k is a dog.

You could go with the just released XP SP3.

[k0NG0]

Yes, they'll probably stop a transition that's been ongoing for months and months in terms of planning to switch to an OS that is EOL:ed before too long.

If a shop runs XP there's no need to upgrade to Vista. I agree completely with that. But saying "we'll never use Vista" and then running an unsupported OS on thousands of machines is, well, unintelligent.