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As we purchase new computers we are upgrading to Windows 7. We have a lot of older computers that may or may not run 7. Budget restrictions of course only allow us to replace so many computers a year.
We are moving to Win-7 thanks to a C-Level executive who is an accountant with no computer knowledge, a real layer-9 who read that Win-7 is the best thing since sliced bread in some magazine. All of our new systems now come with Win-7 so we have no choice at this point. I'm not knocking Win-7 even though we have had numerous problems with it, but I feel that XP was the best to work with.
Currently we are 90/10 XP to Win 7 ratio. Through PC purchases and a one time Volume License purchase, we plan on switching that to 90/10 Win7 to XP ratio by the end of September. I know there will be a legacy XP PC or two running some old program in the organization for years to come. Making the 32 to 64 bit jump as well. I would like to see the 32/64 bit topic discussed as I have seen this as a bigger hurdle than the OS upgrade. Supporting both OS's and both architectures will be a challenge. I see the support of the dual architectures to be more challenging.
Glad to see that all this hype on Win7 was just that, sales, marketing, hype, whatever. 100% XP still here. People forget that its not just Office and XP at play here, my org alone is several hundreds of apps that have BEEN working, as long as we stay on XP. There are many that already dont work on W7, and require the vendors to update their software, in order to work on W7.
This change wont happen overnight, specially not for government. For home, we all know thats already happening.
This change wont happen overnight, specially not for government. For home, we all know thats already happening.
We had several reasons for wanting to switch to Win 7, some more important than others, but it all added up to a list of pros that far outweighed any cons. We wanted to stay with a currently supported OS for one thing, but mostly we almost had to upgrade to Win 7 because the document management system we began implementing earlier this year is not compatible with XP. (Well, it runs, but with serious enough issues that it's not worth the headache of trying to get it to limp along with XP.)
At first we considered the time required to train users to get switched over to Windows 7, but as it turned out, they were the first to ask why we hadn't upgraded yet. Most of our employees already had Window 7 at home or on a personal laptop, so they actually saw our office computers as being "behind the times". A few of them even shared stories of how they were actually embarrassed to admit to friends (that used Win 7) outside the office that they worked at a place that was "still on XP."
Since most users were already familiar, I've had to spend almost zero time educating them on the features and changes in Windows 7, and, with only a couple of exceptions, they really like using Windows 7 better than XP. It's a faster and more streamlined OS than XP could ever hope to be and requires far less attention from the IT department to keep it running smoothly.
The weak philosophy of "if it aint broke, don't fix it" is just an excuse to be lazy, and those who choose to linger in the XP graveyard are only doing themselves and their users a disservice.
At first we considered the time required to train users to get switched over to Windows 7, but as it turned out, they were the first to ask why we hadn't upgraded yet. Most of our employees already had Window 7 at home or on a personal laptop, so they actually saw our office computers as being "behind the times". A few of them even shared stories of how they were actually embarrassed to admit to friends (that used Win 7) outside the office that they worked at a place that was "still on XP."
Since most users were already familiar, I've had to spend almost zero time educating them on the features and changes in Windows 7, and, with only a couple of exceptions, they really like using Windows 7 better than XP. It's a faster and more streamlined OS than XP could ever hope to be and requires far less attention from the IT department to keep it running smoothly.
The weak philosophy of "if it aint broke, don't fix it" is just an excuse to be lazy, and those who choose to linger in the XP graveyard are only doing themselves and their users a disservice.
MS isn't giving Windows 7 away. The great majority of our "fleet" are Pentium 4 machines, with just a GB of memory and several years old. Until/unless they get replaced, they're staying on XP.
Also, our WAN accelerators don't play well with Win7 and Office 2007/2010 apps. We're not sure why, but as the machines are EOL, we're not getting any help from the vendor.
Lastly, and most importantly for the folks who write the checks, there isn't a compelling case for spending the money.
Also, our WAN accelerators don't play well with Win7 and Office 2007/2010 apps. We're not sure why, but as the machines are EOL, we're not getting any help from the vendor.
Lastly, and most importantly for the folks who write the checks, there isn't a compelling case for spending the money.
Of course there are viable reasons.
It's not free is it?
Discounting repurchasing, retraining, admin, security and rollout, waht if you have in house apps that won't work post XP. Don't even mention compatibility mode... Then there's what do you move to Vista SP", Win7, wait for Win 8, a linux distro, how and when and where the money coming from.
Place before this one was still using Microvaxes and VMS 5.5 using code written in Fortran 77, sounds silly but the cost of moving on and (windows would be a highly dubious choice to move to in their environment was huge.
If for whatever reason the business puts the breaks on keeping up with the tech, catching up is not yet a viable proposition....
It will take impending doom to force that and a viable market, busines heads might say sod it and let it fold...
It's not free is it?
Discounting repurchasing, retraining, admin, security and rollout, waht if you have in house apps that won't work post XP. Don't even mention compatibility mode... Then there's what do you move to Vista SP", Win7, wait for Win 8, a linux distro, how and when and where the money coming from.
Place before this one was still using Microvaxes and VMS 5.5 using code written in Fortran 77, sounds silly but the cost of moving on and (windows would be a highly dubious choice to move to in their environment was huge.
If for whatever reason the business puts the breaks on keeping up with the tech, catching up is not yet a viable proposition....
It will take impending doom to force that and a viable market, busines heads might say sod it and let it fold...
If you're in a business that NEEDS continuity and reliability, then OpenVMS is probably your best bet by far. Some (clustered) systems have over 2 decades of continuous uptime - longer than MS has been _making_ server OSs! In this case moving to Win would certainly be a downgrade. We skipped Win9x totally (stayed with Win 3.11 a little while longer and moved to WinNT4). However, saw no reason at all to go to Vista, and little (so far) for Win7. We're waiting for Win8 in 2012 and looking at Ubuntu. After all, most work is of the WordProcessor/Spreadsheet/Presentation variety, and OO.org is as good as MS Office 2007.
I have been purchasing machines that have Windows 7 and the ability to downgrade to Windows XP (which most are on XP). After I know every bit of software we use works correctly without errors on 64 bit will I send out the image to upgrade all machines to Windows 7 (No point in teaching the floor XP mode). I would like to deploy Windows 7 out to all the machines now, but doing so would cause a week of teaching everyone what the different buttons look like and handling the most minor IT tasks (an error for security for a web page is an instant call to me), while still figuring out an emulator for the AS/400 without breaking our current license agreements. Now that Client access supports 64bit and works with Office 2010 it helps, but we currently use a 3rd party for web and floor emulation, which is still working on their 64bit version.
Along with a lot of my time that will be drained into teaching the floor windows 7, and all the minor errors they will get; I still consider this too costly and too much of my time wasted into upgrading at the current moment.
Along with a lot of my time that will be drained into teaching the floor windows 7, and all the minor errors they will get; I still consider this too costly and too much of my time wasted into upgrading at the current moment.
1. Cost of upgrading the existing application base - Can reach into the billions of dollars.
- Internal applications that must be re-written.
- Base of existing specialty applications that vendors are not updating.
-- Vender wants you to rebuy their latest and greatest thing.
- Legacy vendor applications that have no upgrade.
-- Replacement applictions must be found.
- Orphan applications that need to be replaced. Vendor no longer exists.
- Software for custom / specialty equipment.
-- Cost of the software update.
-- Cost of equipment replacement where no software update path exists.
2. Cost of Windows 7 licenses - tens of millions for a large corporation.
3. Cost of training. Be that physical costs or soft costs of lost productivity.
So for a business trying to stay profitable, how do they cover these very large costs?
- Internal applications that must be re-written.
- Base of existing specialty applications that vendors are not updating.
-- Vender wants you to rebuy their latest and greatest thing.
- Legacy vendor applications that have no upgrade.
-- Replacement applictions must be found.
- Orphan applications that need to be replaced. Vendor no longer exists.
- Software for custom / specialty equipment.
-- Cost of the software update.
-- Cost of equipment replacement where no software update path exists.
2. Cost of Windows 7 licenses - tens of millions for a large corporation.
3. Cost of training. Be that physical costs or soft costs of lost productivity.
So for a business trying to stay profitable, how do they cover these very large costs?
we all are so use to XP, retraining for win7 or deployment is out of the question: hardware expenses skyrocketing, win 8 it's knocking at the door, are you kidding me, please give me a break!
In our company (public service..!) theyre trying with some newer engines WIN 7 Pro, Office 2010 Pro and some other software-solutions (ACAD - newer version, eg)!
Some of those users are saying, that it will be easier to handle it! At the next roll-out of the newest equipment - there it will be the standard at all the machines!
Im only user there, but Ive some experience with W7! And I could help to ship away some soft-trouble, and the solves from the help-desk-supporters were very often the same as I told them!
Some of those users are saying, that it will be easier to handle it! At the next roll-out of the newest equipment - there it will be the standard at all the machines!
Im only user there, but Ive some experience with W7! And I could help to ship away some soft-trouble, and the solves from the help-desk-supporters were very often the same as I told them!
We are getting more a more uncomfortable with the Microsoft model so we are moving from XP to Linux and using converters etc. to plug into the Microsoft world i.e. cygwin etc. More help, less money and better software.
we are looking at MAC and Linux or thin client and yes I am using a MAC windows 7 failed 5 times still working on that test machine and two laptop with 7 maybe 8 will be better if not
we will run 500 MAC good by microsoft oh ye least I forget near East Lansing Mi. is still running windows 3.11 for work groups network for their machines because there no software update for machines so I was wondering if GM is still running windows 3.11 for robots for milling
we will run 500 MAC good by microsoft oh ye least I forget near East Lansing Mi. is still running windows 3.11 for work groups network for their machines because there no software update for machines so I was wondering if GM is still running windows 3.11 for robots for milling
100% of my customers have at least 25% WinXP computers still around. Even those locations that have completely upgraded all of their main computers have kept some of the better xp computers around. 75% of my customers have 100% WinXP or older. Besides a general lack of knowledge causing people to be scared of upgrading, most do not see the need to upgrade until their systems die.
Microsoft has mostly caused the slow upgrade process. The Win7 to XP downgrade computers that were sold will keep many newer XP computers around for a long time. The only thing forcing people to upgrade now is lack of availability of XP systems.
Microsoft has mostly caused the slow upgrade process. The Win7 to XP downgrade computers that were sold will keep many newer XP computers around for a long time. The only thing forcing people to upgrade now is lack of availability of XP systems.
Is it any wonder why everyone is upset with IT? Where is the nerd that can answer their question? Why does it take so long to get anything done? Why does it cost so much to maintain this stuff that we've long since paid for many times over? Why does my old jalopy cost so much more to run and maintain than my new Jag (of a wistfully wishing nature)?
Having gobs of different types of airplanes only makes sense for an airline. Having gobs of different types of operating systems only makes sense for application developers.
Having gobs of different types of airplanes only makes sense for an airline. Having gobs of different types of operating systems only makes sense for application developers.
Writing apps that work on multiple OS's and their attendant back office apps (e.g. sql server) is a total f'ing nightmare I assure you and it's very expensive.
Thing is it's incremental, going to the board and asking for 10 million this year compared to spending an extra thousand, this year...
Or to your customers and telling them that they won't be able to run the next version....
That's when business gets upset with us, doesn't matter that we are right to propose it (again !!!) , messenger still gets speared again.
Until they see and believe in the wall, nowt will happen, it's called sound business thinking.
Thing is it's incremental, going to the board and asking for 10 million this year compared to spending an extra thousand, this year...
Or to your customers and telling them that they won't be able to run the next version....
That's when business gets upset with us, doesn't matter that we are right to propose it (again !!!) , messenger still gets speared again.
Until they see and believe in the wall, nowt will happen, it's called sound business thinking.
One customer site I've spent most of the last two weeks at upgraded a majority of their servers to Server 2008 R2. At this time, they now have about as many 2008 R2 servers as Windows 7 machines. One issue is that their custom written corporate financial app runs on Windows 7 but requires every one of it's executable modules to be set to run in Windows XP SP3 mode (close to 50 modules and you can't set the compatibility mode before imaging since that setting disappears during imaging). Their 1800 computers are split with about 1600 Windows XP systems, 120 Mac OS X systems, 50 Linux systems and 30 Windows 7 systems. The servers are about 34 Server 2008 R2, 6 Server 2003 R2, 4 Linux, 2 AIX, 1 Unixware and one lonely WIndows NT SP6A. The app running on the Windows NT box came from a company that has been out of that business line for a decade so no upgrade path. The replacements we've looked at have ROIs that are measured in decades so they aren't going to fly.
The ROI is how the server upgrade got approved -- the payback was measurable while the ROI on a Windows 7 upgrade was miniscule at best.
The most important tool for managing security, of course, is paranoia.
The ROI is how the server upgrade got approved -- the payback was measurable while the ROI on a Windows 7 upgrade was miniscule at best.
The most important tool for managing security, of course, is paranoia.
come on TechRepublic, when you run polls like this i am sure that it would not take too much effort to include a 0% radio button so that at least there is a reflection of the stats for those enterprises who have not gone "off" XP. The 'less then 25%' realy begs the question and puts more of a bias on your already non-scientific poll.
It is not scientific and no claim has been made that it is.
Knowing that a certain percentage have not moved off XP is not interesting. Knowing how many have "made a change" is.
Knowing that a certain percentage have not moved off XP is not interesting. Knowing how many have "made a change" is.
The question was asked if it was easier for IT staff to stay on XP rather than move to Windows 7. Well, as an IT department director, I can tell you Window 7 still has a way to go to be compatible with legacy information systems and other attached devices. My company is a utility and we use many devices and interconnects such as portable meter readers, check scanners, equipment control interfaces etc. Non of these work with 7 yet, only XP. The manufacturers claim "soon" but it's not there. This plus the extra overhead required by 7 keep the upgrade cycle long and flat. Why buy new hardware to run 7 if all the workstation does is interface with a i5 or an AS400? Same with word processing, spreadsheets, etc. The only areas that have 7 now are in engineering, CAD, and upper levels of Fiscal and Admin. It would be irresponsible of us to blow the public's money on upgrades when not needed. As hardware replacement cycles come due, we order new machines with 7 on board so it will eventually catch up but not until the software and device makers do.
What to migrate to W7, but my W2K3 Print Server has driver issues with both 64-bit & 32-bit - trying to find a good answer - What client PCs to doubel-click shared W2K3 printer for it to configure and install on the Client PC, just like XP. Tried the upload driver from client, but no dice. Just the first issue discovered and not solved. HP point to this being a Microsoft issue and MS states it HP. Great! On one will take ownership of this roadblock to migrating to W7.
Most of the desktops in our company are still on Windows XP, we have here and there Windows 7 or Vista but they do not work as expected, even some relatively new software that we have is not working on 100% and until that's fixed there is no way Win7 to be rolled out on large scale.
What is the point buying new OS - rolling it out and telling the user - well that application that you use every day is not really working
, I can't fixed it and I am not sure when that will be done, so enjoy your new Desktop OS - it is pretty isn't it
What is the point buying new OS - rolling it out and telling the user - well that application that you use every day is not really working
, I can't fixed it and I am not sure when that will be done, so enjoy your new Desktop OS - it is pretty isn't it 
Everything is Win 7 and Server 2008 R2 and Forefront TMG. Help Desk calls are down 70%. More GPOs can create a better pleasure - pain balance. We have public network access also. Maybe different setup from most other setups. TMG was made for comfort.
I can't be more than proud, my company, a goverment istitution with nation wide presence in a third world country has about 50 percent of it's infrastructure running vista, 25% XP and about 20% win7. But most of our servers still running W2K3 R2 only 5% W2K8.
I'm talking about 4K equipments.
I'm talking about 4K equipments.
It really seems like better tools are needed. Microsoft has released new technologies, but the free tools like MDT are hard to use and the premium tools like SCCM are so complex we're left with Ghost, which is horrible with this dribbling style of OS migration supporting multiple OSes on multiple devices. What the IT world needs is a fast, simple tool that will use one environment to deploy any OS to any device, which I realize is nearly impossible. Closest thing we've seen is smartdeploy.com. This issue needs more coverage and desktop virtualization needs less.
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