14 DAY TRIAL // 20 months after launch and some 400 million sold licenses later, Windows 7 is only the runner up on the operating system market with Windows XP still the undisputed king. The inherent question in this context is whether customers that haven’t made the jump to Windows 7 yet should wait for Windows 8 or not. It should come as no surprise that Microsoft’s answer is to advice customers not to wait for Windows 8 but rather make the jump to Windows 7 today.
This perspective was stressed during the Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 by Tami Reller, Corporate Vice President and CFO, Windows & Windows Live.
Reller said that the way to get to the future (Windows 8) is to embrace the present, namely Windows 7.
Some Softpedia readers might remember that the Redmond company said something similar when customers were beginning to ask whether they should upgrade to Windows Vista or wait for Windows 7.
Obviously, despite the fact that the Redmond company’s position was that embracing Vista would be equivalent to a natural step in the evolution toward Windows 7, the vast majority of users ignored the recommendation.
“(…) The path to Windows 8 starts with Windows 7. It's the perfect time for customers to update their environment, modern hardware, a modern OS, modern applications and a modern browser. Together, we can add measureable value to customers by helping them get to Windows 7, Office 2010, IE9, all on the latest server infrastructure. The time is right now to lay the foundation for the future,” Reller said.
Windows 7 is superior to every one of its predecessors, including XP, and undoubtedly worth the upgrade. I’ve made the jump to Windows 7 as my full time OS almost three years ago, and never looked back.
End users that absolutely need a new computer today will not err if they opt to jump to Windows 7. Upgrading to Windows 8 should be seamless.
Consumers who’ve ridden XP this far and that can still use it for about a year or so, might as well go for Windows 8. If they can afford to wait, they’ll be able to upgrade even months ahead of the GA (general availability) deadline of the next Windows client, since I expect Microsoft to offer free upgrades to Windows 8 to customers that buy new Windows 7 machines during a specific period.
While waiting might be a valid option for end users, the same cannot be said about business customers.
It takes years to plan, test, pilot and migrate a corporate environment from one version of Windows to another, and IT professionals need to be aware that Windows XP expires in April 2014.
“Act quickly because time is limited, and organizations that have not started deployment or in the early phases of the project need to accelerate. According to a recent Garter report “more than 50% of organizations that do not start deploying Windows 7 by early 2012 will not complete their deployments before Windows XP support ends, and will incur increased support costs”,” revealed Microsoft’s Stephen L Rose this week.
I recently had a chat with Alex Heaton, Group Product Manager for Windows Intune, and he emphasized Reller’s words at WPC 2011: the time to upgrade Windows 7 is now, a step on the way to Windows 8.