Moving away from Windows Vista, or from Windows for that matter, and onto Mac OS X and Linux, is not an as simple a task as it might seem. While the UNIX-based and the open source operating systems are alternatives to the Windows proprietary client, alt least on paper, each deployment scenario comes with different contexts, generally detrimental to the adoption of either Linux or Mac OS X, overall to the benefit of Microsoft that manages to come up on top. In a recent survey put together by King Research focused on Windows Vista adoption and alternatives, the difficulties of converting to non-Windows operating systems are highlighted, even with 90% of participants revealing concerns about migrating to Microsoft's latest platform.

With Windows Vista proving a dud in terms of offering a real evolution from Windows XP, at least in the perspective of 53% of participants in the King Research survey which have absolutely zero plans of migrating to the new Windows client, some 44% of companies are considering jumping to Mac OS X and Linux. A total of 9% companies have already debuted the transitioning process to non-Windows operating systems, out of all participants that considered such a move. Still, there are concerns in place that could prevent companies from moving away from Windows.

"The challenges reported with managing non-Windows operating systems included obtaining the expertise needed to manage multiple operating systems (49%) as well as the need to purchase and learn a different set of management tools for each type of operating system (50%). Over half of the survey participants (60%) manage their Windows system with tools (backup, patching, etc.) that do not support non-Windows operating systems. Almost half of all participants (45%) cite challenges with system management in non-Windows operating systems as preventing them from adopting non-Windows operating systems", reads a fragment of the King Research survey.