14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP is a decade and one day old, having celebrated its 10-year anniversary yesterday, on October 25, 2011. Just a few days earlier, Windows 7 turned two, it was released on October 22, 2009.
Microsoft didn’t let the moment pass by, but seized it and used the opportunity to get customers to reflect on past vs. future.
XP and Windows 7 aside, our lives have changed dramatically in the past 10 years. An infographic that the Redmond company released does an excellent job of highlighting just what a difference a decade makes.
“Standing still is falling behind,” the software giant notes, and this axiom applies to operating systems upgrades, including Windows XP and Windows 7.
Microsoft is not denying XP’s incredible value over the past 10 years, but the Redmond company is stressing that there’s no better time like the present to upgrade.
“While Windows XP was pioneering for its time, it’s clear the nature of work has changed and businesses are able to accomplish much more with Windows 7,” revealed Microsoft’s Rich Reynolds.
“Like Windows XP, Windows 7 has seen incredible market adoption with more than 30 percent market share, according to Net Applications. The vast majority of enterprise customers got great value with Windows XP and are moving or have plans to move to Windows 7 Enterprise.”
Windows XP will only be supported until April 2014. While two years and a half might still seem like plenty of time for end users, and it is, business customers should accelerate migrations from XP, because they no longer have the luxury of waiting.
Companies considering waiting for Windows 8 to make the jump away from Windows XP need to be aware that they’d have approximately a year to pilot, test, deploy the new OS, and train employees. That’s nothing short of an impossible task especially for large organizations, if you ask me.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM Build 7601.17514.101119-1850 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM are available for download here.
Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.