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Windows 7 is Microsoft's latest version of the global desktop PC operating system.

It seems most enterprises will eventually migrate to Windows 7, but they are not in any hurry to do so.

More astoninshing, almost half of the enterprises surveyed are considering a switch to a non-Windows system, such as Apple Computer's  Mac OS X.

This may be in-line with the latest consumer technology trend -  desktop migration away from a traditional PC towards smaller and leaner netbooks running alternative software such as Linux ( and one of it's most popular variants Ubuntu) or the continual migration to an Apple desktop.

The systems management appliance company KACE sponsored the survey that was conducted in March by Dimension Research. More than 1100  IT professionals took part in the survey. The results show that the vast majority (84%) are going to wait at least a year to upgrade to Windows 7. Most beta testers of Windows 7 did give an overall positive review of the operating system.

50% of survey respondants said they were considering abandoning Windows (this is up from 27% two years ago).  The Mac OS X was the operating system they are most likely to switch to.

Some of the survey’s other findings:

• 53% of those who will upgrade to Windows 7 say that they are doing so primarily to avoid Windows Vista (there have been some documented enterprise difficulties in transitioning to Vista).
• 67% state concerns about Windows 7, with 88% of those worried about software compatibility
• 83% will skip Vista and migrate directly to Windows 7
• 72% are more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than staying on Windows XP
• 14% have already switched or started the process of switching operating systems (this is up from 11% in 2008)

On the surface, the trend here is definitely not a friend to Miscrosoft. While there revenues may be growing slightly, businesses and consumers are embracing their technology freedom of choice when it comes to making a desktop purchase. There are an increasing choice of devices that enable the user to perform basic tasks including surfing the web and checking/composing email.

My daughter recently traded in her portable Nintendo DS for the new Nintendo DS1 model. It includes a camera, game playing console, MP3 player, and internet access via Wi-Fi. She does not need MS Windows to do her thing.

Comments (3)

	1. 04-15-2009 13:55
	Thank you Mr. Gerneglia for bringing this survey to my attention. I believe Microsoft will view this as a very important time for the IT field, and may be similar to the days the industry moved away big mainframes (Think master / slave relationships) to that of Client / Server relationships. Microsoft is probably feeling the pinch all the way around. Still, I wouldn't count Microsoft out! They certainly have the ability to make the needed changes to strategically position their company. Registered

John Sane

	2. 04-15-2009 20:28
	Windows 7 promises to deliver on everything Vista missed. Unfortunately, Microsoft has been slowly losing their grip on the PC market and this operating system might save their market share if it can deliver on all its promises. Registered

Jay Rajani

	3. 04-19-2009 07:14
	I certainly hope so for Microsoft's sake. As a longtime shareholder and avid end user of many of their products, in general what is good for MS is good for the US economy.  If you reflect back on the life of the MS Windows OS over the last 23 or so years it has been quite a journey. I recall the first versions of Windows 3.0 would require a daily reboot ( or more often ) to run properly and while technically it was a multitasking OS, good luck running more than 1 app at a time.     I look forwad to MS Windows 7. Registered

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