Why Vista is a bad idea for your business
Scott Ryan , February 27, 2008
Last year Microsoft reluctantly admitted that migrating from XP to Vista might be a bad business decision. The company extended the shelf life of Windows XP until 2010, the year Microsoft will deliver its replacement for Vista. Most larger organizations have delayed or cancelled their Vista deployments, opting to extend the life of XP for two more years.
Most IT managers explain that Vista places an unecessary burden on hardware (desktops running Vista require significantly more horsepower) and on help desk personnel (doubling the workload for most help desks). Vista provides no additional features for business users. Running Vista at home has a few advantages including the ability to watch videos and DVDs more dynamically. As a business owner do you really want to make it easier for your employees to watch movies? Running Vista on your shiney new home computer may make a lot of sense, but when you are responsible for 10,50,100 or 1000 business computers your main objective is keeping the systems running so that your employees are able to do their jobs.
Our experience with Vista has been very negative. To date, we have not found a single business owner interested in upgrading to the new operating system; however, we have found that some users will stop by Best Buy or Costco and purchase a new laptop with Vista pre-installed without consulting anyone at their company or at Architel. Soon they become frustrated that it doesn’t work very well with their corporate network.
Just a few of the problems these users experience with Vista: Remote access is often limited, security is too restrictive, their new hardware doesn’t run as well as their old hardware on XP, most older and newer hardware lacks drivers for Vista, the start menu has been completely overhauled causing most users to become confused, rebooting takes LONGER in Vista, the new/cool Aero UI is great to look at, but very slow, adding and removing programs is almost impossible, windows compatible software often shuts down randomly, IE7 runs poorly in Vista versus XP, the sidebar is a resource hog, no ‘open with’ when right clicking a file, but at the end of the day ~ it just doesn’t work very well and tends to cause the user to spend more time trying to fix their computer and complaining about having to get their computer fixed than actually using the computer.
Our question to those users who make the decision to purchase Vista on their own, “Why do you need Vista?” We can’t find a single reason for any business user to switch from XP. NOT A SINGLE REASON. On the other hand, I can provide hundreds of reasons not to. It isn’t just us, almost everyone agrees:
Windows Vista Sucks Performance, CRN Test Center
There’s No Doubt: Vista Sucks, PC World
Amid disappointing Vista uptake, Microsoft relents on XP execution, Server Central
Vista is Still Plagued by Incompatibilities, PC World
Mother’s Ire Puts Ballmer on Defense over Vista, PC World
Why People Hate Vista, InfoWorld
Vista SP1 is Even Less Compatible, Slashdot
Time for a Vista Do-Over?, Slashdot
The Pestilence called Microsoft Vista, Inc Magazine
Windows Vista SP1 Problem, Architel News
Quit Installing Vista! People Please, Architel News
