I attempt to be a guiding light on technology that affects your small business. As you can see by two references to soap operas – I do not know where this Windows saga will lead. There are many differing opinions and news stories about the future of Windows. Even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said this about extending the life of Windows XP, “”If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter.”
As it currently stands, Microsoft will stop selling retail versions of Windows XP on June 30th of this year. Microsoft has indicated that they will extend sales of XP for small, low-powered notebook computers to a later unspecified date. It is entirely possible that it will extend sales to PC builders for longer as indicted by a recent admission by Dell.
Windows 7 is the next version of the operating system. Bill Gates of Microsoft has hinted that it could be available in 2009. If they can turn around a good product that quickly it will be an absolute miracle. Some have predicted that Microsoft will leap-frog Vista much like they did Windows ME. (Count your blessings if you leap-frogged Windows ME. Holy Cow)
Your decision should be based on your current situation:
You have a mix of Windows 2000 and Windows XP workstations – I would recommend upgrading the Windows 2000 computers to Windows XP before the June 30th cut-off. Even if you are unable to upgrade all of the Windows 2000 computers at least have copies of XP in hand. One word of warning about the upgrade is memory. Be sure that each computer has at least 512 Megabytes of memory or plan to add memory before you apply Windows XP. This will protect you against upcoming software upgrades that could leave Windows 2000 out of the requirements list.
Everything is Windows XP – This is the common scenario. If you are happy then I do not see any reason to not just sit tight for the next year or two. If it appears that Windows 7 will not become available in 2009 then you can begin transitioning to Windows Vista. With a couple of possible exceptions, I see software companies including Windows XP on the requirements lists for some time.
Adding new workstations – I would still tend to lean towards Windows XP unless you are spending a lot of money on very powerful workstations. If you are making an investment of more than $1500 workstations, then their longevity could pay-off in taking the plunge to Windows Vista. They also will be powerful enough to take advantage of the Vista eye-candy.
Buying new low-cost notebook computers for salespeople – Definitely try to purchase these with Windows XP. I have recently worked on a couple of low-end ($500) notebook computers with Vista. It was a nightmare. To allow a boot-up in less than five minutes or any reasonable operating speed it required shutting off any Vista eye-candy features. When we were done it actually looked a lot like Windows 2000.
Ultimately you usually cannot go wrong in technology with a wait-and-see attitude. Holding back a bit usually gains you a better product at a lower price. This has even held true in the past year for Vista. Microsoft is nearly ready to release the Service Pack 1 upgrade, and they have recently lowered the price for off-the-shelf Vista. I like the mindset of staying one version behind the market. You will usually have a product that has been vetted and is more supported.