What's the best operating system for businesses? If you were to ask Microsoft, you'd probably expect them to preach the virtues of the company's upcoming Windows 8 operating system, which arrives later this year on both PCs and tablets.
But for enterprises still running Redmond's antiquated Windows XP OS, Windows 7 is the logical upgrade--at least according to a new whitepaper written by analyst firm IDC and sponsored by Microsoft.
(Disclaimer: PCWorld and IDC are both owned by the same parent company, IDG.)
The whitepaper, titled "Mitigating Risk: Why Sticking with Windows XP is a Bad Idea," is the latest step in Microsoft's ongoing crusade to driving a stake through XP's eternally beating heart.
So what's the report say? Pretty much what you'd expect.
"IDC found that the base IT and end user labor costs of continuing to support Windows XP is now approximately five times as much as the cost of running Windows 7," writes Microsoft's Erwin Visser in a May 24 post on The Windows Blog.
Yes, but how does Windows 8, with its radically redesigned Metro interface, fit into the business-upgrade cycle?
Visser writes that "migrating now to Windows 7 will set businesses up well to embrace Windows 8 in the future, as IDC found that all indications at this time are that the move from Windows 7 to Windows 8 will be seamless for applications and non-impactful to existing hardware."
Another possible scenario: Businesses bypass Windows 8 altogether and wait for Windows 9 a few years down the road, particularly if the benefits of moving from Win 7 to Win 8 aren't worth the expense and hassle of upgrading.
Windows XP is slowly being supplanted by Windows 7, but not as quickly as Microsoft would like. According to analytics firm Net Applications, Windows XP had a 46 percent share of all desktop operating systems in April 2012, while Windows 7 had just under 39 percent.
Microsoft will end support for XP in April 2014, a deadline that Redmond hopes will spur its enterprise customers to finally drop the aging OS.
For now, Windows 7 is the upgrade path of choice--and may very well remain so even after Windows 8 ships.
Contact Jeff Bertolucci at Today@PCWorld, Twitter (@jbertolucci) or jbertolucci.blogspot.com.
Comments
Adas Weber said: For enterprise Windows 8 is not about switching from Windows 7 Its about enabling a business to adopt a fully managed BYOD environmentThe serious business case is as followsIf your business is THINKING about using iPads whether BYOD or supplied in-house then stop and consider the benefits of a Windows8 tablet instead Not only is an x86Windows8 tabletfar more powerful then an iPad it can also run legacy Windows applications inthe desktop mode Windows 8 tablets could work out far cheaper for many businesses than adopting iPads because iPads would require that your line-of-business apps be ported to iOSor to the web ASAP a hugely expensive task whereas an x86 Windows 8 tablet will allow you to use the existing line-of-businessWindows apps thus enabling a much more gradual and cost-effective path to supporting tablet use in the business