IT pros prefer old XP over new Windows 7, survey says

[OhioChick]

And forget Vista: When they upgrade, they're going straight to Microsoft's next OS

April 14, 2009 (Computerworld) Cautious business IT administrators are more willing to stay with the devil they know, Windows XP, than risk the devil they don't, even if the latter is the highly touted Windows 7, a research company said Monday.

According to Dimensional Research Inc., which surveyed more than 1,100 IT professionals in March, 72% of those polled said that they are more concerned about the cost and overhead of migrating to Windows 7 than they are about continuing to supporting the eight-year-old Windows XP. Only 28% felt the opposite, that they're more worried about holding XP's hand than migrating to Windows 7.

The results not only illustrate IT's historical distrust of change, but also shows how strongly corporate administrators are wedded to the aged XP, said Diane Hagglund, an analyst at Dimensional and the survey's author. "IT hates nothing more than change," she said, "and in the open-ended comments, there was a clear trend that people wanted to say good things about XP — things like, 'It's been very good to us.'

"There's definitely a correlation between their satisfaction with XP and their hesitancy to move to Windows 7," she added.

Even though Windows XP officially slips into a limited support phase today — seven and a half years after it was released, two and a half years later than for most other Microsoft products — business users rely on it like no other operating system.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131540

[Adelante]

1. I always thought highly of XP

I have a mac now, but XP was the best OS for me before.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. I'm have just made it about halfway through

bible 2.3.0.14. It works much better than the previous version... my sins come off easier and there is much less smoting and brimstone. Individual chapters can be viewed in the classic style or the messianic, your choice, and they can be opened with either a single or a double click.

[sam sarrha]

3. they dont make XP anymore..... what's out there is all there will be

i got a second hard drive and put XP on it.. there seems to be no interest in companies upgrading their Drivers to Vista... that is a lot of the problem

[Warpy]

4. XP was the first OS they produced that didn't give you the

blue screen of death at least once a day. It's still a memory hog, but it's a rock stable memory hog.

Vista isn't popular because there weren't any improvements in stability and it's a bigger memory hog, requiring expensive upgrades to make the system capable of running it.

I've got a backup box after this one dies beyond my ability to fix (and I kept the Antichrist going for five years), so I'll have plenty of time to consider upgrading to Windows 7.

Still, I think the slump in puter sales is the reluctance to invest in boxes capable of running Vista. I think XP boxes would still sell.

[Deja Q]

7. 64-bit Ubuntu 8.10 uses a bit more RAM than XP... (only by 200MB, but still)

I want to believe Microsoft's claim that Vista actively uses memory has merit; but I think it has more to do with them being rather sloppier than usual - the bugs in the RTM, finally fixed in SP1, were ATROCIOUS.

[dbonds]

9. Have you tried Linux Mint?

Based on Ubuntu, but comes preloaded with all the things you usually have to install anyway, like flash, dvd movie support, divx support, quicktime, and so on. Plus I like the menu better, only wish it came with Gnome Do Docky.

[Deja Q]

5. I went to Vista for 64-bit capability and greater access to RAM...

Didn't like the fact Vista eats nearly 2GB on its own (includes Superfetch, but that's beside the point). For anything more than basic routines (word processing, internet, e-mail) Vista is bloat.

Vista might have been Microsoft's way to get OEM makers to go 64-bit. 64-bit rocks, especially with mandatory signed drivers to ensure standardization and stability.

I still prefer Ubuntu and for XP to require 512MB RAM and 1.5GB disk space, compared to 2GB RAM/15GB disk space, the years devoted to Vista (and all the features _dropped_ because Microsoft couldn't get them done right)... something really dumb happened.

I certainly won't be going to Win7 without good reason to do so. Especially as Adobe application compatibility with Vista required a lot of patching (ugh).

Once WINE is perfected, everything is getting ported and I won't be looking back. MS makes some good tools, but the OS is pathetic.

Hated the registry since day 1 too... evil, it is.

[hobbit709]

8. Haven't had any problems with my XP X64

Works better than regular XP for me. Out of 4Gb RAM I usually have about 3.1 GB free. Rarely have I used even 2 out of the 4-and that was with both folding clients running, convervting a mpeg to DVD, listening to mp3's and wasting time on DU at the same time. Maybe once a month it locks up to where I have to reboot.

[bemildred]

6. Really old IP pros prefer Unix, when they can get it.

The notion that you can reinvent the wheel every two or three years while making it "better" is wrong. Real progress is cumulative and not driven by marketing.

[madrchsod]

10. my son thinks it`s the next xp on steriods

or think of it as vista that actually works. it`s the long history of microshit releasing crap then within a few years actually making an excellent product. he said he could finally play warcraft and streaming applications without either one of them slowing down.