Bad Ideas From Redmond

I think Microsoft is setting itself up for Vista v2. Yes, I know – from experience – that Windows 7 is not much more than a point revision of Vista. But Microsoft appears to be intent in duplicating its Vista debacle with Windows 7. Microsoft is angling to make a transition difficult for large users unless they jump on board W7 immediately.

Windows 7, due to ship on Oct. 22, has gotten good reviews as the OS that Vista should have been. And the large percentage of businesses that have held onto XP rather than go to Vista — about half, according to Gartner — are no doubt planning to migrate to Windows 7. But Microsoft may be making it harder and costlier for them to do so, notes Gartner analyst Michael Silver. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” he says.

Microsoft’s potential XP downgrade trap
Under Microsoft’s planned enterprise licensing rules, businesses that buy PCs before April 23, 2010, with Windows 7 preinstalled can downgrade them to Windows XP, then later upgrade them to Windows 7 when they’re ready to migrate their users. But PCs bought on or after April 23 can only be downgraded to Vista — which is of no help for XP-based organizations, Silver notes — and could cause major headaches and add more costs to the Windows 7 migration effort.

Since most IT departments wait until an operating system proves itself viable for 6-12 months before jumping, this strategy seems less than smart for Microsoft. One would think a better strategy would be to welcome all XP using companies to Windows 7 without these, frankly, silly restrictions. This is an attempt to bolster short-term profits with no thought whatsoever to long term strategy.

Apparently, Vista taught no real lessons to Redmond.