Why XP is Windows 7's biggest competitor

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Forget Linux and Apple. Microsoft's shiny new Windows 7 operating system is locked in a battle against the dated yet still dominant Windows XP.

Technology analyst firm Gartner sees the popularity of Windows XP on business desktops and laptops as an inevitable drag on corporate acceptance of Windows 7.

The Windows vs Windows bout, partnered with reduced IT spending and reduced PC shipments, is expected to delay the widespread adoption of Windows 7 until 2012.

"Mainstream adoption (of Windows 7) by enterprise companies will not start until 2011," predicts Gartner analyst Annette Jump.

This will lead to companies doing what Jump calls a "forklift migration" from XP straight to Windows 7 in 2011 and 2012.

"This will lead to a major boost in adoption of Windows 7 around that time frame, as it will also coincide with the next professional PC replacement cycle."

Jump also cites Microsoft's 'extended support phase' of Windows XP through to 2014 as a reason why "some companies might not feel the need to rush Windows 7 deployment".

Windows 7 isn't expected to achieve operating system (OS) dominance until 2012, when it will claim 53 per cent of installed PCs.

The Vista hangover

Windows 7 has met with solid praise, both for its own merits and as an overdue course correction following the widely criticised Windows Vista.

But Microsoft's Vista hangover still lingers. Vista's heavy system demands and incompatibility with some Windows XP applications and hardware saw many companies choose to stick with XP.

The now eight-year old OS proved to be good enough for everyday enterprise needs - leaving Microsoft with the challenge of facing down its own success and convincing customers to step up to Windows 7 rather than stay put on XP.

"When people spend money on technology they want to get a return for it, they're not just purchasing technology for the sake of technology," explains Brian Walshe, General Manager of Microsoft Solutions for IT services firm Dimension Data.

"There's no doubt that XP was incredibly successful. Nine years down the track it's still very widely used, and in this day and age that's impressive."

Working to 7's advantage, Walshe says, is that the operating system's relatively nimble nature allows it to run on existing XP-grade hardware.

"This is the first time Microsoft has broken the link between requiring a hardware upgrade to get the best out of the new OS. One reason that Vista didn't take of was that you needed a hardware upgrade before you could take advantage of it. What we've seen with Windows 7 is a superior experience and performance on up to a 4 to 5 year old year old laptop over XP."

Early switchers sing Windows 7's praises

Australia's Dimension Data is one of the early adopters of Windows 7, which is being rolled out across the company's own Australian staff of 1100 who are currently running a mix of Windows Vista and XP.

"Where the real savings will be had with Windows 7 is taking advantage of the newer technologies around desktop management," says Walshe.

"It's much easier to create and deploy disk images compared to using tools like Ghost. You have the core of the OS as one image and it simply pulls in the drivers for each particular machine, so you're not trying to juggle 20 different builds - you're effectively maintaining just one core image and one driver library".

Other large Australian organisations making the move to Windows 7 include high-profile law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth, government agency CentreLink, accounting software maker MYOB, La Trobe University, the NSW Department of Education and Training and Queensland's Department of Education.

In Australia, Telstra, Woolworths and the National Australia Bank have confirmed they will be trialling Windows 7 for potential upgrading.

- © Fairfax NZ News