“Windows 7 Means You Can Start Migrating to Vista”

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I saw this blog post on IT Business Edge. Its written by Paul Mah, who spent years as a system administrator and system analyst, and now shares his knowledge of everything from networking to operating systems as an instructor at Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, and as a contributor to a number of tech sites, including Ars Technica and TechRepublic.

Paul says that “the genesis for the above statement probably comes from the fact that Windows 7 will use the same device driver model as Windows Vista, as well as building on its user interface changes.” This is something the technical evangelists were saying at events back in March, but having said that, I know that with the way Vista was brought to market we lost trust

He makes a balanced argument, calling out the above, but also referencing that Microsoft doesn’t have a good record of releasing operating systems on time. The key points he makes about why Vista and not skipping to Windows 7:

Positive reasons:

  • The big kernel changes happened between XP and Vista. Vista and Windows 7 will share the same core elements
  • Applications optimised for Vista will need fewer or possibly no changes when switching to Windows 7
  • Get acclimatised to Vista and the switch to 7 will be easier

Reasons of a less positive nature (arguably):

  • Microsoft often late with OS releases so you could be waiting until 2011 or even 2012
  • XP is becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of

Of course, some organisations will still say that XP is good enough for them and I don’t doubt that in certain cases. It all depends on what your requirements are.