Microsoft Windows Vista
January 18th, 2007With the release of Windows Vista, we’ve had several questions relating to this platform and some earlier adopters interested in upgrading.
At this point, I would advise *NOT* installing Windows Vista on any business computer. After a new operating system (OS) is released, there is a period of time where we generally like to let the “bugs” settle out before deploying the environment (for example: Windows XP really started to shine after service pack 2) in a production scenario. This period of time is approximately 12 months.
In addition, there are no tremendous advantages to deploying Windows Vista, if you’re already running Windows XP Professional. We feel that the changes and enhancements are generally not significant enough to justify the cost of the upgrade (product and service time) and with the software in the early general availability stage, you may encounter business-impacting system glitches.
Further, there are known driver and software compatibility issues with Vista and some older equipment and certain software may not work with Vista at all at this point. Over time, companies may deploy Vista compatible drivers and software — but upgrading an existing platform may pose some problems. If you are looking to order a new machine for business use, then I would recommend a “Vista Ready” system with “Windows XP Professional”. If you are looking to order a new machine for personal use, then certainly Windows Vista is an option, but I personally would order Windows XP Professional (the choice, of course, is yours).