A number of companies are opting not to embrace Redmond's latest operating system and, like GM, are waiting for Windows 7 instead.

General Motors (GM) may take a detour around Vista, the latest computer operating system from Microsoft (MSFT). The automaker has encountered so many speed bumps getting Vista to work on its machines that it may just wait for the next version of Windows, due in 2010 or 2011. "We're considering bypassing Vista and going straight to Windows 7," says GM's Chief Systems & Technology Officer Fred Killeen.

Vista taxes all but the most modern PCs with hefty processing and memory requirements. Many of GM's PCs can't even run the system. "By the time we'd replace them, Windows 7 might be ready anyway," Killeen says. Then there are compatibility problems with all the software that needs to run on Windows. GM's software vendors still haven't ensured all their programs will run on Vista trouble-free. So the company is sticking with Windows XP for now. Killeen figures GM could install Windows 7 in three or four years.

Read the whole article: Business Week

we all knew the companies would do this anyways.

Ugh. I hate when they say "Microsoft Vista". It's not "Microsoft XP", or "Microsoft 2000", it's Windows XP and Windows 2000. Likewise, it's "Windows Vista".

Unrelated I know.

As for the article, it's not uncommon for companies to skip entire OS revisions. Many businesses skipped Win2K and jumped into XP. When you have a 3 year release cycle (as is the case with Windows 7), that's just what happens.

Vista is Microsoft's epic fail.

It is better than Windows ME.

I guess, then, that I'm running Microsoft's "Epic Fail" flawlessly, on x64 no less. Amazing.

2nded on the "Microsoft Vista" thing. I've heard a lot of people say it about XP, too, and actually have heard a disconcerting many people say "I got a new computer, it's a Dell XP with Office and Comcast, and I..."

It makes me want to cry.

And stab things.

Windows ME was really a bad purchase for me.

I don't agree that Windows Vista 'sucks' but I can see why Corporate's would skip the product.

There is nothing wrong with Vista, it seems GM has a poor IT department if you ask me.

Lots of big enterprises skipped XP and are in the process of moving to Vista from Windows 2000. This happens all the time, it's not really news...

You have no idea how true that is. I know because I work for a company that provides hardware, software, network solutions to dealerships. I will leave it at that. Don't believe me? Ask any GM dealership.

Companies don't want to spend allot of money on comp hardware to get it running up to speed.

Simple as that. Vista is a terrific OS it just has this bloat on pre-modern machines

It's their business if they want to wait, it's not our job to convince anyone.

It's so silly that people can bash Vista so easily, i think the OS is wonderful. I love it.

I can understand the thing about not being able to update their pcs to properly run Vista.

more of GM's fault for sucking so much, and having such low sales. I don't think this looks negatively on Vista at all, because I think Vista is a awesome, powerful OS, you only need a proper system to run it.

Once GM finds a way to sell a car for cheap that doesn't eat up gas, then they could possibly afford good computers. I bet you Toyota and Handa have Vista on their machines

Most companies dont upgrade to an os. They will get new os's either when they have to because of support or when a pc comes with it installed.

Companies rarely upgrade to an os just because its better.

I feel the need to remind people that they're forgetting that windows 7 will be a MINOR upgrade to windows vista....... so if they think they're gonna get something MUCH different from Vista, they've got another thing coming

I'm waiting till a actual change in Windows happens, it was almost like the just renamed everything for Vista, and slapped on a new Template. (Yes i know there is a bit more)

Hopefully Windows 7 is more of a jump than a step in a new direction.

Its not only a few companies in the US, theres a ton of corporations worldwide as well as government agencies that are opting not to use Vista. Not to mention the majority of gaming and enthusiast users.

What makes them think Windows 7 will be any better for them? Granted it probably WILL be, but I don't see why they're skipping over the constantly improving Vista and going to dive head first into a new OS that'll surely have more compatibility issues than Vista will at that time.



Your posts are getting more and more ridiculous. You've met the majority of gaming and enthusiast users now? The gap between gaming in XP and gaming in Vista in terms of playability/framerates/compatibility has shrunk to the point where it's insignificant. And what defines "enthusiast" users? To me, an enthusiast is someone who likes to try new things, not like you, lost in 2001 with Windows eXPired.

Corporations with large networks don't upgrade quickly. The last corporation I worked for was still using NT4 two years after XP came out. They don't want to have to fool with configurations and upgrades that might affect profits. It has no reflection on the quality of the operating system they use. The Home Depot near my house is still using Windows 2000 on their registers. Does that mean XP is bad? No, it means 2000 still works.

Well according to Steams regularly updated hardware survey 80% of gamers out of 1.7 million hardware scans are still using XP. Go to any builders forum like NCIX's and post a Vista thread and you will see that the general consensus amongst builders\enthusiasts is that Vista is less than stellar. You act like I'm just one person making this up out of a personal vendetta against Vista, I use two different versions of Vista and I agree that its a lousy os especially after a 6 year stint using the same os, Vista comes along and offers nothing that we can't do with XP and at a cost of high overhead.

There is nothing wrong with Windows Vista. Companies don't want to buy new hardware....The economy is not doing so great right now. So why would a company be stupid and put money into upgrading right now? Hopefully the economy will be better when Windows 7 comes out.


And for those Vista complainers….A person with a 4 year old Mac would not upgrade to Leopard due to the hardware requirements needed for performance. The same goes for Vista.


Thank you

No, it's not. Not even close.

Why would they upgrade to a new os who just looks better and smells bad? Vista has nothing more than xp to offer for companies productivity. They are really smart on not buying this thing, wait for a decent release with some value added, not a cosmetic barbie doll.

Partially wrong.....it's..... if it works fine then don't touch it.....It's all about Money(hardware, testing, Labor, ext.)

lol what

Windows Seven a.k.a. Windows Vista Second Edition.

There's nothing wrong with Vista, at least in my opinion. I have ran it since it was released RTM to their beta testers and the only major problems that I caused were my own fault.

I won't deny that Vista has heavier system requirements than XP, but XP had heavier system requirements than 98 or 2000 did, and was also greeted with the same warm reception that Vista has gotten. The only difference is that Microsoft dropped support for 98 and 2000 and that scared a lot of companies over to XP, and that is what it's going to take to get companies to switch to Vista or even Windows Seven.

I'm sure that Seven won't have as huge of a system requirement that Vista has, but the days of a new OS running on 128 or even 256MB of RAM and a DX8 card are long gone, and the major corporations will hopefully realize that.
What are they, as well as the general population, going to do when Seven is released and it is going to require a minimum 1GB of RAM or 10 - 15GB of hard drive space as well as a DX10 video card to run? Start a revolt against Seven also?

I'm willing to bet that Seven will not be as light on resources or minimum system requirements as what Microsoft is hoping for. I realize that Uncle Bill has said that Seven won't be as big of a resource hog that Vista is, but does anyone really expect that it will run on less than 1GB of RAM? Even XP doesn't like to run smooth on less than that!

OK, I'll climb back down from my soapbox now and await the continuation of the Vista bashing that is bound to happen, and anxiously await the bashing of Windows Seven to begin in a couple of years.

If the OS isn't going to do anything to increase productivity and reliability then its just good business sense. Personally, I run Vista Business x64 and like it very much, but TBO, it hasn't added much to my "experience" as Microsoft would call it other than eye candy. Previous Versions, Full image backups additional security and search functions are nice, but Big Corps like GM are going to be using Enterprise grade solutions in place of these anyway. Waiting for Windows 7 aka "Vista refined" is probably the way to go for most. When my friends ask if Vista is worth buying, I tell them its nice, list some of its features and then tell them to wait and get it with a new PC. Most of them want it cause its the newest thing out, not because its going to do anything for them that XP isn't doing already.

Thats just it, to me thats fine if an os requires more overhead, great...but I want something in exchange for it, sadly thats not the case with Vista, its a high overhead in exchange for what? Fancier looks? I could skin XP to look even better so big deal.

I am seriously baffled at how people can mock something they know nothing about. I mean seriously, all you know is its internal/working name. So where does this "a.k.a Windows Vista Second Edition" stuff come from?

Ok. I think mocking Vista being an Epic Fail etc. is stupid.
Sure I felt a bit like that previously, but I learned from it.
I only posted this thread because I found the article interesting, not that I'm a Vista hater. Just to set the record straight.

I wish I could find that picture, where the guy is holding both hands out. in 1 hand he had a gun. I the other hand he had a box of bullets. The picture had the caption "You suck at life".

Anyway that sums that up.

As for the businesses that you say skip XP and go right to vista, I only have one question. Are these companies then replacing large quantities of workstations? Because if their current workstations are running a 1999 - 2000 operating system, they can hardly install vista on that type of hardware.

Welcome to the Internet circa 2008, where every tard has an opinion, and they aren't afraid to voice it.

Somewhere some idiot started the whole "Vista is ME" thing, and ever since, there have been literally millions of empty-headed parrots who repeat this line because it's "FUNNY LOL!!!". Making fun of Vista is a hobby for people who don't actually understand anything about tech, like Mac users and 15 year olds. Just ignore it, and buckle down for more of the same when Windows Seven comes out "Windows 7 is Vista SP2 or Vista SE LOL!!".

Is this really news? This have been the case since Windows 95/98. It have more to do with priorites and economy than the OS. It's quite normal for companies to skip a cycle.



Ignorance

I think I said it before in another thread. You get Internet Points for hating Microsoft.

I was unsure of Vista at first. Since using it at home though I have come to quite like it. Although running it on a single core CPU would be out of the question for me.

It's sort of reminded me of my 2000 to XP leap though. I hated XP but now it's rock solid and fast. Hopefully now Windows 2008 is starting to become more mainstream we might see more businesses start to use Vista.

We fully tested vista to see how business ready Vista is and we're taking the same route. We've found that it's hardware requirements are too taxing, almost all of our client machines out there have 1gb ram which vista just does not run well on. We've also found that from an administration point of view it's a nightmare and the OS was just rushed and is still quite buggy.

If they can pull off something special with SP2 it might be a possibility but it's just not business ready. As a home os it's not *too* bad.

tsts, this is their problem and will be their problem when Windows 7 comes around. "their PCs don't even run Windows Vista". what does that mean? Their hardware is outdated. blame it on Microsoft. Sooner or later you have to upgrade to be able to run the most recent software and OS.
This article is clearly not about Windows Vista or not. It's about a company that needs to total system upgrade to replace their old junk that cannot even run Vista. Vista seems just a cover up.

Instead of making these silly points I suggest to go back to Windows 98. that's apparently what you deserve.

Here is what happens with some government places. First you replace all hardware to ensure minimum requirements are met. Then you roll out the new operating system. This is standard procedure. It's quite embarrassing to hear this bull from a big company like this.

tsts

General Motors (GM) = wanke.rs

I am always flabbergasted when companies make global I.T. decisions on a product which is very very far from being finished and only a very few people have got their hands on.

They wont update their software to work with Vista and they think it will work with Windows 7?

Windows 7 and everything after that will be based on Windows Vista. Better change stuff NOW.

XP is dead.

Oh such huge news... we went from 95 to 98R2 (yes skipped the main version) skipped ME and went to W2K then skipped the first SP of XP and went to XP SP2 at work... companies skip revisions all the time... you know how much time it takes to roll out a new version? every other version is a common trend in companies

XP is far from dead for businesses it is supported to 2014, and the hardware requirements for Vista is to much to make it cost effective.

Most companies work on a if it is not broken don't fix it.

So, to sum up:

General Motors are on a technology refresh cycle that doesn't tie in with the Microsoft release schedule.

Wow! ZOMG! !!!!!11111 One!

What is the need to upgrade to Vista when XP does everything they need. Common sense would tell you there's no reason to spend a gazillion dollars on new computers then.

Besides, haven't you heard how bad the economy and the auto industry are doing? Now they have 2 reasons not to upgrade.

Besides the fact of Vista being more like a Me version!

Yeah but that's the logical way to look at it. You're spoiling the fun for people who want to bash Vista if you put it that way...

The IT decisions large companies make really has no bearing on those that home users might make. It's a completely different ball game and says little about the OS. I think a lot of the problems Vista has is that it didn't live up to the infinite levels of hype and unrealistic expectations. Maybe that's MS's fault but I'd also be tempted to blame a lot of users who expected it to also wash the dishes for them.

Another thing, I think that they made a lot of changes, so there is little back compatibility with XP? Is that right? If so, they did it in order to move forward and make progress toward a modern system. Naturally this will make it harder to switch over. But people seem to expect the brand new Vista to be all new and different and do fancy things, while being the same as XP for hardware and software compatibility



What confuses me is that people expect a fancy new system wtih extra features, but without greater hardware requirements. Am I the only person who finds that irrational? I guess it's just bashing for the sake of it.

People don't complain about the latest games requiring more graphics processing more etc so why the complaints about an OS? Also, hardware is getting cheaper all the time. In a year or two it won't cost all that much to build a system that can run Vista well.



It wasn't that company but the people they buy the software from that haven't upgraded, although I'm sure they will if they want to stay in business.

Go lookup the word "fact", I think you confused it with "opinion"...

While I have little issues regarding Vista X64 I will say from a business point of view I see little reason to move to Vista.

1) They most certainly are not bothered about a prettier GUI

2) They have no interest in DX10

3) They certainly don't fancy the cost

4) They don't like how Bitlocker is a Ultimate extra and isn't included in Business

I could go on, but for the average user Vista is OK, I game alot and I like Crysis so Crysis 64bit in DX10 is lovely, for those who enjoy older games, and those whom are set up and familiar with their systems then wait for Windows Seven, Vista isn't all that.

Exactly! There is no reason for them to upgrade at all. It's not like they have to test their software on the new OS, or that they have updated their business applications and it's only supported on Vista all of the sudden...

even for my own use at home I don't see significant changes that will convince me to upgrade. I've tested the OS several times (and I still do as part of my job) and the only reason I see why "I" would make the step is just "to follow"...

On my Home Theater PC at home I used to have Vista (I liked the Media Center in it) but then I also started using it as a home-work PC (got rid of my other PC) and it just became too frustrating. It's not designed for business (that's my opinion for those of you waiting to jump in...) so I went back to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and would never return to Vista again (Although knowing myself I'll probably try again when a new SP comes out...).

Vista is more than a pretty GUI and DX10. Go read about all the enhancements under the hood. The kiddies love to crap on about how Vista is all fancy graphics and no substance, because they don't understand anything beyond what they see. XP had exactly the same criticisms, people saying that Windows 2000 was much better because XP's eye candy was slowing everything down (yes, we had tards back in 2002 as well...)

Basically one major reason for businesses to upgrade to Vista would be the greatly enhanced security and stability. Vista is far harder to destabilize, and even if you do throw a crap program at it, it can recover your session without locking up tight like XP. Imagine how much work is lost in total in a company when people get a lockup and/or reboot and lose whatever it is they were currently working on.

So if nothing else, if your business doesn't value enhanced security and stability then go ahead and keep XP and spent more hours fixing problems instead of preventing them.