Closing the Door to Microsoft Vista


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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

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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.

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.

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...

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

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.

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 :p

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.

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.

:D 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.

:D 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.

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.

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

Thank yo:):)

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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