Vast majority won't go for Windows 7

The scariest thing for me is that the figure considering moving away altogether is as low as 50%. I guess I've underestimated both market inertia, and the stupidity of the corporate world.

Completing the migration from Microsoft to Linux has been a totally /liberating/ experience for me.

I wish I had the budget to get a Macbook Pro and migrate away from Windows.

You will be going to a very closed and tightly controlled designer platform, and will be at Apple's mercy on every step. Windows is more open than Macs.

If you want to go away from Windows because you want to go into a free (as in free thought - not beer) platform, go Linux. It will have more application support, faster updates and fixes, and more interaction with the developers to whom you can voice your issues.

Personally I find Windows perfect for my gaming/some work machine while having my home headless file/backup server running a Linux Server variant (without X).

I may be alone on this issue, but I have Vista on two machines and it is working just fine, as it has from the day I bought them. I will not upgrade the operating system. Vista still has bells and whistles I don't use, and I don't see the point to paying more. And yes, I spent six months with two versions of Ubuntu, and I have no future plans in that direction. My Acer Aspire One is on XP, and I certainly have no plans to move that operating system either.

Unless you want the bigger screen. The Macbooks are basically the same except only one video chip. The Macbook Pro has two but you can only use one at a time. The touch pad on Macbooks rock, large and like a iphone with functions you will wonder how you did without it.
I am waiting for Snow Leopard and will be treating myself this Christmas season to a new Macbook, the one with an illuminated keyboard. You will find OS X a breath of fresh air, trust me.
As far as Linux (user friendly) goes I am tired of spending dozens of hours giving it a try and having to go back to Windows. My last attempt was last week with my cheapo Acer laptop. I tried, Debain 5.0, Mandriva 2009 and Ubuntu. Not one could get my WiFi to work on the install. I have to give Debain credit, it actually downloaded through the ethernet connection a NDIS wrapper but it failed to properly install it. I do not want to have to spend hours or days trying to get the WiFi to work (or other items like the webcam) so it was back to Vista. This Acer is being given to my niebors little girl (6yrs old) when I get my Mac. She can put a mouse (Touch pad sucks and does random crap sometimes) on it and use it on her little desk in her room.

I wasn't tempted by Vista, felt too much change too quickly so never bothered with it...Win 7 may be a better product having (hopefully) learned lessons from vista, although 2 editions would be enough. I will consider it I have been testing and so far am more impressed than I was with Vista but of course this is Microsoft, they can screw anything up.

Late last year, I have just oversee the company I work for moving from XP to Vista, and I expect this current platform to last 3-5 years. Thus, there will be no Win7 migration here.

But, the home computer will surely move to Win7.

There won't be any Win7 in this office. I tried to install the beta on one of the 3D workstations in the office as a test, and it died right out the gate. The machine is about 3 years old (dual opteron, 4GB, Quadro FX4500) and had the latest BIOS. XP Pro says the machine is ACPI compliant, but i guess there's a new standard for ACPI in Vista/Win7 that older machines don't meet. :-p

On the up side, I notified the uppity ups that if they decide to migrate to Win7 next year, they'll need to replace the dozen workstations we have here with all new kit. At about $5k a pop, that's not chump change. :)

Cheers,
John

Given the current state of the economy, it's no suprise that everyone is trying to get the most from their XP machines. It is also a smart move to wait a little while after the release of the new OS for at least the first round of bug fixes (although one could argue that vista was the fist release). Given the hardware requirements of Vista and the fact that it doesn't appear on any netbooks, moving to vista at this point would be very unwise. Windows 7 does look like the eventual successor to XP, but the transition will be gradual. Those looking to make the jump to linux can get off the windows upgrade path at any time, so long as their hardware/applications are compatible (a very attractive incentive). All in all, the results aren't that surprising.

do you buy new car every other 2 years the maker does a design refresh?
so why would you buy every refresh of OS? manufacturer would sure like that to happen though.
if 7 comes bundled with my next piece of hardware i'll take it. otherwise i'm not oging to buj jack.

linux preachers - you are smart. you are very very smart. did it ever occur to you that other people simply can't get as smart as you? there is a finite ammount of smartness that was devided on this planned and apparantley you got it all. so how about you just quetly use your beloved smart linux and stop position it as if it were solution that fits for EVERYONE.

Well, I for one love linux, I'm also rather fond of MAC....BUT...

Linux simply doesn't have the install base & thus doesn't have the games & still is not user friendly enough.
Mac is expensive and even more closed than windows! imagine that!

Windows 7 will not be a screw-up like vista, it simply won't be.

In two years time, we will all be happily running windows 7...it will have most of the games we want, it will be stable and it will work.

I would love to see Linux coming out with a competing product...but really, that's not going to happen just yet.

Still going windows for show, linux for a pro. (E.G. Windows for games & linux for the no nonsense stuff)

First off, it's STILL IN BETA!!! Of course no companies are going to come out saying they have plans to migrate and quite frankly, I'm surprised at the number in that poll whom claim they DO have plans to migrate already since the actual release date is still UNKNOWN! LOL!

Secondly, the IT managers for many companies are mostly "geeks" and they were supposedly the ones interviewed.....yeah, sure, THEY may say they want to migrate away from MS but......by in large, the companies will NEVER allow it. Many have tried in the past few years and many have given up and gone back to MS based OS's.

Lastly, right now anyway, anyone recall the numbers whom said they would be upgrading to XP after the debacle named "ME"??? I do, and the numbers were MUCH worse than those indicated in this poll and we all know that ended up being true........right???? ;~) I mean NOBODY moved to MS Win XP did they???? ROTFLMAO!

Why would a business pay to upgrade an OS when they already have one that works just fine? You see, business isn't like a consumer where they must have the latest and greatest thing. It only needs to work, it doesn't need to be new or wonderful.

Any business that upgrades for the sake of having new stuff is wasting money.

^^

"...that 50 per cent of the sample are seriously considering moving away from Windows altogether, identifying Linux and Mac OSX"

So 49% said they we CONSIDERING migrating to Linux?

use what works. its called *soft*ware for a reason. personally, Vista works fine for me, no more problems than anything else.

I'm an avid supporter of Microsoft Products in the business world, but VISTA does not make the cut by far.. As a computer technician I find it to be just too slow.. Setting up new clients with this operating system is a waste of time, money, and effort. My organization will be converting away from Microsoft if it hasn't already.

@smarterthanthemajority,

Lastly, right now anyway, anyone recall the numbers whom said they would be upgrading to XP after the debacle named "ME"???

Note that the article talks about business IT professionals, not home users. WinME was never marketed to business users; WinNT and Win2KPro were likely what businesses transitioned to WinXPPro from.

Second, why is MS still releasing a 32-bit version of Win7? The hardware has been on the market for years, now is the time to force the industry to fully transition to 64-bit. It would be hugely profitable for MS and all other software developers if they could sell new 64-bit versions of their software.

I happen to agree that they should force the market to 64bit, BUT it will not happen any time soon, it will push people away regardless of the benefits, third party apps will have a field day with anti competitive law suits saying MS stopped my buggy app from exploiting the OS, anti virus outfits will jump up an down about the OS being too secure an efficient an now their bloated software is not needed as much. Hardware vendors will probably go nuts initially because they will have to build new better drivers without the bugs but will more than likely see the "good" side (as printer manufactures have) in forcing everyone to buy new gear with new OS releases but not good for the end user!

Nope its not going to happen, keep giving folk the choice and even better an upgrade option, kind of a , click here to check your 64 compatibility, all good? click here to rebuild your OS to 64!

Now for the article, if 7 plays well on old hardware, IF it gets some good reviews it will probably work, im using 7 now and its very impressive, Vista (which also never bothered me for 2 years) actually looks dated to Win 7, so i think its a lot of rubbish, it all depends on its write ups, bad press to start with will bury this OS.

People moaning about Linux being the holy grail, please go and hide beneath your rock, when reality catches up to your fantasies I may replace my home workstation with it, until then Windows is the only OS with large scale hardware and software support.

I've been using and testing Windows 7 for about a month and I must say that it's got a very high improvement comparing to Windows Vista. I've tested the Windows 7 with 512mb ram and 1 GB ram, both ways ran absolutely faster than XP and Vista.
Installed loads of software compatible to XP and they ran ok on Windows 7 (Surprise) I found few things that needs to be improved but overall, I'm quite happy with Windows 7. Although, it reminders me MAC OS X, maybe that's why it looks good.

...the butt-ugliest operating system ever created. It is snappier than Vista (although still to intrusive) and appears to be more miserly in RAM use. But, to quote Shakespeare, it doth infect mine eyes.

have already moved to OSX anyway. the kernal is much more stable, doesn't suffer from registry bloating and corruption. As its unix it doesn't need to be defragmented every week for optimal performance.

oh yeah, it works.

Windows is only good for little spotty gamers now. most intelligent people have moved to the sensible platform.

My Guess is Windows Ultimate Will:final test version is near. Windows watchers expect the operating system will hit the stores this summer //If you had troubles on 7 install, try again today, it loads updates before On/Off stall & NOW seems O.K.Believe Vista Ultimate is Flashier, yet theres something GOOD about 7, Pleasing. That brings Back User.xp to Ultimate, is like generic china to Fine China. TS Drashek

Hopefully it won’t be too late before M$ realize that the only way for its OS to be successful is to be easy to get pirated copied imaged without any complication of activation on new hardware. It’s sad but that’s the way the world it is, you just can’t expect that everyone in the world with a PC will buy Windows license, maybe 30 or 40% will but not all, and if they couldn’t get an easy access for the latest OS they will simply stay behind.

I really "love" reading these Linux is better and Windows is better flames all over the net.
I don't understand why people care about what OS other people use. If some are "blinded" enough to cough up the greens for a bloat ware it's their wallet at stake.
If other are willing to spend days searching for solutions in forums that's again their business and their time spent.
If corporations are willing to pay Microsoft for things that they could potentially get for free it's again their budget.
However I am puzzled why do people accept that government and it's institutions pay Microsoft lots of money, way too much money for software that is there to be taken for free as in bear and has the natural ability to be interoperable (quite important for businesses). You know all that money that goes to Microsoft comes out of every slave's pocket in form of all kind of taxes... I'd say they could be way better used, like in healthcare or in education.

Not saying that the survey cannot be accurate, however... this is a response to a company who in the business of selling windows migration software.

Where do you think they got their contact list (all of 1100 people in IT departments) ? My guess... those who had downloaded trials of their software.

Perhaps it's just possible the response might just be a bit skewed if people are trying to fob them off with reasons they are not going to buy from them.

Two old sayings:

- Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
- The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

If Apple were to cut their price in half, they would own the OS world. But Microsoft is about to screw up again by releasing to many version, they need to just make it as simple as possible. Just release Home and Business only.

than XP then I am in, for now.

I am a gamer simple as that, windows is the standard and you have to live with it for compatibility. I skipped Vista too but will likely end up with a dual boot XP.32/Win7.64 system.

But I would love to see Linux take 50% of corporate share because then in about 3 years games would become Linux compatible, not that anyone plays games when they should be working !ahem! but it would foster support and home systems would follow down the same path yadda yadda. What Linux needs is an idiot proof front end.

What games need is a fast Java to make porting as easy as a user download.

Apple should do many things, they should liberate their OS from their expensive and restrictive proprietary platform and ensure driver support for the PC platform but apparently they can't or won't do this. Whether this is a failure of will or a technical problem isnt clear but its the elephant in the room when you talk about the future of OSX. If they dont and Linux makes headway then they will have missed the boat.

...if it's free, requires no product registration, runs on my current hardware, and doesn't kill my Linux partitions.

And it needs to support EXT3, of course.