{"id":10917,"date":"2010-10-25T17:06:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T17:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10917"},"modified":"2010-10-25T17:06:06","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T17:06:06","slug":"no-windows-8-until-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10917","title":{"rendered":"No Windows 8 Until 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been widely reported<\/a> this afternoon that news of a Windows 8 release schedule appeared very briefly on a Dutch MS website (before being pulled).  I have a nagging feeling that something similar happened there with Windows 7 sometime back \u2026<\/p>\n

Anyway, the story was that we wouldn\u2019t see an RTM of the new server\/desktop OSs for another 2 years.  I used to think that we\u2019d see some announcements at TechEd Europe in November.  It is 2 years since we had the Windows 7\/Server 2008 R2 \u201cBetter Together\u201d announcements at TechEd Europe in Barcelona.  If you stick to the promise of 2 year release cycles (to the Software Assurance customers) then we should be entering that cycle now.  But it appears that we won\u2019t enter that for another 6-12 months.  My guess would be TechEd NA 2011.<\/p>\n

OK, so SA customers might<\/em> be peeved that their recent SA purchases won\u2019t bring an upgrade \u2013 they do get other benefits, some which they might value and others they may not.  But there is a bright side for the rest of us.<\/p>\n

Think back 5 years.  Windows XP arrived in 2001.  It didn\u2019t exactly go through a widespread deployment straight away.  In these parts, many people didn\u2019t start to deploy it until 2004-2006.  Seriously!  The long time between XP and Vista gave businesses a chance to get off of the old hardware and onto XP.  <\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t exactly suit the revenue generation of Microsoft.  They want people buying SA or upgrade licenses.  That means they need to provide a reason to pay extra.  And that mean more frequent releases.  Vista came along and it went down like the Hindenburg.  It wasn\u2019t awful but the reaction was.  Mainly the issue was that it was very different and people\/businesses had invested in an XP platform.  Official sales figures were misleading because SA figures are presented.  In reality, few deployed it.  <\/p>\n

Windows 7 has had a positive critical response.  Think about this; it\u2019s effectively Vista 1.1.  What\u2019s changed?  There are improvements (drivers, performance and usability) but businesses have had more time to get used to it.  But<\/em> it\u2019s still not widely deployed in the business.  Money is short and upgrade projects take time and money.  Many of the better together solutions are excellent but most businesses have already purchased 3rd party solutions so the motivation to move might not be there now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The fix is time.  And that\u2019s why I\u2019m happy about Windows 8 not being directly around the corner.  <\/p>\n

Example:  Many people want x64 laptops in the office for 4GB+ RAM.  Fair enough.  But the catch is the firewall.  Why?  Cos the stupid VPN clients that they have right now are 32-bit only and a 64-bit client is only available if they purchased the firewall vendor\u2019s equivalent of Software Assurance and many business don\u2019t.  And the likes of CheckPoint go and require backdating of support + a new per user VPN license!  There\u2019s an opportunity to deploy Windows 7 Ultimate\/Enterprise with DirectAccess.<\/p>\n

Windows 7 will gain more and more acceptance.  Eventually business applications will drive an upgrade like happened with XP.  <\/p>\n

And what\u2019s nice for an IT Pro that works with lots of technology: time to learn the stuff.  The constant churn means you can\u2019t get in depth knowledge.  With time, you can learn the products, use them, adapt to the quirks, get inventive, etc.<\/p>\n

So what if Windows 8 is \u201clate\u201d?  It\u2019s a good thing.  Plus it means that MS has more time to come up with something cool and get it right.  I\u2019d rather have late than wrong.<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: Windows 7<\/a>,Windows 8<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been widely reported this afternoon that news of a Windows 8 release schedule appeared very briefly on a Dutch MS website (before being pulled).  I have a nagging feeling that something similar happened there with Windows 7 sometime back \u2026 Anyway, the story was that we wouldn\u2019t see an RTM of the new server\/desktop … Continue reading “No Windows 8 Until 2012”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[108,109],"class_list":["post-10917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-desktop","tag-windows-7","tag-windows-8"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}