Posted on 06/01/2009 10:14:20 AM PDT by JoeProBono
According to NetApplications, Windows XP is still the OS of choice for users out there in ComputerLand, with some two-thirds of users still making use of the aging OS. By comparison, Vista is struggling to capture a quarter of the market share. Vista’s “WOW!” failed to capture the attention of users, as many chose to stick with their older OS.
If you are an XP user, has what you’ve seen of Windows 7 made you willing to ditch XP?
The way I see it, Microsoft needs to be putting effort into marketing Windows 7 to those currently using XP. After all, those already using Vista have shown a willingness to switch OSes already, and moving from Vista to 7 isn’t that much of a leap. It’s those entrenched XP users that present a problem for Microsoft. These people, for whatever reason, turned their backs on Vista, and it’s these people that Microsoft needs to win back.
But it’s not going to be easy.
While Microsoft tried to convince people that Vista wasn’t really as bad as they thought it was by resorting to a web ad campaign that was thinly disguised as an “experiment”, those still using XP weren’t buying it. In fact it wasn’t until Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunter” ad campaign that the Redmond giant started seeing its ad dollars really having an effect. Problem for Microsoft is that these ads spend their time selling Windows-based PCs rather than Windows itself. It seems that Microsoft knows that selling Windows is an uphill struggle.
Another problem for Microsoft is that there’s no easy upgrade path for XP users wanting to move to Windows 7. While I usually hate doing in-place upgrades on an OS (that’s where you apply the OS over the top of the existing one and keep all your old settings and programs) because it leads to more problems than it solves, I know that there are a lot of people out there who like this method because it saves them a lot of time and effort. You can’t do this going from XP to 7. You can use Windows Easy Transfer to move your stuff (data, not apps), which is probably the safest method, but it’s a multi-step hassle that many won’t bother with.
As I see it there’s another obstacle in the way of XP users adopting 7, and that is the fact that if you peel away the Windows 7 veneer, what you end up with resembles Vista. A lot. Sure, it’s Vista SP2, and not the poor quality RTM code that Microsoft shoveled into user’s faces, but it’s still Vista. There may be fewer comparability roadblocks than there was for those who tried moving from XP to Vista, but users going from XP to Windows 7 are still going to stumble across roadblocks. XP Mode will help, but ultimately it’s a kludge. A kludge that’s only available to people who buy the most expensive versions of Windows 7.
It’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft tries to win over the entrenched XP user. Microsoft may decide to throw ad dollars at the problem. Alternatively, Microsoft might stick with the current “Laptop Hunter” style ads and rely on user’s PC growing obsolete over time.
If you’ve got a computer with XP keep it. If you buy a new one get it with Windows 7 when it comes out. If you have to buy right now get Vista but no less than 2 Gig memory. Simple enough?
What DRM stuff? I hope you aren’t still talking about the FUD report from a couple years ago about Vista DRM.
The DRM was entirely used for Blu ray playback and didn’t affect any other content.
easy ... No ... XP working fine for us on three machines.
I read an article about Vista recently. MS apparently tracked mouse-moves and keystrokes for a number of Vista users and found [greatly compressed here] that most users tried to get around most of the “features” of Vista, like the way it tries to arrange icons in the quick-start zone according to frequency of use. They were puzzled to see users open an app, then immediately close it to open another, over and over. Interviews showed that people clicked the last place where the app they wanted had been, then when the “wrong” one opened, closed it and went searching for where their app went.
One outcome of this was the decision to remove an “opt out for the classical look” in Office 2007, which again is context sensitive and tries to guess what you might be doing and put up options, rather than the old-fashioned, outdated and unhip menu bar with a tree hierarchy.
I went back to office 97, clinging bitterly to drop-down menus and tree architecture and without the very hip xml formats that none of my customers can decode.
If you are an XP user, has what you’ve seen of Windows 7 made you willing to ditch XP?
XP with SP 3 is the best system out there...I manage a LOT of computers...no problems...why fix it if it ain’t broken?
Win2000 never took off, because people had not reason to upgrade from Win98. It took XP to give people a reason.
Vista doesn’t haven enough to make people upgrade from XP. Vista will probably be remembered as a trasitional OS the way Win2000 was.
not sure about Xp, but I ditched Vista on one of my home PC’s and am not looking back. Windows 7 crushes Vista.
Same here.
What’s your recommendation super hotshot?
I have a 64bit machine 1 year old . . . using XP-P.
I’m talking about the article that was on FR a few months back that said Windows 7 degraded streaming audio if you tried to capture it. With XP, you can capture CD quality streaming audio and burn it at cd quality. There is supposedly something in 7 that degrades the signal if it detects a capture program being used. This was in a beta version. I truly hope they got rid of that feature for the final release, because I don’t buy OSs that won’t let me do certain things.
Does Win 7 have the cursor sticking/system freezing problem from too many windows open?
Drives me beyond annoyed.
My wife is is context sensitive...
There is software, and I have it, that will give Office 2007 the “classical” menus.
Please ping me if you find out the answer to that.
I had a nightmare once in which Clippit ran my house.
“ding I’m sorry I thought you wanted coffee now. ding I’m sorry you find the music offensive, would you like to hear Led Zeppelin reggae instead? Your profile indicates an interest in both. ding I’m sorry, this is the water temperature you specified for dishwashing. Shall I update the shower preferences for you? ding...”
NO...
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