Report Shows Support for XP Still Strong

By Greg McNevin

November 20, 2007: According to a new report from the analysts at Forrester Research, Windows Vista adoption is being hamstrung, not by the rising popularity of Red Hat or Novell, but rather by Microsoft’s own six year-old Windows XP.

Conducted in Europe and the US, the Forrester survey canvassed 600 companies with over 1,000 employees, and found that Windows XP is now found on 84 percent of desktops, up from 67 percent last year.

More intriguing, or concerning for Microsoft, is that out of those 600, barely one-third are thinking about deploying Vista by the end of 2008, while a paltry 17 percent are considering the new OS for 2009 – 2010.

The research will no doubt come as a blow to Microsoft’s aspirations for Vista in the enterprise sector, particularly in the wake of its decision to extend XP’s life by five years beyond the original 2009 deadline.

Furthermore, Forrester also discovered that a significant proportion of those surveyed were looking forward to Windows XP Service Pack 3, which is expected to be released in early 2008. This indicates that many firms could be willing to stick with the tried and true XP through to 2009 or later, as once a major update is rolled out it makes little sense to upgrade to a whole new OS too soon unless there is a critical need.

The report is title How Windows Vista Will Shake Up The State Of The Enterprise Operating System, however, from Forrester’s results it looks like the shake up will happen with more businesses sticking to XP or switching to Linux rather than migrating to Vista.

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