Windows XP costs businesses five times more than Windows 7

[Cayden]

Again, if your employees are any bit competent, there is no training involved.

 

[Corrine]

Sorry, Cayden, but I must disagree. There are most certainly competent people who are excellent, for example, with Word processing. The switch from Office 2003 to Office 2010 and adjusting to the Ribbon and other changes can result in a major slow-down in production.

 

[AceInfinity]

Sorry, Cayden, but I must disagree. There are most certainly competent people who are excellent, for example, with Word processing. The switch from Office 2003 to Office 2010 and adjusting to the Ribbon and other changes can result in a major slow-down in production.

That's true, and that's the way I see most changes that are made by Microsoft which are big changes. With this new Windows 8, here's an entire OS example of that. Now we have to learn how to use no start button, the tileview, among a few other things, before we can actually be productive here.

My opinion (based on the arcicle): Yes, please at the least move people from XP to Windows 7, you can't stay that outdated anymore. People hold onto the idea that XP is the best OS out there still probably because of the comparison to Vista, which, being a newer Microsoft OS than XP, should logically have been improved, but people complained about how slow it was for some reason. Windows 7 looking so close to Vista, i'm sure there's still skeptics out there who believe that they behave one in the same, but in my opinion Windows 7 is definitely better than XP.

You're not going to lose a whole lot, some minor things which you'll have to learn, and you'll have new features on top of that which you can learn to use or not to use. Windows 7 is pretty compatible with lots of things as well now. Programs, hardware...

 

[Fred Garvin]

Sorry, Cayden, but I must disagree. There are most certainly competent people who are excellent, for example, with Word processing. The switch from Office 2003 to Office 2010 and adjusting to the Ribbon and other changes can result in a major slow-down in production.

Arrrrrrrgh!! I can't say it enough times how much I hate the ribbon! WTH did Microsoft ever decide to change the tried and true method of a menu bar found on 95% of software on the market!? [/rant]

I like 7 and it's probably the best MS OS to date, with XP right behind it. But I completely disagree with the premise that 7 will save companies money. I have one small business that is looking at a minimum of $20K to upgrade simply because their hardware and software are not compatible with Windows 7.

I tell people this all the time: If it works for you, does what you need and is fast enough for you, there is no real reason to upgrade unless you want to. IMO, there are too many IT guys running around telling people their 6 month old device is outdated and you need to have the latest and greatest.

 

[AceInfinity]

Sorry, Cayden, but I must disagree. There are most certainly competent people who are excellent, for example, with Word processing. The switch from Office 2003 to Office 2010 and adjusting to the Ribbon and other changes can result in a major slow-down in production.

Arrrrrrrgh!! I can't say it enough times how much I hate the ribbon! WTH did Microsoft ever decide to change the tried and true method of a menu bar found on 95% of software on the market!? [/rant]

I like 7 and it's probably the best MS OS to date, with XP right behind it. But I completely disagree with the premise that 7 will save companies money. I have one small business that is looking at a minimum of $20K to upgrade simply because their hardware and software are not compatible with Windows 7.

I tell people this all the time: If it works for you, does what you need and is fast enough for you, there is no real reason to upgrade unless you want to. IMO, there are too many IT guys running around telling people their 6 month old device is outdated and you need to have the latest and greatest.

Yes, $20 000. But think about what may not be compatible for people that move over to Windows 8. That kind of stuff is inevitable... Keeping up to date is something which just has to happen at some point in time for everyone.

Other factors which should be taken into consideration here though; productivity loss from having to adapt to the new navigation and in general usage of Windows 8 over the comfortable layout people were used to which was abandoned by Windows 7. (Abandoned may be an exaggerated term, but nonetheless there's still going to be the learning curve involved in those who have taken courses with a Windows computer for IT and other related purposes, and whom are now having to move over to Windows 8 to do much of the same tasks, just on a new OS with different 'usages'.)