To Vista or not to Vista
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PC in Security, tags: 64-bit, Microsoft, Vista, Windows Vista, Windows XP
To Vista or not to Vista: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The UAC warnings of outrageous caution,
Or to take arms against a sea of malware,
And by virus software end them? To die: to shutdown…
We’re trying to figure out whether or not we want to go with Vista or Windows XP for our 3-year refresh. The decision is difficult because we will live with it for the next three years. There is no incentive to perform an upgrade mid-cycle. There are many different factors and there are pros and cons on either side.
From my experience Vista has a more consistent feel, performance, and compatibility between its 32 and 64-bit flavors. This part is important to me because our lowest end computer will have 4GB of RAM in it. We will be running the 32-bit version of Vista Enterprise on the desktops due to compatibility issues, even though I’ve personally found fewer compatibiilty issues with the 64-bit version. The good thing about 64-bit Vista is that things usually either work or they do not. With 32-bit Vista things can appear to work and then lead to instability or just stop working.
XP is a proven technology, and all of our software currently runs on it. We run software that in some cases is many years old and we have never bothered to upgrade. In a few cases there are newer versions certified for Vista that we could upgrade to if we wanted to spend the money and could port dependent programs, but in other cases there are not. Where there are not I typically can get the software to work fine even without a vendor’s blessing, although this hasn’t been the case everywhere. My biggest frustration there is vendors who refuse to support vista even though, for one example, their application is web based and works fine in XP with IE7. I can use it just fine in Vista and have been using it for years, but the vendor will take the stance that any problem we run into here on out is due to Vista and not their problem.
Staying with XP means that we have bought into old technology for another three years and that we will likely be forced to jump two operating systems to Windows 7 when we do move during the subsequent computer refresh – something which could cause even more problems. Neither solution is good.
Outside of all the technical reasons for and against Vista I believe that our biggest barrier to moving forward is the user. Sentiment on Vista and Microsoft is negative, and as I have written about before, it is the “cool” thing to do to be anti-Microsoft, so people will take that position before they will have an open mind about anything. Many of our users who have been given Vista test computers have immediately started finding things wrong with the system that prevented them from being productive. Many times these are stretches, or even things that they had to do in XP, but just refurse to figure out in Vista.
The reason this is the biggest barrier is because if the users as a whole do not buy in to Vista, then every single production or schedule issue for the next three years will get blamed on the IT department for going with Vista instead of XP. This project has not been mine to run, but had it been I would have attempted to find champions of Vista in each of the departments. People who are open minded and willing to learn. People who their peers see as technically competent and a good source for IT information and help outside of the IT group. These individuals should be brought in on this the biggest problem in our deployment. They should understand that we need their help to promote Vista among their peers. Only with their help would we have a successful rollout.
As it is I foresee that if we go with Vista we will end up being blamed for everything that goes wrong. If we go with XP, especially XP-64 bit for the higher end workstations, we will regret the decision within the first year.
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of power saving what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this Microsoft coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long uptime;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of obsolescense,
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I’d go for Vista.. I’ve never had problems with it so far.. just make sure that you install the Service Pack 1
Michael Aulias last blog post..I’ll be around for at least 5 years
I’ve been using Vista Enterprise since it was released in November 2006 and have had relatively few problems. Service Pack 1 made a huge difference. There are still some things I can’t do in Vista though – such as manage my Exchange 2003 server. Our users have turned up some problems as well with applications that do not work properly, but they are rare. We’re going to have a mixed environment anyway because PCs running equipment will stay at XP or even 2000 as they are, so I don’t see too much of a problem with that, but the powers that be would prefer to be all on one platform for desktops and workstations.