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The Consumer Preview of Windows 8 held recently at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, had a lot of people talking. Instead of the limited changes we've been seeing over the previous versions, Windows 8 completely redefines Windows as we know it. The Metro UI that's optimised for touch with colourful tiles, a Windows Store for apps and compatibility across systems has a lot going for it. The largest Windows user share undoubtedly comes from enterprises, whose IT usage ranges from a few hundred to lakhs of systems. Will migrating to Windows 8 be a feasible option for them?
The facts
Many businesses are still using XP, in fact, statistics indicate that about 50 per cent of Windows users run XP. As of now, Microsoft's biggest concern is getting businesses to migrate away from XP and move on to Windows 7. Support for Windows XP will be officially withdrawn in 2014, which means that most businesses will have to upgrade to Windows 7 in the next couple of years, whether they like it or not. However, most third-party applications and programs might begin withdrawing support for XP even earlier. A recent post by Microsoft team member Stephen L. Rose on the company's official blog, said “It takes 18-24 months to plan for and deploy a new operating system.” In fact, the company is stressing the need for XP users to migrate to Windows 7 before they move to Windows 8. Research firm Gartner substantiates this belief by saying migrating directly to Windows 8 from XP is dangerous because of a possible gap in support.
For companies, upgrading an operating system is a huge process, in terms of time, cost and effort. System migration has to be done in a phased manner, as Rose mentioned. Then there are cost considerations: the cost of the upgrade, of replacing/updating machines and additional IT labour charges.
Despite Microsoft stressing on this sequential upgrade, the fact remains that many XP machines could potentially run Windows 8. System requirements for Windows 8 are likely to be almost identical to those of Windows 7: 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB of disk space and DirectX-9 compatible graphics. We haven't heard of an upgrade price of Windows 8 to XP or Vista users yet. If Microsoft does decide to provide this, smaller enterprises with less IT usage might be able to consider skipping Windows 7 altogether.
What's in it for businesses?
Microsoft has been stressing quite heavily on the business features of Windows 8. The company recently released a Windows 8 Consumer Preview ‘Product Guide for Business' which outlines the benefits of the new operating system. Windows 8 will offer a wealth of business features, including faster boot up times, the ability to boot Windows 8 from a USB drive (Windows to Go), better security features and native 3G/4G support. However, the reception towards Windows 8's redesigned interface has received mixed reactions. The richness and fluidity of the OS are likely to have a lot of takers when Windows 8 tablets are launched, but business users (who require a mouse and keyboard) may not feel the full benefit. The touch-based Metro UI as well as the emphasis on apps instead of programs isn't very relevant for businesses, most of which aren't opting for touchscreen systems just yet. The replacement of the Start screen with Metro is not really conducive to a business user either. In fact, when the developer preview of Windows 8 was released, there were plenty of blog posts which demonstrated how to remove Metro from Windows 8 completely. Microsoft hasn't yet commented on whether they will provide an option for users to choose between the Start screen and Metro, but if they did, it would certainly make a lot of desktop users happy .
Bottomline
Windows 8 is a relevant operating system given the increasing movement towards touch-based devices. But for the foreseeable future, most enterprises are going to remain desktop/laptop oriented, and their primary requirements will be an operating system that is fully catered towards a mouse/keyboard environment. Where Windows 8 gains in offering uniformity across form factors, it loses in optimising the experience for individual ones. And as a result, it looks like Windows 7 might be the operating system of choice for most enterprises, at least for now.
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