As time goes by, Windows Vista slowly gets new users, but they are usually people buying laptops or desktop computers with it preinstalled. Sooner or later, most of them will probably move to Windows XP, one of the many Linux distros available, or Mac OS X. The problem is not Vista's reliability, and it's not the price either. Microsoft's biggest problem is the very slow adoption in the enterprise and professional market areas, if I can call it "very slow." I am saying this because it seems more of a rejection than a slow adoption, and we're going to see right away exactly why I put it this way...
I know we could talk about this for ages, but if we make a long story short, here's the latest Windows Vista vs Mac OS X news: computer professionals are slowly walking away, leaving Vista behind, and they step in the Apple realm!
According to an article published on Campus Technology, a recent KACE-sponsored survey on Windows Vista shows nothing good for Microsoft. If I would be Steve Ballmer, I would simply let it be as it is, and pour the money thrown away on the new Vista marketing campaign into the cup of the next Windows version, but since I am not him, let's see the results of the poll, shall we?
"This survey found a slip in Windows Vista deployment plans, with 60 percent of respondents saying that they had "no plans to deploy Vista at this time," compared with 53 percent in the 2007 survey." That doesn't sound good at all, but there's even more for Microsoft to worry about...
"Some respondents (42 percent) said they were considering alternative operating systems to Windows Vista. The Macintosh operating system was the favored alternative by 29 percent of respondents. Linux-based operating systems were also in the running, but trailed. More IT professionals reported challenges managing non-Windows operating systems in this survey, with 65 percent citing a need for expertise vs. 49 percent in 2007."
Obviously, Linux-based systems are a tough challenge in the professional environment, and since Mac OS X is more friendly, a 4 percent market share for Mac vs only 1 percent for Vista is no surprise. Windows XP has an impressive 85 percent of the enterprise OS market, while the remaining part is being filled by the many Linux and Unix based systems, as well as a few others.
In the home operating systems market, the situation is also gray for Microsoft, with Windows XP still having the largest slice of the pie. Anyway, I have no accurate info on that, so we'll leave that topic for another time, but if you want to help, you can drop a comment and share your opinion about Vista, XP, Mac and Linux below. Thank you very much!
Martin, on April 16, 2009
Gr8 blog! Ill definitely be coming back