74% of Enterprise PCs Are Still Running Win XP

Where I work... we are upgrading our old ass infrastructure to another system that still has XP. The main reason is because 90% of the web applications DIE INSTANTLY or fail with certain components on anything higher than Internet Explorer 6. There are a TON of other XP Legacy programs too.

Upgrading to Windows 7 would also exceed the capabilities of 40-50% of the equipment in use. It is also 100% incompatible with the Novell system we use.

Of course it does. Because most enterprise applications don't work under Vista or Seven. The backwards compatibility is horrendous. It will be a looooong time before most enterprise customers abandon XP. Where I work, we're slowly phasing out all our Windows servers, in favor of more cost effective Linux and UNIX solutions. I imagine its only a matter of time before we start looking at doing the same with the desktops as well. Desktop Linux or OSX makes a LOT of sense when all your servers are running Linux or UNIX too...

I know I can't have Windows 7 at my new job because of applications that I need will not work with the new OS *cough*Cisco*cough*.

Yeah were I work we have the same problem with old applications not working on anything higer than explorer 6. Also we have lots and lots of old app (even Dos,fox pro applications) in use which barely run right under XP though all of our PC's are windows 7 ready. There is a slow push to try to move to newest version we only phased out 99% of our windows 2k PC's last month (at least in my area with about 8-10k PC's) but our enterprise is about 200k+ PC's. Most of the hold up is departments with out enough money to buy newest version of there apps and since they (bussiness departments) pay for IT they are the one who say when we can what we can do.

their loss.

this is no surprise. For a work place to update all their PC's to windows 7 may mean updating all hardware, peripherals and software, migrating data across to the new system etc. Put simply its a pain in the ass and will cost big $$. For most companies there is no reason to go to win7 until they stop supporting XP.

It's not that most of these businesses don't want to. There's simply not enough money to upgrade.

There are major companies still using Windows 2000. Most IT departments are very conservative with software procurement and in the current economic climate don't expect major expenditures.

IE6 must die but a lot of enterprises have reduced staff and don't have the developers available to retool badly-written legacy applications. Hopefully they learn from this and in the future follow proper HTML standards and avoid garbage like ActiveX.

Sad in a way. There is no real reason to use XP and microsoft office 2003 when you got Unbutu and Open Office.

Application compatibility, low-end hardware, and the fact that the deployment tools for 7, well, blow, are the main reasons for lack of adoption in the corporate world.

Except for the fact that 95+% of the software on the market will not run under Linux, few Tier 1 OEM's supply Linux boxes, then there's he cost of training people on a new system, etc...

I think 74% of businesses believe that there is no reason to upgrade when their license is fully operational. So far, there has been no compelling reason, for most businesses, to be an early adopter in the OS market. And, yes there is a lot of truth to the explorer software issue. Businesses will be herded into a new operating system when the market forces them to do so.

WINDOWS XP WORKS, AND IT WORKS VERY WELL!

Hail to this last statement!

In my company there's no way we're moving 2k PCs to win 7 when they are crappy dell desktops! It just WONT work!

Unbelievable. Despite all those findings in researches about enterprises' intentions to move onto Windows 7 soon, it seems like all that were simply empty promises.

Perhaps its time to move on with technology, eh, enterprises? Sure, your programs might stop working, but that's when you find an alternative, or get a more updated, capable version coded for you.

I reckon there should be more IBM iSeries and HATS integration. Only use specialised software on a independent platform with web capabilities so that OSes can be upgraded without too much pain.

At our business, 3 IT people (including myself) manage 600 employees. Using Apple OS X does help as much as I don't want to admit.

Now if Telstra was as reliable and we weren't working on our next inhouse software, we would be busy trying to look busy.

Hmmm recoding your software, buying new hardware, and retraining your staff. How is that any different from migrating to Windows 7?

They should sell each system with the XP for $100 less, it only costs $100 to get Windows 7 Home Premium (OEM version).

Companies are reluctant to upgrade to new hardware.Unless that changes, this situation is not likely to change.

What's the percentage of people still using Windows 98 (any idea?)

I'm pretty sure it's limited to my 9th grade architecture/design teacher.

There are still legacy products that won't behave well in windows 7 but if you are an IT pro who take risk it will be working.

Well, if it ain't broken, why fix it. WinXP is working all right on my work PC. Although I would like to try out Win7 for free, there just isn't that urgent to upgrade to win7 at work.

I haven't worked in the IT sector for 2 years but I was involved in creating an operating environmnet to migrate from W2K to XP. That was a much bigger headache than anticipated mostly because of legacy programs and periferals. We still had machines interfacing with devices using RS232 ports.. and not just a few. You have to realise how much flow on effect there is when deciding to upgrade your standard operating environmnet. It is far from easy and sometimes, impossible, well, not without literally millions in interface upgrades (if available).

Most of you have no idea what it takes to make the move. I am a Senior System Admin in an Enterprise Co with over 200,000 PC's and over 500,000 employee and have been at my job for over 10yrs. You can pretty much guess where I may be employeed at. There's only a handful of Company that size. That out of the way...

This is true but where you went wrong is Linux and OSx Desktop DOES NOT MAKE sense. Retraining your daily Windows user to use Linux let alone Mac OSx, then purchasing software and rewriting programs from windows to or for Linux and OSx, purchasing over priced Apple products, are not cost effective. Another reason Mac OSX is a sin and or taboo if you even dare mention it in the enterprise world is because of security. Simply put, for standard consumers Mac OSX may be good but in an Enterprise where security can be compromised every second with millions at stake is not a joke.




Very well stated. Regardless of how crappy ActiveX is, it has been adopted in the enterprise world and many Enterprise Intranet sites use it already. This is one hurdle that will be hard to get over.



Here we go again with this argument. Lets say I give you a position in an enterprise and you control this, you want to make this change, go and tell your Boss you'll need to spend 40 million dollars to make this change. I wonder how your boss will react. You are saying how's the change going to be 40 million even though Linux and Open office is free? lets see....100,000 employee's {times} 8 hours training {times} $15 average pay for employee = 12 Million. And I am being very light on the training hours let alone the pay especially when you add upper managment who make six figures in there and that 12 million will look like a drop on the bucket. So far its just the training aspect. What about the software migration? New database development, etc....list goes on. When all said and done, for something that is free such as linux and open office you already spent probably close to 50 million or even more. This is the enterprise world.




Well stated and is a good point but I must say, its just barely scratching the surface as to why, on the enterprise level, things have not changed much.

In closing:
Most of you do not realize the money, size, and business impact such decisions can make. Until YOU really actually work for and on a daily basis deal with hundreds of thousands of users, PC's, Servers, etc you will never truly know. But it all comes down to one main focus and that main focus is money. For a 600 employee company to spend only 1 million for that upgrade or migration is nothing. Multiply that compnay by 100 folds and things look differently. Many of the comments hit the nail on the head and hopefully you people understand the enterprise IT world a bit better.

Given that a Pentium 4 with 1GB of RAM will perform perfectly fine for most business tasks under XP. I don't see companies blowing money on all new infrastructure unless it is needed.

That was my point - large corporations are not going to willingly do it for Win 7, and surely not for Linux.

Where I work, we've been slowly rolling out Win 7 on machines as they're replaced. We have almost 1,100 computers, ranging from Dell Optiplex 240's all the way up to loaded 780's. For the time being, as departments buy new machines (normally 780's) a select few are being imaged with Win 7 as a testbed and so far, having good results. The only issue we've seen is certain websites don't like IE8 (surprise surprise) so we've included Firefox in the image to handle that. As far as a company-wide deploy of Win 7, we're holding off, and even if we do, it will be limited to only somewhat-modern hardware (e.g. most likely only Opti 620's with 2gb or better ram). And the funny thing is, that as soon as most companies realize that a tuned install of Win 7 with adequate hardware will run just as fast if not better than the same hardware running XP, you'll see these statistics flip in no time at all.

News flash: people are not made of money. Maybe they also don't want to deal with the hassel of changing their operating system for no reason. If windows XP can already do everything a person needs their computer to do, why upgrade? It just takes time and money for no real gains. I'm not saying that this is true for everybody, but I think that it is not suprising that not everybody jumped at the opportunity to get windows 7. I bought windows vista when I first bought my computer. Despite vista's reputation, I have had almost no problems with it. I see no reason to upgrade my OS at the moment. Vista can already do pretty much everything that 7 can do. (Like DX10, DX11, etc)

I just got a new work laptop in May. Went from Windows 2000 TO Windows XP. Woot. Course I still run WinXP at home on my game computer too. Keep meaning to upgrade to Win7, just haven't gotten around to it.

I just got a new work laptop in May. Went from Windows 2000 TO Windows XP. Woot. Course I still run WinXP at home on my game computer too. Keep meaning to upgrade to Win7, just haven't gotten around to it.