Microsoft now finds itself begging people not to delay an XP migration and wait for Windows 8. Who would be dumb enough to wait?
In today’s facepalm-inducing news, there may actually be people considering holding off a migration from Windows XP until Windows 8 ships. Anyone who actually contemplates this should be fired.
Microsoft isn’t saying it has run into someone who is actually thinking about such a delay. It’s merely pointing to a Gartner note, posted a week after the Build conference, entitled “Don’t Change Your Windows 7 Plans Because of Windows 8.”
In it, Gartner analysts say they think Windows 8 will be available by this time next year, which would be pushing it given the state of Windows 8 at present but that people should not think of waiting. They don’t cite any examples of running into clients actually thinking this way but try to warn them from getting any foolish ideas.
“Even if Microsoft meets that very aggressive timeline, independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises will likely need nine to 18 months to obtain and test supported applications and plan deployments. That means that most organizations would not be able to start deploying Windows 8 before YE13 [year-end 2013]. With support for Windows XP ending in April 2014, we believe it would be dangerous for organizations now running XP to attempt to skip Windows 7 and move directly to Windows 8,” Gartner analysts wrote.
Microsoft repeated this point as well in its blog post. “Windows XP and Office 2003 will no longer be supported after April, 2014 which leaves little time for you to upgrade your PC fleet,” wrote Rich Reynolds in a blog post.
If I have to explain it, I will. Microsoft will end all support for Windows XP at Service Pack 3 come 2014. As history has taught us, out-of-date versions of Windows are a breeding ground for malware. Windows XP SP2 is the most frequently infected of all versions by a long shot because Microsoft has stopped updating it.
Windows 7 was a considerably change over XP, with a new kernel and driver model. But Windows 8 will be just plain enormous, what with the new UI, the demise of the Start menu, and so on. Microsoft has promised Windows 7 apps will run on Windows 8, but it is making no such promises for XP apps on Windows 8.
So if nothing else, you need to get migrated to Windows 7 now because the gap between 7 and 8 will be much narrower than it will be between XP and 8.
I have to think Gartner and Microsoft are making a preemptive strike. Windows 7 has considerable momentum; it has surpassed the 400 million license mark so far and Gartner projects it to reach 635 million licenses sold by the end of the year.
This is reinforced by the latest stats on operating systems from StatCounter, which found Windows 7 use has surpassed XP in global use. Windows 7 now accounts for 40.21 percent of all global desktops compared to 38.64 percent for Windows XP. Windows Vista is also on the same downward trajectory as XP, accounting for just 11.2 percent of desktops.
On the consumer side, the momentum for Windows 7 is even faster, especially for 64-bit Windows. Steam, the online gaming sales utility used by all many major videogame makers, puts 64-bit Windows 7 use alone at 41.06 percent, well ahead of the 18.47 percent for Windows XP 32-bit and 24.38 percent for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista.
The 32-bit Windows 7 population is just 9.66 percent, but these numbers are skewed because they are taken from gamers, not business users. Still, that puts the overall Windows 7 base among gaming consumers at 50 percent.
Good riddance to XP.
Welcome regulars and new readers alike. Here are a few more recent blog items from yours truly. You may follow me on Twitter here.
- Do Nearly Half of Americans Really Want a Windows Tablet?
- Metro Will be Your First Stop With Windows 8
- Apple has Scared Microsoft Worse Than We Thought
- Metro Will be Your First Stop With Windows 8
- Intel Joins the Windows 8 Developer Push
