Vista: Not Cutting Edge, But Bleeding

By David Gilbert

April 2, 2007

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Both system builders and their clients are the continual targets of marketing schemes aimed at driving sales of new technologies, products and services. This year the biggest campaign involves Microsoft's introduction of Windows Vista. Some system builders did not require much convincing to switch from Windows XP to the newer OS. But this system builder is not yet ready to change.

What harm can there possibly be in selling the latest and greatest in PC technology to your customers? Plenty.

It has been my experience that no Windows OS is ready for prime time until the official release of at least Service Pack 1. Vista is a case in point: Straight out of the box, and not long after the day of release, Vista required no fewer than 10 updates from Microsoft's Web site.

Today, if a system builder updates clients' systems with Vista, they will need to check every application and hardware device installed in the customer's machine for compatibility. The system builder will then need to update these apps and devices as necessary. Device drivers will have to be found, downloaded and installed manually.

As a result, a large-scale roll-out of Vista systems by a small system builder -- especially if attempted without adequate planning -- could be a profit-eating monster. Not just once, but repeatedly over time as new issues are potentially uncovered by customers' usage habits.

Today, I am recommending that my customers stay with Windows XP Professional, using the recently released Service Pack 2b. For those who do, I offer a free upgrade coupon to Windows Vista that they can use later. These coupons, by the way, are available through authorized distribution channels.

This wait-and-see approach offers the customer peace of mind: Their current XP system is reliable and compatible with all of the latest hardware and software offerings, and they can upgrade to Vista when both they and Microsoft are ready. This approach also buys critical time for the system builder. He can wait until Microsoft prepares the necessary Vista updates, and until other hardware and software manufacturers release verified, Vista-compatible updates of their products.

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