Ready to deploy Windows 7 to 2000 PCs will skip Win8

Got2bereal

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As an engineer getting ready to deploy Windows 7 to our corporate PCs, I've sampled Win8 Consumer Preview. My boss and I are scratching our heads. We have Windows software assurance program which means that we are licensed for whatever the latest Enterprise version Windows OS so cost is not an issue.

I really like Windows 7 in terms of ease of deployment, granular configuration, security features, and performance. Windows 8 seems to have everything Win7 has to offer except usability. It will be an incredible tough sell to get Win8 in it's current form deployed at our firm.

XP has actually lasted almost 9 years here as the corporate standard OS and really there's not that many critical reasons for businesses to go to Win7 either so I believe Win7 may be here to stay for another 5-6 years atleast which will outlast Win8's existence.

I don't think our company is unique, I believe many mid to large size firms are also either still deploying Win7 or already on Win7 and don't see a need to rush over to Win8 yet.

Win8 will probably take a back seat at businesses until something truly big happens and companies need Win8 for its tablet features or else.
 

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Hello and welcome to the forums.

Wise thinking as I can see no flaws in it at all.

I feel slightly like a spammer as I generally don't like doing this kind of thing, but if you and your boss need a solid set of skills on all of the Windows platforms, please take the opportunity to review my account and posts. Feel free to p.m. me at any time if there is any interest.

But very true, Windows 8 offers Enterprise little to no advantage over 7, save perhaps the To Go feature. If anything, 8 will create problems for workers as WinRT and Metro interface will be new to them.
 

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Agreed. Windows 7 is designed to be the Windows that we all know refined to perfection (or as near as Microsoft can manage), while Windows 8 is supposed to a radical change to survive in a changing market where tablets become king. I believe that Microsoft intends Metro to be the the future, but Windows 7 will be around in full force for nearly a decade.
 

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The government organization where I work is primarily a Windows 7 shop, and we're playing catch-up with Windows 7 installs. Unfortunately, we still have legacy hardware that requires different service packs of Windows XP! Like the OP, I don't see Windows 8 being adopted whole-sale by the enterprise. I do see Windows Server 2012, along with System Center 2012 being adopted, though. We're already starting to test System Center 2012, and I'm pretty excited with some of the new features.

Now, I do see some things that Windows 8 can offer the enterprise, and not just Windows to Go. First, there is Client Hyper-V. If an enterprise does not have (or does not want to continue) licensing agreements with VMWare, having Client Hyper-V will be a great asset to any development or testing team. Also, if policy management remains as granular as it is, or becomes more granular, it should be possible to provide a Metro-less experience that can take advantage of the improved kernel.
 

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I'd imagine you could just roll out Windows 8 to the teems that actually need it's exclusive features.
 

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You wouldn't want a mixed environment if it could be avoided.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
 

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The problem with getting Win8 into business is there needs to be Apps that take advantage of it. We probably won't see next ver of MS Office until next year and not that many businesses have adopted MS Office 2010 yet as Office 2007 is still relatively new for many secretaries that recently converted all of their templates to the new format. I can't see any of our users migrate from keyboard + mouse to touchscreens to get work done around the office.
 

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Thanks for telling us about Win8 discussions going on in the corporate world. rep bump and welcome!
From a strictly USER point of view, Win7 will be accepted much more readily from folks used to Win XP. Win8 is a jump that will be fine for some but will require some serious hand holding for most others. 25 years at HP, I saw a LOT of operating system roll-outs and my, my, my, the bitching that came with ALL of them, mostly from the non techies and those damn salesmen!
 

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Hello.

I would like to add this...
8 has not been released yet...right...
still in beta...right...
ok...
8 might not be ready to deploy to thousands of businesses for a year or more until after service pack 1...
perhaps in 2014...

ok...
and the controversy settles...

you would not want to spend tons of dough on untested beta software...
ok
 
Last edited:

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Hello.

I would like to add this...
8 has not been released yet...right...
still in beta...right...
ok...
8 might not be ready to deploy to thousands of businesses for a year or more until after service pack 1...
perhaps in 2014...

ok...
and the controversy settles...

you would not want to spend tons of dough on untested beta software...
ok

I can tell you from experience that Windows 7 was out of box ready for business yet most businesses stayed with XP, there was no business incentive to migrate to Windows 7. It look about 3 years for most businesses to make a case with upgrading because Microsoft chose to end support.

The security issues with XP is irrelevant since majority of businesses have hardware and local desktop firewall that can block almost all not approved apps from running. The only reason businesses upgraded to Windows 7 because it became clear that many apps such as Office 2007 and Internet Explorer runs better with more memory and you need 64bit in order to use more than 3GB of memory.

Many companies just finished their Win7 deployments right now it will take another 3-5+ years for those that recently upgraded to even think about upgrading again.
 

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    Windows 7
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Windows 8 is far from ready. You cannot make a corporate choice based on a early release consumer preview. The final OS is over half a year away. The deployment tools are not even out of beta yet. Rushing to a decision based on a early preview is un-wise. Roll out your Windows 7 deployment. Then 3 or 4 months after Win8 is released then go back and consider it for the future.
 

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Windows 8 is far from ready.

Have to disagree. That being said, I think Windows 7 is the much wiser choice for enterprise. Business use does not need, require or will not benefit in any manner from 8's new features. I can only see it getting in the way of the "average" worker and their workflow.

The Finance app seems fairly good for those that are into that kind of thing, though.
 

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Windows 8 is far from ready. You cannot make a corporate choice based on a early release consumer preview. The final OS is over half a year away. The deployment tools are not even out of beta yet. Rushing to a decision based on a early preview is un-wise. Roll out your Windows 7 deployment. Then 3 or 4 months after Win8 is released then go back and consider it for the future.

Got2 covered this in his last message. It takes years before ANY changes occur in a large corporation. All changes, even minor ones, have to be thoroughly evaluated before being rolled out. Got2 was NOT contemplating rolling out Win8, that would be stupid and would get him fired! Like all good administrators, he is looking at Win8 to see what benefits it could bring to the table for his company. What would the company benefit from the Metro interface? What admin tools have been improved to make his life easier? That is why Got2's post here is a good one as I have not heard from anyone in company's reaction to Win8 yet.
Evaluating software and rolling it out is a constant and unappreciated part of the admin team. My neighbor works in a 30 man office. They just started using Acrobat reader newer than the old version 7 (like 4 years ago!). Of course, the latest reader broke printing some of their most important documents. No, changing stuff is fraught with peril.
Got2, sorry for putting words in your mouth, heh (and I hope Kyle is still a guy's name as I used he a lot, those dang women are hijacking our names!)
 

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Windows 8 is far from ready.

Have to disagree. That being said, I think Windows 7 is the much wiser choice for enterprise. Business use does not need, require or will not benefit in any manner from 8's new features. I can only see it getting in the way of the "average" worker and their workflow.

The Finance app seems fairly good for those that are into that kind of thing, though.

The enterprise SKU/version has not been released yet. There is no possible way to know for sure what changes, if any, will be in that version. I don't disagree that Windows 7 is the wiser choice at this very moment but to completely exclude Windows 8 based solely on a consumer preview is not sound reasoning. As I stated roll with 7 at this time, then after 8 is released along with all the final versions of the deployment tools and the enterprise SKU, make your decision for the future. I have already begun initial evals and testing for our network (6000 computers shared among 16000 users). He is part of the MS assurance program which gives him access to MSDN and all the available tools and SKU's. (MSDN and 2 log ins are included in most assurance programs).

@johnpombrio

It does not take years to evaluate and deploy such software as reader. I work in Education, between teachers, administration, state and federal governments we have hundreds of programs to deal with. I wish I had only 30 users to deal with and a handful of apps to worry about.
 

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Totally get what you mean. Sure.

What I mean is that the OS is ready on a stability/reliability factor - the code is ready and there are no showstoppers known. Obviously, companies or official workplaces are not going to be running a beta no matter how good it is. :)
 

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Haxid, I stand corrected! Thanks for filling in your thoughts on how super admin types are viewing Win8. With all of the articles on the web about Win8, this post is the FIRST I have heard of what large users think of it. Keep your impressions coming! BTW, have YOU adopted Win7 yet across the board?

Reader was not a years long project, just one that was "we really should use stuff that has been written in THIS century" thought by admin. Sheer inertia and fear of breaking the kludges that were needed to get the 1st version running.
 

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Haxid, I stand corrected! Thanks for filling in your thoughts on how super admin types are viewing Win8. With all of the articles on the web about Win8, this post is the FIRST I have heard of what large users think of it. Keep your impressions coming! BTW, have YOU adopted Win7 yet across the board?

Reader was not a years long project, just one that was "we really should use stuff that has been written in THIS century" thought by admin. Sheer inertia and fear of breaking the kludges that were needed to get the 1st version running.

About 90% of the machines capable of running Win 7 are running it. All new hardware comes in with my deployment already integrated from the factory. The last hold outs are set to fall this summer. We have I think, 250 to 300 running Vista still as at the time it was not feasible to bring down the machine and change it to 7 however that time has passed. By Sept. 1 we will be all 7 and XP. Schools don't throw anything away because of such limited funding so we still have a mass of XP machines out there. Probably around 400 or so which the hardware is not capable of running 7 well.
 

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Probably around 400 or so which the hardware is not capable of running 7 well.

No such thing. 7 runs better on ancient hardware than XP.
 

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Probably around 400 or so which the hardware is not capable of running 7 well.

No such thing. 7 runs better on ancient hardware than XP.

Athlon 750Mhz - 1Ghz with 512 pc133 ram which is shared with video. XP runs better, not by much but it does run better.
 

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    DD3 1600 Crucial 8G 2x4
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    NVidia ONY XLR8 gtx460oc
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    Samsung 24" LCD
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    1920x1080
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    Cooler Master 650w
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    Logitech G400
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Probably around 400 or so which the hardware is not capable of running 7 well.

No such thing. 7 runs better on ancient hardware than XP.

Athlon 750Mhz - 1Ghz with 512 pc133 ram which is shared with video. XP runs better, not by much but it does run better.

haha yes, you got me there...

My "ancient" was more along the lines of P4 and about 768 RDRAM or something like that. I have no experience with a machine as you say, but true...it makes sense to me what you're saying.
 

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    1680x1050
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