Microsoft Tells Vista-Averse Businesses Not to Wait for Windows 7Microsoft Tells Vista-Averse Businesses Not to Wait for Windows 7

In a new white paper (PDF) entitled "The Business Value Of Windows Vista," Microsoft outlines five reasons businesses should switch to Vista now (if they already haven't). The paper also explicitly warns against planning to skip Vista and move right to Windows 7, due out in 2009.The five reasons for switching now are better security, improved management of mobile PCs, enhanced productivity, accelerated ROI, and reduced support costs. And then there's the warning: "Customers who are still using Windows XP when Windows 7 releases will have a similar application compatibility experience moving to Windows 7 as exists moving to Windows Vista from Windows XP," says the paper.

In the executive summary, Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows Product Management, offers advice to companies planning to heed the white paper's words: "If I ran an IT organization, I would first test and remediate my applications on Windows Vista. Then I would make sure that all new machines had 2 GB of RAM and run Windows Vista Enterprise Service Pack 1."ChannelWeb