XP-To-Windows 7 Upgrades Nixed By DOE LabXP-To-Windows 7 Upgrades Nixed By DOE Lab

In a blow to Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Energy's oldest physics lab has decided not to upgrade its Windows XP computers to the new Windows 7 operating system.

IT personnel at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory "see no reason to upgrade an XP system to Windows 7," according to lab's online IT bulletin.

Instead, Berkeley's IT department plans to wait until Microsoft issues the first Service Pack for Windows 7 before using the software, and only on new hardware.

"We intend to deploy systems with Windows 7 after the first service pack has been released and we have a standard image that works for general lab use," said Berkeley's IT bulletin on Sept. 17. If Microsoft sticks to its usual schedule, Windows 7 SP1 won't likely see daylight until late 2010 or early 2011.

While it's not unusual for IT organizations to forego the use of new products until all the bugs have been worked out, Berkeley appears to have no qualms about upgrading its Macs to Apple's Snow Leopard OS—which has been on the market for less than a month.

"The recommended Mac OS is Snow Leopard," Berkeley tech staffers advised.

Berkeley's decision to hold off on Windows 7 installation for at least year is consistent with data that shows enterprises will be slow to adopt the OS.

59.3% of the 1,100 IT administrators that responded to a July survey by management tools vendor ScriptLogic said they have no plans to deploy Windows 7. 42.7% of survey respondents said time and resources required to implement a new OS were the biggest barriers to deployment, while 39.1% cited application compatibility as the biggest hurdle.

34% of those surveyed said they would likely deploy Windows 7 by the end of 2010, while just 5.4% said they would move to the OS right after it debuts on Oct. 22nd.

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