Vista = Waster?
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As Bill Gates globe trots to promote Vista, Microsoft’s latest assault on hardware, IT pundits speculate about the corporate uptake of the new operating system. Some say adoption is an inevitability, and easily absorbed as new PC’s arrive with Vista pre-installed. Others claim the hardware requirements and extra management hurdles will keep
corporations ordering or installing XP until Gates is resting quietly in the Old Hackers Home.
I’m more worried about the collateral damage to the economy.
The delightful cynics at The Register report the financial impact of Vista as projected by IDC. Though the story spins these costs as financial stimuli, others see it as a burdensome tax. The cost is inarguable, so the benefit must be understood in order to justify the
cost.
IDC uses Massachusetts (land of Open Document Format Mandates) as a case study. They project that Vista will "create" 5,000 new jobs within IT companies and churn some $2 billion (yes, ‘B’ and in "Billionaire Bill") in money exchanges during just the first year of availability. As nice as it is to have 5,000 more employed people, we must ask what extra benefits come from this multi-billion dollar "investment." Keep in mind that Massachusetts has it easy compared to New York, a state that IDC predicts will dump $7 billion Vista bucks, as well as a few gangsters, into the their community toilet (a.k.a. the East River).
Yes, that is the sound of crickets you hear. IT is struggling in the
silence to determine what Vista offers that is different enough to want to suffer the expense and cranial follicle removal their IT staffs will experience.
- There is disk drive encryption, but that can be had as a third party
add-on for XP for the relatively few road-warrior laptops in use.
Besides, techies have not yet recovered their breath from the idea of
Microsoft offering security features. - There is the UNIX-like subsystem to allow for some application and
utility portability from UNIX/Linux, but it is more likely to garner
litigation from SCO than paying customers. - Complete Backup would induce a switching cost from however enterprises
are doing backups now, and would be an incomplete solution until Vista is
completely rolled-out … in other words, not a backup plan. - Instant Search offers nothing more than one can get with the
Google Desktop Search, which is becoming the defacto desktop search
implement for enterprises. - A lot of features either target consumers or require committing to a
horde of Windows servers, and thus find at best a limited sub-market. - And, the Aero Desktop seeks any business need at all.
Microsoft has an uphill battle within the enterprise to make Vista relevant.
After all, two billion dollars is big money to anyone. Even Bill Gates, as that would eat up 1/24th of his personal net worth.
