Microsoft is been touting the next release of Windows, due at the end of 2006 and code-named “Longhorn,” but Ars Technica finds that many users are not even using Windows XP yet –

Windows XP has been out for nearly four years, and Longhorn is due within the next 18 months. Despite that, a new survey shows that nearly half of all businesses that use Windows as their desktop operating system are still running Windows 2000.

… the fact that Windows 2000 turned out to be a stable, solid OS has worked against Microsoft as it attempts to get enterprise customers to leave it behind. IT spending been tight over the past couple of years as corporate IT departments extend desktop and laptop refresh cycles in order to cut costs. As a result, corporations are choosing to stick with Windows 2000.

At Independent Sources, our stats packages shows that at least 40% of our Windows users aren’t on XP. If you include the “unknown Windows” category our stats package reports, 60% would not be on XP. That seems like pretty poor market penetration for Microsoft’s flagship OS, and supports the point above article.

The article does not mention another factor that probably keeps people on Windows 2000: if your current version of Windows is working, why mess with it and risk introducing instability? Sounds like IT staffs are voting for having a life outside the office.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2005 at 4:00 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Weekend Edition / Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.