Fewer Vista Migrations Planned Despite SP1 Release - 13 Aug 2008

The release of Microsoft Vista SP1 hasn't impacted IT administrators' plans to adopt the newest Windows OS, a June 2008 online survey conducted by King Research and commissioned by KACE Networks found. In fact, more IT departments have no Vista-migration plans than a similar November 2007 survey found.

The King Research June 2008 survey found that of the 1,162 IT professionals surveyed, 60 percent had no Vista migration plans, an increase of 7 percent from a November 2007 King Research survey of over 900 IT professionals. Ninety-two percent of the participants said the Vista SP1 release hadn't changed their migration plans.

The good news for Microsoft is that overall, fewer IT professionals had Vista concerns after the SP1 release (82 percent) than in the November 2007 survey (90 percent), even though the increased confidence hasn't led to increased adoption. Three percent of the survey participants said the SP1 release actually delayed their Vista-migration plans (two percent said the SP1 release accelerated their migration plans).

The June 2008 survey found that the overwhelming (83 percent) Vista-migration concern was its compatibility with required business software. The OS's performance (i.e. boot time, speed) was also a significant concern (over 60 percent), as were user's adaptation to the new interface (nearly 60 percent) and Vista's stability (over 50 percent).

While Vista concerns aren't breaking news, the survey's findings about continued interest in non-Windows OS adoption as an alternative to a Vista-migration might raise some Microsoft-executive eyebrows. The June 2008 survey found that 42 percent of the IT professionals surveyed said they've considered adopting non-Windows OSs as an alternative to a Vista migration, down from 44 percent in the November 2007 survey. While the number of IT professionals considering non-Windows OSs as a Vista-migration alternative dropped 2 percent from November 2007 to June 2008, the number of non-Windows OSs deployments increased.

In stark contrast to decreasing Vista-migrations, non-Windows OS deployments increased from 9 percent in November 2007 to 11 percent in June 2008. The number of expected non-Windows OS deployments also increased from 25 percent in November 2007 to 30 percent in June 2008. Even the number of participants that said there was no possibility of switching to a non-Windows OS decreased from 15 percent in November 2007 to 8 percent in June 2008. Mac OS remained the alternative OS most likely to be deployed in place of Vista (29 percent), followed by Red Hat Linux (roughly 24 percent) and Ubuntu (approximately 22 percent).

A PDF of the June 2008 survey results is available at KACE Networks' "Windows Vista Adoption Trends: A Survey of Technology Professionals" web page. A PDF of the November 2007 survey is available at KACE Networks' "Windows Vista Adoption and Alternatives: A Survey of Technology Professionals" web page. I had to register once to access both documents.