So what are they running?
So my question is, “What are they running?”
A survey conducted by Quest Software’s ScriptLogic unit received 1000 responses from 20,000 surveys sent. A little over a third of the respondents said that they plan to deploy Windows 7 by the end of 2010, and 5.4% said that they plan to move to Windows 7 this calendar year. A whopping 59% of respondents said that they have “no plans to deploy at this time.” 
Some 35% of respondents said that they have saved money by skipping upgrades and delaying purchases! The top two obstacles for adoption were lack of time and resources (42% of respondents) and application compatibility (39% of respondents).
Well, I certainly understand anyone’s reluctance to upgrade to the latest version of Windows. I have also noted that, “The trouble with ‘control freaks’ <a group for which many systems administrators could qualify> is that they are not happy until everything stops moving, and then they wonder why….” It looks as though things may have stopped moving in the “Windows Upgrade” department! The CNET article does not say, but I really wonder how many of the folks who have no plans to upgrade to Windows 7 never upgraded to Windows Vista, either!
Are they running XP? (“Enquiring minds want to know!”) I once worked at a company that used XP (Don’t even ask about the problems!) and another that would not allow computers running XP to connect to its network! Are the respondents running something that is at least Y2K compliant? I surely hope so.
(Note added July 18, 2009: From the limited sample of folks who visit my Web site, it looks like they are running XP or MacOS X. )
Does all of this money that has been saved by not doing upgrades cover all of the damage done by virus infections that could have been (I won’t say “prevented,” ) but perhaps “minimized?” Do the administrators apply security upgrades (when present ) or is this too expensive?
I have no ready answers for Windows administrators, who seem trapped by their own ideology, that of their management, or the huge cost of changing operating systems (and the huge cost of NOT changing operating systems). If they could step back from the situation and “drink in the data” dispassionately, they might have a better idea of what to do.
(For years, I have used the “What’s that site running?” box on Netcraft’s site to poll at least the outermost layer of a company’s Web presence and get a quick estimate of their corporate intelligence.)
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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