Vista is a significant problem for small businesses

Implications: Small businesses are adversly affected by adding a Vista computer. they are rarely aware of the compatibility issues they will encounter. Upgrade to Quickbooks and printer drivers can be significant financial impact.

Analysis:  I manage an IT business that is focused on small businesses. Issues with peripheral and software compatibility have been a huge problem for small businesses. the biggest problems have involved Quickbooks and printers.

Most small businesses use Quickbooks. Only the latest version of Quickbooks will run under Windows. Few realize that if they purchase a new computer for their office staff they will also have to upgrade their QB installation.

Printers are a similar problem. when they attempt to share a printer without updating the driver on the existing PC the result can be a system lock-up. sorting out these issues and getting all of the drivers updated can take hours of tech work.

Unfortunately most small businesses purchase their PC's through office super stores where they can only get PC's with Vista.

My PC sales have skyrocketed since Vista came out as I can still build systems with XP. We ahve also experienced a large uptick in business support services.

XP did not seem to cause as much disruption and was a much more significant improvement over its predecessor.