Summary
I have worked with many global companies on their Windows 7 program for over a year now. Windows 7 is and will be adopted. Clients have already signed up to (and paid) for extensive pilots and application readiness for the operating system that might just help them.
Analysis
I have read the article with interest. It completely goes against what my experience has been with customers. I have worked alongside some of the biggest companies in the world while at Dell to assist in the migration to Windows 7. Many of those companies have actually signed purchase orders for Dell hardware, MIcrosoft agreements and Dell consulting to deliver the managed rollout of Windows 7 by the end of February 2010. I am not talking small seat numbers either. This is 50,000 seats and higher and takes into account the application rationalisation and readiness which has been undertaken since January/February this year. If you look at the support policies of the hardware vendors they are going back five years on hardware meaning that a company who adopts Windows 7 will see an immediate return because of the performance improvements over Vista. The stability is not questioned and many of the companies who have undertaken extensive pilot rollouts have not come across "show stopping" situations. In fact many have been able to create a corporate build with reduced manpower and find it to be accomodating to their invironment without much configuration.
Where Microsoft does have a negative area is the licensing model for Hosted Virtual Desktops (formely know as VDI). This is the single biggest stopping point for what I would consider as mass adoption. They have got their message completely wrong and still work off of a Terminal Services model. HVD is not Terminal Services and never will be. If Microsoft wants to remove and sweep under the carpet the disaster that is Vista they need to look at the Windows 7 Centralised Licensing model and take external advice on what the market wants - not what Microsoft wants to force feed.
