Summary

Fair enough but given all the pain Microsoft has inflicted on IT pros in the past I think they need to move the needle to more like 75/25.  While our preliminary review of 7 has been promising the reality is that in this economic environment IT professionals are not going to recommend doing mass migrations to 7.
 

Analysis

In my former post we were planning on introducing it via attrition.  As a new laptop/desktop was purchased it would be loaded with Windows 7.  We saw absolutely zero reason to switch out the operating system (currently XP) on our existing machines.  Under normal operating conditions we'll effectively replace our entire landscape in 3-4 years without the cost / pain of doing any migrations. 
 
While it is nice that Microsoft 'appears' to have come out with a more stable, less buggy, operating system than Vista that doesn't win them any points with me.  Does Apple tout that their operating system actually works?  Isn't that a minimum requirement?  Or at least shouldn't it be?
 
Steve Ballmer needs to roll out the red carpet to the IT pro's that his former boss all too often ignored in the past.  Done right, this is an opportunity for Microsoft to gain some credibility and some momentum.  If however the approach is really a bunch of advertising and very little actual useful support then it will be the same old Microsoft.

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