Any business running Windows 7 is in a perfect position to upgrade to Windows 8 - the compatibility aspects are so similiar it is a piece of cake to do a phased migration of a few PCs. Organizations in this position would be wise to gradually start upgrading sooner rather than later and get it over and done with.

Not only that I think licensing would be fairly reasonable going from 7 to 8.

Going from XP is a considerable nightmare.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Any business running Windows 7 is in a perfect position to upgrade to Windows 8 - the compatibility aspects are so similiar it is a piece of cake to do a phased migration of a few PCs. Organizations in this position would be wise to gradually start upgrading sooner rather than later and get it over and done with.

Not only that I think licensing would be fairly reasonable going from 7 to 8.

Going from XP is a considerable nightmare.

what business care about is first and foremost the business case to upgrade, they dont upgrade because its easy or hard to, they upgrade if there is a business reason to. Also you stating about upgrading from windows 7 when most businesses are not even using windows 7, look at the stats for IE6 and it will give you an idea what OS most are using. Windows 8 I have posted now several posts highlighting problems with it that are things you dont expect in a business OS. None of the posts have receieved any direct reply.

A second thing a business will car about is the impact on its efficiency, any change of UI is going to cause serious doubts.

Yes there may be a few business's using it for the sake of it but it wont be any notable number. Windows 8 is designed to appeal to those who enjoy novelties.

Also you ignored that business's tend to (a) wait for at least a SP1 and (b) their current OS is on its last legs.

So your last line is more relevant given that more business's use XP than windows 7.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

what business care about is first and foremost the business case to upgrade,

I know this. Try managing 1000+ computers on Windows XP and then try managing them on Windows 7. You'll soon see a business case.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

look at the stats for IE6 and it will give you an idea what OS most are using.

I don't know what stats you are looking at but not many people use IE6 any more. Perhaps the idiots over at the UK government but most others have actually pulled their finger out and upgraded. Over the past year or so there has been a major push and effort to reduce usage.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Windows 8 I have posted now several posts highlighting problems with it that are things you dont expect in a business OS. None of the posts have receieved any direct reply.

Like what?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Also you ignored that business's tend to (a) wait for at least a SP1

That's probably because their IT consultants or IT staff are [censored] idiots. As soon as I hear that line it is often a good indication you are dealing with someone who is about 10 years in the past and/or a total idiot.

managing computers is just a small part of any business case. One has to also address the people using those 1000 computers, costs of upgrading, costs of redeveloping apps, downtime and more.

If you are going ahead tho bumping your 1k to windows 8 I am curious how it goes so I hope you update us.

In a large enterprise management of the IT systems is not trivial - your IT team are responsible for a large budget and all have their own fields. Just look at the IT department in a typical council. It is often the bane of the rest of the council workers lives, but that is because councils tend to employ bafoons to run their IT!

IT is integral to almost all business operations.

There is no need for any exclusive downtime if done properly, that is the beauty of Windows. By all means if you have mucked up your domain so extensively that nobody knows how to do anything with it then you will have problems, but don't blame Microsoft for that.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Any business running Windows 7 is in a perfect position to upgrade to Windows 8 - the compatibility aspects are so similiar it is a piece of cake to do a phased migration of a few PCs. Organizations in this position would be wise to gradually start upgrading sooner rather than later and get it over and done with.

Not only that I think licensing would be fairly reasonable going from 7 to 8.

Going from XP is a considerable nightmare.

I can't see the company I work for updating to windows 8, they only updated from windows 2000 to XP a couple of years back.

I bet they have a couple of thousand machines if not more in total.

In reply to a post by DavidFinbarr:

Last time I used a Apple/ Mac in a working environment was in the 80's.
I've used countless Windows, many in-house systems, and even SAP.

So from personal experience there must be something lacking in regard to business needs.

i know someone who uses Apple MACs in a working environment, ok it is a home business but it is still a working environment.

No way would I buy a new laptop or PC with windows 8. It is god awful. Stick with win 7.

I find windows 8 intuitive, fast and responsive. It runs anything I throw at it and makes lovely regular backups of my main files. All good so far and no problems. I also like the inbuilt spell checker for IE10 and other apps.