XP Out, Windows 7 In By 2012

Forrester Research just stamped XP with an expiration date of 2012. In a report published last week, Forrester makes a strong recommendation for businesses -- plan to completely migrate from XP by 2012.

With driver issues and all-around bad press about Vista, the assumption is that most businesses opted to stick with XP. In fact, Forrester's research does back up that assumption: 75 percent of SMB computers are still running XP. The hesitancy for corporate IT to roll out the latest OS is, of course, steeped in fear of a new set of technical headaches. Also, it's not surprising that many WinTel outfits are gun-shy after witnessing or experiencing the problems of Vista.

Still, Forrester makes some sound technical arguments in favor of not putting off an upgrade to Windows 7. Forrester's suggested migration deadline of 2012 still gives businesses a 12-to-18-month testing period. This gives sufficient time to upgrade outdated equipment, or perform upgrades on newer equipment. For example, for upgrading memory, Windows 7 seems to run happiest on at least 2 GB, and in performance benchmarks reviewers have done in the CRN Test Center, it screams with 4 GB.

:story: Full story: CRN