Mar 14, 2012

Is Windows 8 a move towards or away from enterprise users?

Windows 8 looks pretty, and in theory it could be one OS to rule them all since variants will run on machines from PCs to tablets. But does it cater to casual individual users, or is it an enterprise focused OS? When I see a graphics intensive user interface, I can't help but think that the focus is on personal use, since I for one don't want to use a lot of my machine's resources just to make something look nice. When it comes to tablets, I have warmer, fuzzier feelings about Windows 8. It seems to be more suited to control by touchscreen than by mouse, but I don't have the hands-on experience yet to make this any more than a feeling.



Interesting question.  I think the obvious answer is that it intends to be both.  It will likely be some time before we see how enterprise users feel about Windows 8 because many, many company have just completed the migration to Windows 7.  Think about how long Windows XP was (is) around and in widespread use.  I doubt many businesses will be lining up anytime soon for another migration to a very different and unfamiliar OS, no matter how good it may be.


Window 8 does have some features that make it look pretty attractive from an IT standpoint.  It will come with Hyper-V virtualization software that up to now has only been available on MS server products.  It also has improved AppLocker and BitLocker so they should be more resource efficient at the same time it improves security.  The interface is going to take some getting used to though.  


I'd classify it as a big mess. They've glommed a tablet interface onto a desktop operating system. I don't think it's enterprise-friendly at all since most enterprise users are used to the regular Windows user interface. Windows 8 is something entirely different.

My guess is that smart enterprise level people will wait a long while before even considering moving to Windows 8. It makes sense to see if Microsoft fixes the interface mess before spending money on Windows 8.

Maybe it will be hugely successful, I don't know. But there seems little in it to immediately entice businesses to upgrade to it when Windows 7 works so well right now. The interface changes are going to require time and training for people to get used to so the smart enterprise folks will wait and let Microsoft tweak Windows 8 first.
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