[LINK] Vista: Why you shouldn't upgrade yet

[Stilgherrian]

On 29/1/07 11:45 PM, "Malcolm Miles" <mgm-ns at tardis.net> wrote:
>> My gut says that the reaction will be: "We've already got Office and she
>> ain't broke so we ain't gonna fix it."
> 
> Alternatively "We've already paid for it with Software Assurance as
> part of our Volume Licensing agreement so we better get our money's
> worth and upgrade as soon as we can".

I have yet to encounter a small business with fewer than 20 employees who'd
even heard of volume software licensing.

The vast majority of those at the smallest end of the market don't even know
that software is "licensed" rather than "bought", and perhaps half are
unaware that a license can say things like "per computer" or "may not be
transferred".

I should flag that these are business that actually *do* and *make* things,
not businesses that are all about computers. Perhaps the biggest problem I
find with "computer people" talking to these businesses is understanding
that computers are (or should be) a very small part of their attention span.

Think: a catering company with a 4-person office, a small PR firm (two
women, one laptop each), a hypnotherapist and his office assistant, a woman
who runs bridal parties (sole trader), a husband-and-wife team starting to
sell DVDs retail online, another husband-and-wife team and their office
assistant selling resources to teachers, a construction company (a few
builders and their office manager)...

Honestly, the "need" to upgrade to Vista is WAY down their list -- and
that's right and proper, IMHO.

They'd be better off spending a few hundred dollars getting someone to show
them the few thousand features of Office 2003 that they don't use, let along
given them yet more tools (toys?) that will never, ever be used.

Stil


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