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 Channel Futures

Best Practices


Vista: 40 Million Licenses, How Many Satisfied Users?

  • Written by The VAR Guy 1
  • May 15, 2007

The VAR Guy isn’t accusing Microsoft of creative accounting. He knows Bill Gates isn’t like former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow. But The VAR Guy scratched his head when Gates said Vista sales now exceed 40 million copies. Hmmm. Let’s take a closer look at the facts.

First, let’s give Microsoft credit: 40 million copies of anything is an impressive number. And yes, the vast majority of US consumer PCs now ship with Vista pre-installed. And some companies, including Diskeeper, say they have happy Vista customers that the media is overlooking. Surely, a large number of Vista customers truly like the product.

Now for a cold, harsh reality check: Nearly 50 percent of business technology professionals think Vista is falling short of expectations, according to a recent InformationWeek survey. Do some quick math, using InformationWeek’s figures, and that suggests there are roughly 20 million Vista users who aren’t impressed with the operating system.

Fact is, Vista is a memory hog with limited hardware compatibility. That has left the door wide open for alternatives. For instance:

  • Dell just re-introduced Windows XP on selected desktops.
  • Dell also plans to ship some consumer PCs with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed within the next few weeks.
  • Tech Data recently introduced Apple Macintoshes with Windows XP pre-installed
  • Hauppauge Digital says demand for Vista upgrades isn’t quite there yet.
  • The VAR Guy can’t name one great application designed for Vista.

Microsoft may have sold 40 million licenses. But don’t let them sell you their positive spin on Vista’s market acceptance. The revenue from Vista is pouring in. But customer praise for Vista certainly isn’t.

Tags: Agents Cloud Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Best Practices New/Changing Channel Programs

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5 comments

  1. Avatar Melvin Scott May 16, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
    Reply

    VAR Guy: How much does Apple pay you?

  2. Avatar The VAR Guy May 16, 2007 @ 1:56 pm
    Reply

    Ouch. That hurt. Please note that The VAR Guy has long been a Dell/Windows user but switched to Mac OS X last year. His next system will be a Dell/Ubuntu system for home. And, if Vista service pack 1 is good, he may finally purchase Vista. But for now, there’s no need to use a big, resource hungry operating system from Microsoft that doesn’t support many old applications and doesn’t have many new applications.

  3. Avatar Erik Rodriguez May 18, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
    Reply

    Vista is a thorn in the ass of every IT department.

  4. Avatar Chuck Williams May 19, 2007 @ 12:05 am
    Reply

    Glad to hear you are moving to Ubuntu. It’s time people realize the maturity of the modern linux desktop. Having the debian package manager available with a menu of every application you can imagine just a click away sure beats the Microsoft world of license fees, copy protection, cd’s, and interminable security keys.

  5. Avatar TechIQ raquo; Archive raquo; Dell, Intel Sponsor Linux Confe June 18, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
    Reply

    […] continue to aggressively promote Windows Vista. And that#8217;s logical, considering Microsoft has already sold 40 million Vista licenses. But for the first time in a decade, as Ubuntu Live proves, Windows isn#8217;t the only party in […]

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