Recommendation for all enterprise techies: Download Win7 now

January 4, 2010 By BobGourley

Windows 7 is really different. It has more functionality, a better interface, and, if you keep it configured/managed, much better security than previous Microsoft operating systems.

Here is another fact about Windows 7: It is coming to your enterprise, sooner or later. And, since its functionality/features/security are an improvement over XP and older systems and since many of the issues with Vista seem to have been addressed, I think we should be accelerating Windows 7 into the enterprise.

Now let me clarify so you know my bias: I also want you to accelerate Open Office and Open Solaris and Red Hat Linux into the enterprise (I’m still a supporter of Open Source for America). And if you are running a small business like me then maybe your primary system should be a Mac. But the enterprise user desktop battle is over and the future is Windows 7. In fact, from what I’ve seen, the future is good enough that I believe all enterprise CTOs should be building their transition plans to Windows 7 now.

The bigger the enterprise the harder it can be to transition to a new system. There are large numbers of applications that have to be tested and some parts of the organization may have old hardware that needs to be updated before new OS’s can be fielded. So this is not going to happen overnight. But moving faster to Windows 7 will better support enterprise users and the mission and that is pretty compelling.

As an aide in accelerating Windows 7 into your enterprise please visit the site at:

http://www.microsoft.com/click/windowstestdrive/itpro/

That site links to a test drive environment running on Microsoft cloud servers. You can dive into Microsoft virutal labs through your web browser and can watch videos that guide you through the product and its features.

There are also links to areas built specially for techies to download the Windows 7 Enterprise edition (a trial version). This is the version that will be in your enterprise environment.