So, Windows 8.

Hmmm.

We’ve just got Windows 7 established as the steady, reliable workhorse for Windows desktops. XP is in its death throes. Vista was almost stillborn on the corporate desktop, it needed extensive rewriting and repackaging before it was accepted (i.e. Windows 7 was released and taken up).

Windows 8 with its extensively modified user interface has already generated a reactionary response from the corporate world, unsure of how to integrate this new system in to its setup or its training.

It may take a year or so before people get used to it. People may never get used to it. Microsoft may abandon the Metro interface and step back to the ‘standard desktop’. Whatever happens it’s unlikely that Windows 8 will replace Windows 7 on the corporate desktop. Windows 9, however, may learn from the Windows 8 experience and deliver something with which people feel more comfortable. We may have got used to seeing Windows 8 on personal machines, so the jump in to 9 may not seem as bad as the switch to 8 may have been.

So, I think it may be a while until we roll out Windows 8. Maybe when it’s been extensively rewritten & repackaged…