Comments on: Is it Time to Move to Windows 8

By: jaxun

jaxun — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 01:50:17 +0000

I think with a little orientation and some pre-deployment UI cleanup, Win8 is not going to be as steep a learning curve as I anticipated for our staff. Once I started using it (migrating from Win7 this summer on my laptop), and figured out how to turn off the annoying components, it became a more streamlined experience.

From a technology management perspective, Windows 8 is pretty much the same as Windows 7 under the hood, so I won’t have to re-invent many of the tools I had to tweak when migrating from XP to 7. It will be nice to have a unified environment.

I will be finishing out the XP retirement with Windows 7 builds this year, but all the builds after that will have the Windows 8 image on it.

By: YuriK

YuriK — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:10:56 +0000

Upgraded from Windows 7 Pro (I had to because the Hyper-V Manager for Windows 7 has limitations compared to Windows 8 version), very happy with the new version so far. It is far more productive for me as an IT Pro and for two employees who got Windows 8 to work with. The only thing I showed them is how “Windows” key works and I printed out the list of keyboard shortcuts (don’t know if they use them or not, but I’m using them all the way: Win+D, Win+E, Win+R, Win+C, Win+L and my favorite Win+X.)
Time to move forward!

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:47:50 +0000

A factor to consider is where you are regarding current OS deployment. Many companies are still transitioning from XP to Windows 7. If you’re mid-transition adding a third OS to the mix will in fairly short order become a support nightmare.

On the other hand, if you’re still and XP shop and about to upgrade, going to 8 might make sense. I agree that as butt-ugly as the new UI is on a desktop, MS seems to be committed to it. If you plan to stay a MS shop then skip 7 and bite the bullet. Committing now gives you time to perhaps roll out Classic Shell to ease the transition.

I wouldn’t underestimate the cost associated with lost productivity, however. It’s something we in IT tend to do all too readily. Consider, however, this in real-dollar terms. If you have a $20 an hour employee and they only lose 10% productivity during a 6 week transition period (4hr loss per week * 6 weeks * $20) that comes to $480 per employee for that period. Given that Win8 Pro retails for $199, it becomes clear acquisition costs are the LEAST of your budget concerns.

Lost productivity is real and costs real money.

By: LTParis

LTParis — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:48:40 +0000

Windows 8 is such a departure UI wise that for a business as a whole, except in rare cases, it would interrupt workflow just trying to learn the idiosyncrasies of the UI. It seems what performance gains are to be had from it are stymied by a decision at Redmond to make the interface one-for-all. Great table gestures, all that do not belong on the desktop.

Also with the rumors that MS is going on a very accelerated OS release schedule it may be worth sitting W8 out to see where MS may take it.

Which all totally differs for Server 2012. While the UI can be an impediment it is far less so given an IT Pro can work around the changes far quicker than the average user. I know personally I am going to be deploying Server 2012 for every server that I can muster.