Whether you are a VAR, system builder, channel partner, or just a one person repair shop, you may wish to consider reading CRN-System Builder magazine. I subscribe this this publication to try and stay on top of the latest technology trends, and also to keep one finger on the pulse of what other small companies are doing. This morning I was reading an interesting article about the lucrative market in ripping Vista off of new machines and installing XP in its place.

For the most part these are systems used for business purposes but the one statement that really hit the nail on the head was this one:

I’m not willing to make my client a beta site to find Microsoft bugs.

Another interesting statement was this one:

We are ripping it off systems 99 percent of the time,” said Jay Tipton, vice president of Technology Specialists, a Fort Wayne, Ind., Microsoft Gold partner. “There are too many issues especially in the medical vertical market.

Tipton said in the medical industry that he is serving new systems that come with Vista must be tested by the Food and Drug Administration because they are being used in chemotherapy scenarios. Wiping the operating system off systems and replacing it with XP is a two and half hour process, said Tipton.

Technology Specialists won’t even run the operating system internally on any of its production systems because Tipton does not want his technicians taking time out of their day to “debug Vista.” The earliest Tipton sees that ripping and replacing ending is when Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista. “Hopefully at that time Microsoft will fix all the little gotchas that make the older software not work,” said Tipton.

Down in Florida another vendor states:

Glen Coffield, president of Smart Guys Computers, an Orlando, Fla.-based retail chain with six stores in central Florida, said his No. 1 service job right now is wiping Vista off systems and replacing it with Windows XP. In the last 90 days, Smart Guys has ripped Vista off more than 1,000 systems and replaced it with Windows XP Professional. Smart Guys is charging anywhere from $150 to $250 for the rip and replace, said Coffield.

After reading this story it really makes one wonder what Microsoft is thinking these days. They no longer can ignore the consumer and throw any piece of junk at us, expecting us to accept it, now that there are viable options such as the new Apple systems and also Linux. Maybe if they got out of the gaming console market, which they have done a crappy job at anyway, they could of used that $1.15 billion ear marked to fix the broken X-box systems and came out with SP1 for Vista by now. Or even some new toys that were promised for Ultimate which they lamely claim will be about two years away.

Just my two cents. But what do you think?

Full story here.

Comments welcome.

[tags]vista, remove, xp, system builders, [/tags]