With the announcement of the upcoming release of Service Pack 1 for its Vista operating system, there are still many corporate entities that are not falling into the line that Microsoft wishes.

In the past, most corporate users were switched to the newest OS  as soon as the first service package was released, and pronounced solid. It was almost as if the Pope had sanctified the move. The one thing that no article I’ve seen is reporting is a point I have made before, but bears repeating.

In every update to a new operating system from Microsoft until now, there has been at least one feature that the newer operating system offered, that propelled users into adoption. With Windows XP there were more than just a few reasons to adopt. In fact, it could be argued that Microsoft has done too good a job (for the most part) at making XP so useful.

Vista adds nothing to the solution of problems for the user base, outside of making the interface nicer to look at. The implementation of the UI has changed enough things so that the majority or corporate citizens think the learning curve is not worth the difference in look.

As a large user of Windows XP, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has decided that, though it is upgrading its hardware to certainly be capable of easily running Vista, it will simply be reinstalling XP. The hardware upgrade will come in January of 2008, but the 7000 desktop computers that the ATF currently has will continue to run XP until at least April 2009. In case that date sounds familiar, it is the point at which mainstream support for XP stops. At that point, it is only a small step until the planned release of Windows 7.

In an article concerning Vista adoption, a CIO, who asked for anonymity, declared that the 35,000 desktop computers at his Texas bank will stay with XP for at least one more full year.

The article makes it clear that some businesses will be using Vista soon, possibly before years end, but these are very large scale businesses with an excess of 10,000 PCs. Companies in this position are given much more attention when problems arise by the people in Redmond.

Still other corporate respondents state that XP will be for the time being, the only operating system in use at their companies. Some are hoping for the extension of support for XP, much as the support was extended for Windows 2000. With many more copies of XP in use than those of Win 2000, perhaps that wished for extension is not out of the question.

In the are I work, many have expressed the intention to skip entirely the Vista iteration, while upgrading hardware, so that adoption of the next OS that works for them can be adopted. Most are referring to Windows ‘7′, but there are many talking up Solaris, SuSE, or another workable Linux flavor.

Microsoft may yet rue the day that Vista was released unfinished.

Tags: microsoft, windows vista, service pack 1, windows xp, service pack 3, mainstream support dates, relevant features, windows 7, linux, solaris