Windows 7’s XP Mode Not Universally Considered Beneficial

While the authors at ZDNet, amongst other places, are bowing down to the unbelievable genius of Microsoft, for including Windows XP SP3 as an add-in for  Windows 7 (uber-editions only), not all who speak on these things are warm and fuzzy.

On the contrary, Greg Keizer, of ComputerWorld, states that this might actually be a nightmare; one which has yet to unfold to the IT departments of the planet.

XPM is a smart, if necessary, move, given the reception users gave to Windows Vista, Cherry said. “Because of the way Vista was received — it’s got enough baggage already — the more they can do to address all those things [Vista was criticized for] upfront with Windows 7, the more likely that people will go to the new OS,” he said.

Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner Inc., echoed Cherry’s take on what motivated Microsoft to offer XPM. “It shows the extent to [which] Microsoft wants to get people who use XP onto Windows 7,” he said.

But Silver sees some big downsides. “You’ll have to support two versions of Windows,” he said. “Each needs to be secured, antivirused, firewalled and patched. Businesses don’t want to support two instances of Windows on each machine. If a company has 10,000 PCs, that’s 20,000 instances of Windows.”

The other big problem Silver foresees with XPM is that it may cause some companies to neglect the real task: making sure the software they run is compatible with Windows 7. “This is a great Band-Aid, but companies need to heal their applications,” Silver said. “They’ll be doing themselves a disservice if, because of XPM, they’re not making sure that all their apps support Windows 7.”

When you think about it that way, perhaps Microsoft isn’t doing anyone, except the ad department, and favors. After all, including Windows XP SP3 allows the ad department to speak with phrases like “double the value” and “twice the product for the same price”. Those ad guys are masters of spin – they will certainly talk up the product in any way that steers customers to get the greens from their jeans.

Also, noted in the article is a small concern about the fact that mainstream support for the add-in, that is, Windows XP SP3, ended just a little over a week ago. Though the problems with older apps should be worked out for XP, it remains to be seen how well these applications will work in a virtualized fashion. Not in the article, but occurring to me was the idea that many businesses never updated to Service Pack 3, and though no problems are supposed to be encountered in the update, stranger things have happened. Of course, most of the businesses who might face this problem will be on a support contract. What happens when Microsoft decides that support, even by contract, isn’t worthwhile?

And then, later in the article, the long refrain we hear whenever updating starts being spoken about -

In the end, XPM illustrates a long-standing problem for Microsoft, said Silver: supporting aged applications. Silver and fellow Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald made waves last year when they argued that Windows was “collapsing” under the weight of nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions.

“This sheds some light on Microsoft’s compatibility problems,” Silver said today, “which slows people down in adopting the newest operating system. They’re using this as a way to get Windows out there [on enterprise desktops] quicker, but this isn’t the answer. It needs to morph into something that’s supportable long-term.”

They always speak of legacy applications and the cost of keeping them. It comes down to cost either way, and I’m certain that the bean counters have the figures to 3 decimal places, giving the finance department plenty of feedback concerning the validity of Microsoft’s assertions, and the company bottom line.

Is it possible to make things progress without breaking legacy programs? Microsoft says no, but I wonder. It seems as though, with so much abstraction taking place (by Microsoft’s admission and their constantly educating us) that much streamlining and perfecting could take place without difficulty. Lots of change underneath, with very little on the top layer. Sometimes it might be as easy as the size of DLLs and their movement in and out of physical memory.

I personally see this offer as a way to accommodate customers while at the same time showing how difficult it will be for them to stay with XP. Killing them with kindness and their own wishes, yet all the time keeping them unaware of the eventual outcome..

For those who install the XP Mode, I see it beating a hasty retreat from the company hard drives in a very short time.

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All great truths begin as blasphemies.George Bernard Shaw