The Worm Turns, XP Mode Seen As Kludge

There definitely must be something in the water over at ZDNet, or else it’s national take Microsoft to task month, and I never got the memo.

In another astounding change of tune, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes assesses the XP Mode of Windows 7, and it gets an ‘F’. This is quite a change from the accolades that were being heaped on Windows 7 not that long ago. could it be that Windows 7 is showing some cracks already?

AKH gives five major points why XP Mode doesn’t make the grade. It starts with the fact that the user, when installing the virtual operating system has very little power to make the system look and feel as he wishes. Once again, the system is set, in greatest part, how Microsoft thinks it should be.

Isn’t the point of this to give the customer power over what goes on? Microsoft does not seem to think so. As I have written before, they have lost sight of who is paying for things.

Despite what the first gripe was, once installed, the user/administrator has two operating systems to manage, separately. Can you say ‘Twice the work’, boys and girls?

Though the XP system is supposed to be virtualized, it is not fully virtualized, in that the XP system has access to the host file system – bad if you get some badness on the XP system, and unforgiveable since one of the things Microsoft has been haranguing us with for the better part of three years is that they feel that XP is not as secure as Windows 7 or Vista.

Which is it, Microsoft? Is XP less secure, or is this just another line we have been getting from you? Sure, we know the line you’ve spoken, we’ve seen the results, but if that is truly the case, what is up with this?

Speaking of security, both systems have to be secured. What happens is that the user/administrator gets the very worst features of both operating systems, and must take different precautions, because of the dissimilar nature of the two OSs.

Then there are the hardware hassles. This could really be a pain if you have to check each machine because, say, you got a load of machines from Dell, and they weren’t spec’ed identically. What a pain! Why make it so difficult? Is this to make it seem as though MS is doing the customer a great favor? This sort of thing will wear thin quickly with large installations, where machines were not bought with identical specs, but for a price point at a certain point in time. Finding out that only one-third of the quad core Dell machines you stretched to purchase work could really mess up your year.

Then the summation of this -

What’s the point?
If your company relies on XP at present, what’s the point of shifting to Windows 7 … especially if you’re having to bring XP along with you? Isn’t it just easier to avoid all the hassles and uncertainties and cost and just stick with XP for now? After all, XP Mode or no XP Mode, XP extended support still dies 2014, making XP mode a kludgey temporary measure at best.
The flipside of this argument is that if a company is willing to mess around with virtualization, and wants to switch OSes, why not switch to Linux? Or Mac? Let’s be clear, I’m not being flippant when I say that, and I’m well aware that you could still run into trouble, but if you’re planning to take the virtualization route, why have Windows as the host?

This last point is one I could see driven home by purveyors of many flavors of Linux, as Ubuntu, Fedora, or SuSE could all be deployed, and within the same amount of time that it takes for users to get used to the oddities of XP Mode, the users could be humming along with a free, open source desktop, that is more secure, and easier to administer. Ubuntu is easy enough for my mother to learn, so it would not be hard to get people used to. SuSE works, in many ways, more closely to Windows XP than Windows 7 does, so no problems there. And, if you really want the full experience, Xandros can be deployed, along with the Crossover Office, for less than what MS is going to charge for Windows 7 (that includes XP Mode).

In each of those cases, the user’s stubborn applications might work better under WINE than under Windows 7; in other words, perhaps without problems. By using free software, you free up a great deal of money to get another application to take over for a legacy app that XP Mode is used for. You also get off the Microsoft upgrade train. That alone should cause many IT departments to think twice.

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We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. - John W. Gardner

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