The latest buzz around Windows Vista is that chipmaker Intel -- Microsoft's partner in the famed "Wintel" alliance -- isn't migrating its own employees to the new operating system. See the original story by the Register, and follow-up posts by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
The New York Times, quoting an anonymous source, reports that Intel "made its decision after a lengthy analysis by its internal technology staff of the costs and potential benefits of moving to Windows Vista, which has drawn fire from many customers as a buggy, bloated program that requires costly hardware upgrades to run smoothly."
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy confirmed via phone this morning that Intel is still running Windows XP, but he said the company is also evaluating Windows Vista. When I asked about any future plans to shift to Vista, Mulloy described the decision as complicated, based on the size of Intel's operations and its number of computers. He didn't provide further details.
The latest news stands to further affect Windows Vista's reputation, said analyst Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates: "Where it matters is that (Microsoft's) main partner in this endeavor, the PC business, is not endorsing their latest and greatest product," Kay said. "That is the main factor. It's a signal to others in the marketplace that somebody who really knows what's up is not ready to migrate."
Hold on a second, says Ed Bott, the independent Windows author and blogger who points out that it's not unusual for Intel to hold off on shifting to a new Microsoft operating system. "The same thing happened in 2002, when Windows XP was shiny and new," he writes, pointing to an article about it at the time in none other than the Register, the same publication that wrote the latest Windows Vista story.
Bott also raises his eyebrows over a Gartner analyst's assertion, to the Times, that there's not a lot of corporate excitement about Vista:
I don't know what they're putting in the brownies at Gartner these days, but by 18 months, most large organizations are just beginning to complete their evaluations of how their internal applications run on a new operating system family. Only a tiny percentage of enterprises do "forklift upgrades," where every corporate PC is upgraded to a new OS in a short time. Not much excitement? Corporations don't look for excitement in their IT investments. They look for stability and compatibility and, especially in the current economy, low costs.
To be sure, consumers and companies have different factors to consider when weighing tech upgrades, but the latest reports are ironic given the allegations that Microsoft bowed to pressure from Intel to lower the standards for the Windows Vista Capable designation on PCs sold during the 2006 holiday season.
The timing is also notable, coming a few days before the scheduled June 30 end date of mainstream Windows XP sales.
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