Our friend and colleague, Dennis Kennedy, just wrote an article in the ABA Journal, where he predicts that Windows 7 will be a non-starter for law firms. Of course we are paraphrasing Dennis’ article, but you get the drift. We have always held the position that you want to buy any NEW computer with Windows 7 rather than going through the pain of an upgrade, especially since there is no direct upgrade from Windows XP. That’s essentially Dennis’ advice too, but we amiably disagree with our good friend that Windows 7 will not get traction because of the upgrade pain.
We grant that our opinion has also shifted a bit, particularly since Microsoft just announced a 50 percent discount for users of Windows XP and Office XP as an enticement to upgrade. Of course there are some restrictions (e.g. applies only to the Professional versions of Windows and Office), but generally we would expect that a lot of our clients will take advantage of this new program. Up until the release of Windows 7 we have specified computers with sufficient “horsepower” to run the latest operating system, but had them loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista. The 50 percent upgrade price may make the reinstallation of the operating system more attractive since the hardware base is just fine.
It will be interesting to see if Dennis rethinks his position given Microsoft’s announcement.
- John and Mike
(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com
