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Hasta la Vista baby, we're just not interested
Users back Windows 7 in popularity contest in exclusive research

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Wednesday 01 October 2008

Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system is still playing second fiddle to XP with business users, with more enterprises confessing to checking out the unreleased Windows 7 OS than its predecessor.

More than half (58 per cent) of businesses using Microsoft technology are "exploiting" Windows XP compared to just four per cent for Vista, according to the 'reality checkers' research by the Corporate IT Forum (Tif), seen exclusively by silicon.com.

Tif's corporate IT reality checkers survey helps its members quickly compare the progress and position of their companies' IT against the technology choices of other members.

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Tif also found that 35 per cent of organisations describe themselves as "not yet interested" in Vista.

The OS most people appear to be developing or piloting is XP, with 12 per cent of businesses saying they were doing so compared to five per cent for Vista.

Interestingly more businesses said they're currently investigating or analysing Microsoft's next scheduled OS, Windows 7 (30 per cent), than Vista (14 per cent).

In contrast, seven per cent of businesses even said they're still exploiting Windows 2000 although 19 per cent said they are currently replacing or "sunsetting" it.

Back in April, research showed Vista uptake among businesses was slow during 2007, although a quarter of businesses said they planned to upgrade in 2008.

The main reason given by Tif members for not moving to Vista was a lack of business requirement to do so.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's latest browser, Internet Explorer 7 is having a similar battle with its predecessor IE6, with a fifth of respondents saying they're not yet interested in the newer version of the app.

Almost two-thirds of businesses surveyed (65 per cent) said they are exploiting IE6 compared to four per cent for IE7. However, 14 per cent said they are currently piloting IE7 with the same proportion using it in isolation.

Almost a quarter (23 per cent) said they are analysing and investigating IE8 which is currently available in beta form.

The full results of the Tif reality checkers survey can be found here.