The Gartner Group recommend enterprises move to Windows 7 – not 8

Organizations running Windows XP and working on Windows 7 migrations: Continue as planned; do not switch to Windows 8.

Organizations that find it difficult to do “forklift” upgrades: Consider bringing in Windows 8 through attrition.

Organizations interested in new devices enabled by Windows 8: Consider Windows 8, even if you intend to skip Windows 8 for traditional PCs.

Enterprise developers: Become familiar with the Metro style of applications, which will likely be the preferred desktop metaphor in the future as the focus for Windows 8 applications.

This is actually very good advice. While Microsoft have unofficially committed to a 2012 release date for Windows 8, a year in software development terms is an eternity. Much smarter for companies to move to Windows 7 and start to think about longer term Windows 8 deployment strategies. Moving to Windows 8 will be a totally different animal and will affect ALL parts of the enterprise. It will be all encompassing and affect everything from how developers code to what devices they code for and how they are deployed. Ok Gartner, you win this time. I agree. [button color=”green” link=”http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1796026&ref=g_fromdoc” target=”blank”]Source[/button]]]>