Windows 7 SP 1: You Don't Need to Wait

But if your office is also moving, or has moved, to Windows Server 2008 R2, I think Windows 7 is worth the upgrade. The combination of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 is stronger than either one separately. In particular, their network features work together hand-in-glove.

Thus, moving to Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 is a good idea, if--and this is an important if--you're moving to new PCs. While it is quite possible to upgrade machines from XP to Windows 7, your hardware isn't likely to have the horsepower you need to run Windows 7 at speed. Your Vista PCs, if you have any, are likely candidates for in-place upgrades.

I've been using Windows 7 now since its early beta days, and I've yet to find a mainstream business program such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or QuickBooks that doesn't work just fine on it. Windows 7 SP1 isn't going to change that one iota. If I did have a problem, I could try Windows 7's built-in XP virtualization to run them in a virtual machine. I don't expect I'll ever need to do that at this point.

In short, there are no technical reasons to wait for Windows 7. Of course, you may need to wait because of business political realities. If your company, once burned and twice-shy after the Vista fiasco, won't pull the trigger on a migration until Windows 7 SP1 is out, your wait is almost over.

So, if I can't talk you into Linux, and you still want to move to Windows 7, now is the time to start the heavy lifting on your Windows 7 migration plan. After all, Windows 7 SP1 may be out as soon as the 4th quarter of 2010.