Michael Silver Companies Quotations

Microsoft could slip the business editions into 2007 without a big impact on what most companies would do, and that?s certainly possible. The Home editions were really the more important ones to get out this year. Once they miss Christmas, slipping again has fewer ramifications.

Companies experimenting with requiring users to purchase their own PCs should expect more Macs to enter their environments.

Companies already think that switching to a Mac OS from Microsoft wouldn't be worth the hassle. A large company with thousands of PCs has a huge number of applications that require Windows, so they wouldn't even think of migrating. That puts them in a very non-Apple frame of mind.

Companies on Windows 2000 will have the most additional pressure, because they need to start moving relatively early anyway.

The issue is whether it's cheaper to support two operating systems and have lower operating costs, or spend the money on migration. Most companies don't have an automated way to do an OS upgrade, so a full-scale migration would be the higher cost.

But it's a heavy-handed way to get companies into Software Assurance.