Is time running out for Vista?

Microsoft continues to insist that all is rosy in the Vista garden but others are less convinced. The operating system, which was released to business a year ago this week, has been plagued with compatibility issues and many have been reluctant to migrate. There have also been claims that the software giant got it wrong by focusing so heavily on security features at the expense of usability. While Vista is undoubtedly the most secure operating system Microsoft has released to date, this hasn't translated into healthy sales.

With the next version of Windows now expected in a little over two years' time, one veteran IT consultant in the US came out last week and suggested business could well stick with XP until then and bypass Vista en masse.

The crunch is likely to come in the first quarter of next year when Microsoft releases a collection of Vista updates in Service Pack (SP) 1. It's often thought of as received wisdom that it's best to wait for the first update of a product before deployment and SP1 will be expected to iron out plenty of niggling Vista problems. If it fails to do so, many business owners might well sit tight and wait for Windows 7 to arrive at the end of 2009 or early in 2010.

Locally, ARN has had a poll running on its homepage asking resellers for their opinion on deploying Vista. Half the respondents said they were avoiding it at all costs while only 10 per cent were advising migration now. It's no secret that Microsoft's ability to get the channel recommending Vista will be crucial in driving widespread adoption.

In the local industry, we are now well into the party season and there's a fair amount of gossip going around. Unfortunately, most of it has been very much 'off the record' but it sounds like there are still plenty of merger and acquisition conversations flying about the place.

Avnet used its Christmas party this year to hand out some partner awards for the first time. It might not pay the bills but being recognised for your efforts after doing an outstanding job is important at all levels of the industry. Having a plaque to hang in reception is good for enhancing your company's reputation with customers and can also be a welcome morale boost for members of the team.

Congratulations to the handful of winners including Computer Merchants, Klikon Solutions and Oriel Technologies. Credit also goes to Avnet for making a donation to children's charity, Barnardos, on behalf of everybody who attended.

Finally for this week, thanks again to everybody that has submitted a Movember photo for the TechMo' gallery on our website. At the time of writing we already have more than 100 images in the slideshow but will close entries on November 29. We will then give the channel a week to select a favourite via online voting and donate $500 to Movember via the sponsorship number of the bloke that gets the most votes. There are certainly some crackers in there to choose from and I'm sure it's provided a few laughs in the last couple of weeks.