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Microsoft is set to release Windows 7 on Thursday. But will enterprises migrate to the latest platform that year? Or will they delay upgrading until they are convinced Microsoft has all the kinks worked out?

According to a new ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey of more than 1,600 companies worldwide, nearly 60 percent will deploy Windows 7 in the near term. Another 30 percent said they will transition to the new Microsoft operating system within the first six months. And 11 percent of the respondents plan to wait for the first service pack to ship.

Windows 7 looks to be in for a warm welcome from enterprises, with 80 percent rating the new operating system as “excellent” or “very good.” Specifically, 44 percent of respondents rated the Windows 7 beta and early releases “excellent,” while 36 percent called it “very good.” Fewer than two percent of the survey respondents rated Windows 7 quality as “poor” or “completely unsatisfactory.”

Proactive Compatibility Measures

The reviews of Windows 7 are similar to the laudatory comments that greeted Windows XP when it first shipped in October 2001, noted Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC.

“Many of the survey respondents somewhat ruefully opined that Windows 7 is what ‘Vista should have been’ or that it is ‘Vista SP3,’” DiDio explained. “That said, Microsoft needed to convince customers disappointed and dismayed by Vista’s incompatibility issues that it could deliver a robust, full-featured desktop OS that has a very high degree of backward compatibility. Windows 7 does precisely that.”

At the same moment, she said, Microsoft recognizes that no operating system will deliver 100 percent compatibility. Rather, Microsoft is striving for better than 90 percent out-of-the-box compatibility — and it hasn’t left compatibility to chance. The company has adopted a series of initiatives that aim to deliver application compatibility and an easier migration experience….

Original post by dhiram