Hasta la Vista

Sanjose Netto, IT manager, Millennium Hotel Sharjah

We use Windows XP Professional and we also have some PCs running on Windows 2000 Professional. We have a lot of compatibility issues. We are also running the Novell server. I don't think they have released compatible software for that with Microsoft Vista. It has a beta version, but there are still a lot of errors and things like that.

XP was very good. I think it was much faster and more user-friendly. Even after using Windows XP for years I still find it hard to get around Vista, especially when it comes to the network settings. It is really hard to get access for people who come into the hotel with Vista laptops. From the guest's point of view, it can be really hard for them to find a wireless signal.

When the owners decide that it is time for change and invest in high-end PCs we will upgrade. I'm sure by that time all the bugs in Vista will be cleared. So once the bugs are clear and they find out how to relieve all the little memory resources I'm sure it will be much faster.

If you look back, XP also had problems in the beginning, so I hope they will also think of the issues with Vista and make it more user-friendly and less memory-consuming. We still wouldn't switch just yet if compatibility issues were resolved. We might consider it in a year or two because to run Vista you need high-end computers.

You need to have computers running with a minimum of 512 Mbytes of RAM and what we have presently is very good for XP, but if we put Vista in we would have to make changes to all of our 78 computers.

To do that will cost us a lot of money and I don't think the owners are ready for that. I have my own mobile PC which is running Vista with two Gbytes of RAM and still I find it slow.

Claudiu Iarca, MI manager, Schneider Electric

We aren't currently using Windows Vista because we are waiting for this application to become more mature. Plus, we have already set up our computers and it's not advisable to go for the new OS at this moment in time.

It's the natural evolution to upgrade. To migrate a client operating system in an enterprise is not an easy job, which is why I would prefer to wait some more time when the product will be more mature.

We will wait several years to upgrade, so we have better computers for the new operating system. This way we will maximise the chance of a successful migration. We have to do it for support and for other reasons. It's not normal if you don't, otherwise we would still be using Windows version 3!

READERS' COMMENTS

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM