94 Percent of Business PCs Can't Run Vista Premium

Last week I posted a challenge on the eve of Vista's release to the business community: Is your company rolling out Vista? How soon?

I didn't get much of a response, and now I know why: 94 percent of your computers aren't ready for Vista Premium (which includes the fancy new GUI called Aero), and only half are ready for any version of Vista, even the crummy stripped-down version that no one in their right mind would even think of installing.

This speaks volumes to the age of the average computer sitting under an American worker's desk, but I'm not ready to call Microsoft stupid for creating an OS that has such heady requirements. The company is trying to push the boundaries of the computer experience, and that's a good thing. It also makes sense to reach out to those users who sit on the cutting edge with high-end hardware already and let them be evangelists for your newfangled OS, which in turn should help people to upgrade and replace their aging hardware.

It's not an overnight process, but it's a wise business decision. I'm less convinced by Microsoft's claims that Vista will be purchased twice as quickly as any of its other OSes have been. Gartner estimates that Vista's market share will be wallowing at 10 percent at the end of 2007.

So, new question: Are you waiting to make the move to Vista until after you upgrade to a new PC?