Small Businesses Should Be Last in Line to Get Windows 8
Microsoft's release of the Windows 8 beta this week got me -- and everyone else -- thinking about the future of traditional desktop computing.
As Denny Arar points out in her excellent , Windows 8 takes the seemingly radical step of trying to combine a desktop OS with a mobile, tablet-and-touch-oriented OS.
After playing with the new beta myself, my first impression is that the new approach will benefit tablet users, promising much better integration with traditional desktop data and applications. That's potentially great news for consumers with tablets, as well as the increasing numbers of small businesses that use -- or will soon use -- tablets.
But for now at least, I'm less sold on the value of this combination on the desktop (or the laptop). In my view, the touch-oriented interface of Windows 8 doesn't add much for users sitting in front of their computers trying to get their daily work done. If anything, it could get in the way.
It's not surprising that Apple and Google and others are going all-out to bring mobile, entertainment-oriented environments to mainstream computing. But Microsoft is different, or at least should be different.
Microsoft made its fortune helping everyday office workers do their everyday work.Sure, some of that work is moving to mobile platforms, but much of it is likely to stay rooted on the desktop for a long, long time.
I'm not saying that Window 8 won't be great, or that small businesses won't or shouldn't upgrade -- eventually.
I AM saying that when it comes to a radically different approach to mission-critical work that makes rank-and-file employees do things in a brand new way, it makes sense for resource-constrained, risk-averse small businesses to be LATE adopters, to wait and make sure that the risk is minimal and that there's real competitive advantage to be had in switching.
Actually, I predict that's exactly how things will play out. Windows 8 -- or something like it -- will do great with mobile/personal/entertainment users and applications, but it will take a lot longer to find its way into the working world.
After all, Windows XP is STILL the world's dominant computer operating system. Microsoft can't even get most folks to move from XP to the relatively similar Windows 7! While we believe that for most small businesses, it's past time to ditch XP for Windows 7, their reluctance is understandable.
No matter how slick and exciting the new, new thing may appear, sometimes old and boring but proven and effective is a better bet for small businesses. They don't want or need a radical new fix for something that isn't really broken in the first place.
For new users -- and new companies -- not already tied to "legacy" desktop applications and interfaces, this caution may not apply. You know who you are. But for everyone else, my advice is: First, do no harm.
