Intel says 'no' to Windows Vista

Can't find a 'compelling' reason to upgrade, says IT dept. insider

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

26th June 2008 10:22 GMT

Windows Vista is not for Intel, it has been claimed. The chip giant will not be installing the new operating systems on its many thousands of desktop PCs. It has "no compelling case" to do so.

So claims an insider cited by the New York Times yesterday. A company spokesman admitted the OS was not being rolled out across the corporation, but said Vista will be brought to some departments.

Dare we suggest he only means those divisions charged with writing Vista drivers for Intel's various chip technologies?

After Vista's debut in November 2006, a number of major corporations, Intel among them, went on record to say they would not be implementing Microsoft's latest until the release of Service Pack 1, usually the point at which a version of Windows becomes sufficiently stable for serious big business roll-outs.

"I know of no organisation doing an upgrade before [Service Pack 1]," Paul Otellini told attendees of the Bank of America Technology Conference at the time. "Intel isn't upgrading either."

Well, Microsoft duly release Vista SP1 earlier this year, but that's still not proved enough to float Intel's boat.

The chip giant has some 80,000 employees, which makes for a lot of desktops and laptops to upgrade. The NYT source said Intel had analysed the cost and benefits of migrating these machines at length, but couldn't justify such a move.