Do you use your Desktop OS to perform work? or do you use applications to work?
The answer is simple: Applications. Microsoft Office, PeopleSoft, Internet Explorer, SAP, etc. But somehow Microsoft (and others) and others have convinced executives and management that the Desktop OS is the most important piece of software. And of course, this version is way more secure and effecient than the last version. I've heard people tell me that rolling out Vista is strategic to their business. Microsoft has some great marketing people. Ask yourself this, how will a Vista rollout make my company money? It might save some money (but you have to spend a bunch. There is not a single feature of Vista that will make my company a dollar. I'm not saying Microsoft is evil, but like every company, there is a an agenda.
Get Vista on every desktop/laptop in the world. Hope for stock price to increase. Wait for next OS revision. Repeat.
Sounds like fun... to them.
Remember the Old Days
Remember mainframes. Now I'm not saying mainframes were the greatest, but they were all about delivering the application. The concept was correct. Nothing fancy. Just get the application to the user. The business and the IT departments had the power. End users could only work on whatever application they were assigned from the mainframe. IT was much simpler then also.
Dumb terminal died. Replace. Update centralized mainframe. Repeat.
I'm not saying I want to go exactly back to this model, but it made sense for a business and IT departments to run as efficiently as possible.
The PC Revolution
Then some small companies (IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Compaq, etc) started thinking about empowering the end user. Made sense. At first it was just laptops for executives and traveling users, and then it became every desk. Then every home. Seemed like a great idea to everyone except the business and the IT department. They lost control and have been struggling to get it back since. Desktop managment software, anti-virus solutions, security tools, patching solutions, application patching solutions, standardized desktop migration projects, desktop refresh cycles, laptops that could be off the network for months, and it keeps going.
Somehow a majority of the world, still thinks this is "the best solution available" and has no plans for any other delivery method than keeping the status quo. Other companies are starting to let employees own their own PCs, and handle their own problems. I doubt that will work since many of the applications have such tight integration to the OS. Another reason I think this will fail is that for years, I've known IT people that have had to support the executives (or even the executive's daughter's/son's/spouse's) PC at home or at college because they use it for work. This is gonna be a tough sell unless you can deliver applications without any care for the OS. Hmm....
Server Based Computing gets a foothold
Server Based Computing technologies rise up of frustation by the IT department to control anything. Citrix and Microsoft begin to deliver Windows based applications via a remote display protocol so that any user from any device over low amounts of bandwidth can utilize the application. There are limitations for some applications (High end CAD applications, and high quality audio/video are two), but strides have taken place to address these issues. This solution is Desktop OS agnostic for most of the features and allow IT to get out of the rut of 3 year desktop cycles.
This technology is still evolving, but many a company think they can get away from it. Just like "Java was going to change the world," or the "a web browser is the only application I need" crowd, it isn't panning out that way.
SaaS (Software as a Service) begins but it's not the panacea
I truely think this began with the advent of the Web Browser (maybe even as far back as BBSes or CompuServe). The application is the web site you are visiting. Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com, or this site. Some sites are self contained (coded to run with what the web browser supports out of the box), but more web site applications are requiring additional software. Excel to perform calculations, Acrobat Reader for document reading, Shockwave or Flash or Media Player for multimedia. This is really why the Windows applications will not disappear any time soon. Too many much reliance on the helper applications as the web browser is not robust enough and no one can standardize on what they support (Office vs StarOffice, Adobe vs Microsoft formats, and the 1000's of plugins, connectors or players that exist).
It is on the right track though. A portalized method of accessing an application. Do you think Amazon cares if you run Windows XP, Vista, or OS X? Or are they delivering an application to you? Yet somehow businesses can get caught up with delivering a desktop to a user. Again, as if the desktop is the revenue generating application of the business.
Think of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). All it is basically doing is delivering a desktop to a user. That is all. You still need to deliver the application to the virtual desktop, but somehow someone always forgets to mention that one.
If we treated all applications like in the SaaS architecture, then the Desktop OS becomes less and less relavant. In my opnion, that is the key to simplifying IT.
Conclusion
Let's just start talking about what makes sense to your business... not someone else's business. Your revenue doesn't go up with a Vista or OS X deployment, but their's does. Let concentrate on SaaS and Application Delivery Infrastructures, rather than "cycling through my apps with CTRL+TAB looks so much cooler". Let's make your company more business and make your business more money.
It's all about the applications.
Additional Reading