Hasta La Vista

Digital home integrators say Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system has been a big fat bust in the home market.

That bleak Vista view, however, has translated into healthy profits for home integrators ripping Vista off systems and replacing the much-ballyhooed operating system with Windows XP.

Microsoft, for its part, claims demand is strong for Vista and its momentum is unprecedented. But digital home integrators at the D&H Distributing New England Technology Show last month in Quincy, Mass., say they are seeing a healthy rip-and-replace business that is winning them over new customers who bought systems at retail.

Bunker Herbest, co-owner of Computer Essentials, a Bangor, Maine, system builder, said out of the 40 systems a month that Computer Essentials is building, only about five are Vista-based systems.

Herbest said his shop was ripping and replacing Vista with XP on as many as 12 systems a month. Computer Essentials, in fact, has been advertising its ability to offer Windows XP rather than Vista.

The Vista rip-and-replace service has "definitely been good for business," Herbest said. "What's great is Vista is being pushed everywhere. Customers can't find anybody to get rid of it so they come see people like us. We're getting a couple of customers a day at least."

Herbest said consumers have been frustrated by the new Vista graphical user interface and the pop-up security update requests. "People that used XP can't find anything," he said. "It takes time to ramp up and learn Vista."

Douglas Lee, CFO and director of business development at BostonTech Partners, a Canton, Mass., solution provider, said his shop is building about 50 systems a month and every one of them is going out with Windows XP.

The only Vista-related business BostonTech is doing is ripping it off laptop systems, Lee said. A lot of time and energy is being spent trying to replace Vista, he said. "Microsoft should have provided the option of having XP on laptops as opposed to Vista," he said. "There should have been an easier downgrade method. Microsoft is force-feeding the consumer market like they usually do. It's their way or the highway."

Lee said one problem with Vista is the 64-bit platform that the operating system can power is not necessary for many customers.

Paul LaRochelle, president of PC Authority, a Manchester, N.H., solution provider, said 99.9 percent of the systems from PC Authority are shipping with Windows XP rather than Vista. Since the introduction of Vista, he said, PC Authority has sold only a dozen copies of the operating system. "Just because there is a new car or a bigger hard drive doesn't mean you have to go buy it," he said.

Greg Abrams, vice president and director of technology at PC-Plus Technologies, an Auburn, Mass., solution provider, said his business is seeing Vista adoption from several major clients. He said about 40 percent of the systems being shipped from PC-Plus are Vista-based, with 60 percent XP-based. Furthermore, he said PC-Plus has been working with clients to rip Vista off some notebook systems that lack XP drivers. As a result, he said, PC-Plus is installing Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 for a number of clients.

Abrams praised Virtual PC 2007, which is free, for solving major application compatibility issues so customers can run applications like Adobe Acrobat 6.0. "This is more of a [workaround] solution for our customers than a profit-driver," he said. "It took a lot of time to figure it out and learn how to deploy it correctly."

LaRochelle said he feels it is better to wait for the first Windows Service Pack to come out before pushing the operating system. Microsoft has said it plans to launch the first service pack for Windows Vista during the first quarter of 2008.

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