Technology

Thursday Buzz: Tech Pros See a Windows 10 Future

A new survey finds that most IT pros expect to upgrade to Windows 10 soon. Also: why you should give your session description a closer look.

Good news for Microsoft: The enterprise doesn’t appear to be giving Windows 10 the cold shoulder Windows 8 got.

That’s according to new research from Spiceworks [PDF], a professional IT social networking platform. In the organization’s new study “Windows 10: Will it Soar?”, 96 percent of all IT professionals surveyed expressed some level of interest in Windows 10, and 74 percent said that they would likely upgrade their machines to the new platform within two years.

While respondents had concerns about upgrading—79 percent suggested compatibility was a worry, and 65 percent noted that bugs in new operating systems are a common turnoff—it’s nonetheless a stronger track record than Windows 8 ever managed to achieve.

But the study raises questions about the ability of Windows 10 to succeed on mobile and tablet platforms. “Windows 10 has the potential to fly high on PCs,” the study stated. “However, it remains to be seen whether or not the new OS will be popular on an ever-growing fleet of mobile devices; Microsoft currently has a pretty small share of the smartphone market.”

Whatever the case may be, it’s a positive development for Microsoft—especially considering the ATM industry seems to be on board this time.

Fix Your Description

Your attendees are only around for a few days, and they’re paying for that time. So if a session doesn’t live up to the description, you’re wasting their time—and that’s a problem, author Adrian Segar says.

But the solution may not be to change the session—it might be as simple as making sure the event description is on point.

“When we have to sit through a session that bears little resemblance to what was advertised, our time is invariably wasted and we tend to blame the presenter,” Segar writes in a new post on his Conferences That Work blog. “But, in my experience, it’s often conference producers we should be holding responsible.”

Segar highlights the steps that organizers and presenters can take to ensure a session is on point. They could make the event way more valuable for attendees—and that’s good, because time is money. (ht @meetingchange)

Other Links of Note

Also on the Microsoft beat today: Samsung has been accused of disabling Windows’ internal updating functionality on its PCs, in favor of the company’s own. Here’s why that’s a big problem.

The business-focused messaging platform Slack just hit a big milestone: A million users are chatting on Slack every day. Are you?

Even small associations can be green. SocialFish breaks down how you can be eco-friendly even on a small scale.

(Handout photo)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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