Still thinking you can stick with Windows 2000 or XP and just wait it out for Windows 7? A few weeks ago, Information Week's Sara Peters offered her thoughts as to why skipping Vista is a bad idea. A new Gartner report says more or less the same thing, but offers an even more compelling set of reasons.

First up, according to Gartner analyst Michael Silver: Software vendors don't support OSes long enough:

Although Windows XP will be supported with security fixes into 2014, many ISVs won't support their products on Windows XP for that long, and Microsoft and the ISVs often won't support new versions of their software on older operating systems, Gartner advises.

Silver also points to limited availability of older OSes (meaning you may not be able to get XP on the hardware you want), slow ISV support of new OSes (vendors often take a year or more to ramp up support--and Vista's had well over a year already), and Microsof'ts unpredictable delivery schedule: Who knows if Windows 7 will ship on time?

This is required reading for anyone planning to deploy new hardware in the near future. As we've said before, Vista may not be perfect, but it's the most stable and secure OS you can get--and trying to leapfrog it may face unfortunate consequences. [via InfoWorld]