Gartner Advice Evaluated In ZDNet Blog
George Ou has taken a different view of the Gartner suggestion to wait until 2008 for using Windows Vista. As pointed out, "Some of Gartner's arguments actually seem to bolster the use of Vista rather than their actual recommendation to delay the adoption of Windows Vista."
What Gartner probably won't mention is the fact that Windows Vista will improve OS and Application load times which makes it a lot more human friendly. The other really significant feature for IT departments is the ability to cut down on the number of Vista hardware images. Windows XP typically requires a unique image for different computer models, but Windows Vista will allow you to make a Vista image for a very broad range of hardware making it easier to do "big bang" installations across heterogeneous hardware platforms. Vista Enterprise edition also comes with Virtual PC which allows you to run an older OS for legacy applications or a sandbox for testing software. For those who don't have the Enterprise edition of Vista, they can use the free VMWare Player to run legacy applications.
Mr. Ou is correct that certain users will migrate to Vista early. These early adopters will provide valuable feedback to the Microsoft development team. Corporations will be more conservative. Many will wait until there is a compelling reason - such as the lack of support of the present Windows products.