New Operating Systems – Why Patience is Prudent

New Operating Systems – Why Patience is Prudent

Between now and sometime this October, two major Operating Systems (OS) are scheduled to be released. On July 25th, Apple released their next iteration of their OS X named Mountain Lion.  Following in October, Microsoft is scheduled to ship their next OS, Windows 8.  Both vendors are expected to promote their releases with their usual polished marketing campaigns. While the features and functionality added through these new OS releases are tempting, BEMA reiterates our long standing policy of recommending to our clients that they wait until the new OS has been fully tested by our engineers before upgrading to it.

BEMA recommends waiting to implement new Operating Systems until they have been fully tested by our engineers.

This BEMA practice is one that we adhere to internally and is prudent for numerous reasons.  In the past, people who have immediately moved to a new OS (regardless of which vendor was behind the release) have had issues ranging from incompatible versions of hardware drivers to their existing hardware not meeting the new minimum system requirements.  Running an OS on hardware that is below specifications may cause your systems to lock up or crash.  Being one of the earliest adopters of a new OS is called living on the “bleeding edge” for a reason.  It can often become very messy in a short period of time and simply isn’t worth the risk to your work environment.