Whilst Microsoft is still saying that there are still some good reasons to move to Vista, Steve Balmer’s admittance that Windows 7 will be ‘backwards compatible’ does seem to suggest that the Redmond giant already knows that many customers on XP may skip Vista altogether and move to the new platform. However, last week’s developer release of the ‘pre-beta’ version of Windows 7 suggests that Microsoft is planning some major changes to its operating platform - changes that may have some significant impact on business customers.

Perhaps most significantly, early reports say that Windows 7 will be all about changing the way that users interact with the platform and making things decidedly more tactile.

It seems that touch screen operation - similar to Apple’s iPhone - which allows multiple screen touches may well replace the use of a mouse for certain operations.

But for large businesses with thousands of users, won’t this mean a major retraining headache and a very large hardware bill as monitors and laptops need to be bought with touch-sensitive screens? Also, throwing away thousands of monitors may fly in the face of many CIO’s green IT aims?

So, as someone working in a large business, have you considered the cost and implications of touch screen working? Is it really practical for the corporate users to control their PCs in this way?

If so, would it put you off Microsoft’s latest platform?