Microsoft has introduced Windows 7, its long-awaited upgrades to Windows Vista. Microsoft’s announcement is here. If your organization runs Windows, you probably have a decision to make: upgrade to Windows 7, remain using what you have, or do something completely different.

IT industry research group Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC), in conjunction with Sunbelt Software, surveyed more than 1,600 companies worldwide about plans regarding Windows 7. It found that 60 percent of survey respondents indicated they will migrate to Windows 7. Of this group, 49 percent indicated their organizations will upgrade to Windows 7 within the first year; another 11 percent say they’ll convert their desktops “as soon as the first service pack ships” and they are assured any bugs are worked out.

There is no big rush to adopt Win 7. If you are running really old versions of Windows, pre-Windows XP, then you probably should do something sooner rather than later. Otherwise, take time to consider your options. There are several.

Most organizations will eventually go to Win 7 or whatever comes after. Unless you are having a crisis with your current Windows implementation, you can at least wait for the service packs to arrive, which should correct any major flaws.

When you do move to Win 7, give yourself plenty of time and budget to do the job. Moving to a new operating system invariably takes longer and costs more than you expect.

Even the minimum system requirements aren’t trivial: a minimum processor speed of 1 GHz, at least 1 GB of memory, 16 GB of free disk space, and a DirectX 9.0-compatible graphics card. My experience with Windows Vista suggests that you need at least 2 GB of memory. Some reviewers also recommend that your systems have touch-screen capable displays. If you move to Win 7 you might as well upgrade all your desktop hardware.

Or you can take the Microsoft upgrade as an opportunity to consider something different. For example, you could adopt Google Apps. Google delivers a complete office productivity suite as SaaS. I used it with a consulting client when I was ghostwriting his book, and it worked quite well, especially facilitating the revision process.

Another option is Linux on the desktop. This gives you an open source option. Ubuntu Linux is a popular choice; Fedora is another Linux distribution. Both include OpenOffice, an open source office productivity suite. This column was researched, written, and posted on this Web site using Linux and OpenOffice.

If these choices seem too radical but Win 7 will trigger a massive upgrade, you have another choice. You can stay with Windows but shift to a thin desktop client. This can take the form of desktop virtualization or some type of diskless workstation. In either case, you are preventing users from changing their desktop systems, a great source of Windows problems, or from introducing new code that can contain viruses and otherwise disrupt your systems.

Don’t assume that opting for Win 7 will be the easy choice. The on-demand services company iYogi tracks online conversations and conducts polls. It found that nearly 70 percent of users are not entirely comfortable that they will be able to easily move their favorite applications over to the new Windows 7 platform, and nearly half expect to need more tech support in order to do so. ###