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Comments on: Windows Vista Released to Consumers https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/ On-line Opinion Magazine...OK, it's a blog Fri, 02 Feb 2007 04:40:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Anya https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20187 Fri, 02 Feb 2007 04:40:00 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20187 After a series of events too unwieldy to be related here, I was finally able to finalized my computer purchase.

My new machine will be loaded with Vista Home Basic, which doesn’t use the animated Aero GUI. Fine by me: I want my resources to go to running my programs. I don’t plan to entertain myself by watching my interface do backflips; I have better things to do.

What ever happened to the KISS Principle, anyway?

=:-o

]]> By: Bryan https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20186 Fri, 02 Feb 2007 03:10:34 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20186 Yet another problem of having too much control in the hands of one company. There need to be universally agree standards so document and information exchange is not a matter of conversion. I have Office 2000, because a client wanted to use it, but I was satisfied with what I could do with Office 95.

I remember ACCESS as a failed communications program from Microsoft in the days of Windows 3.1. They reused the name for a problematic database program. Of course, I remember when Microsoft’s best selling product was a Z-80 card for Apple ][‘s that allowed Apple users to run CP/M.

]]> By: Steve Bates https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20180 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:22:48 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20180 Anya, I installed OOo on my laptop rather than purchasing a second license for MS Office. OOo meets all my needs on that machine… I’ve found only one oddity in opening a .doc file, and it has successfully opened all the .xls files I’ve tried… but I am anything but a power user of office software.

There are many alternatives to MS Office out there, including even some that are web-based. I chose OOo for several reasons, most of them pretty obvious:

* It’s free.
* It opens .doc files up through Word 2000 for reading/writing. Most of my clients are standardized on that file format even if they license later versions of Word.
* It opens .xls files with no hassle. I never create or update such files, but my clients often send them to me containing design-related documents.
* It has corporate support from just about everybody EXCEPT Microsoft.
* Its native file formats work cross-platform; those formats are on the verge of becoming an official standard.
* Did I mention it’s free?

I agree that OOo Base is vastly inferior to MS Access. But I’m a power user of Access, both working within its .mdb files and using it as a front end for “real” databases like MSSQL and Oracle, so I have higher standards… as you do for the word processor.

I suspect it’s just one of those things… if OOo meets your needs, great; if not, you shell out (and I’m not talking opening a command prompt) for MS Office.

]]> By: Anya https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20178 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:10:45 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20178 Steve: Speaking of open software, I just downloaded OpenOffice 2.1 as a possible replacement for the Micro$oft suite in the event I have issues with, ahem, non-standard software.

OOo seems OK, but it has issues with importing MS files, the word processor is missing some of the functions I use a lot, and the database is not very intuitive for Access slaves. The help file is not especially helpful either.

I suppose OOo is OK for folks who just dabble, but it’s frustrating for power users.

]]> By: Steve Bates https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20174 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:59:50 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20174 Switching to Linux is not an option for me. – Anya

Something to keep an eye on: Ubuntu Studio. It’s early days yet, and it looks as if they’re developing the audio end of things first, but there may be a day when switching to Linux IS an option for you. Of course, the tools available will not be Bryce and Poser, but someone’s idea of equivalent software. That’s the price you pay for “free” open software.

]]> By: Alice https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20172 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:35:47 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20172 LOL re: your .ppt comment. So very, very true and yet for some reason, business people think it’s is the best thing since sliced bread (except those who have read Tufte, that is). Don’t get me started.

]]> By: Bryan https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20171 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:50:43 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20171 CG, I volunteered my time making computers accessible for people with brain and spinal cord injuries. I installed and configured peripherals like the Head Mouse, and the Brain Mouse for people with limited movement. I worked with a number of different screen readers for the visually impaired, who got screwed over when GUI replaced text.

MicroSoft isn’t even close to providing accessibility to these people. They don’t have the research or the testing facilities to know what will work for people with ALS or MS. If Stephen Hawking switches to unmodified Vista, then I might believe they have accomplished something. I have look at the capabilities built into Windows with each new version, and haven’t seen much worth dealing with unless you’re a Boomer who can’t find their reading glasses at the moment.

Alice, if you want to find out more about your client’s computer than you want to know, look at those files in a straight text program. The newer versions of Office include computer names, author’s name, and file locations with every document they create. I considered my disk structure to be a security issue, so I don’t send .doc to anyone, and .ppt is the spawn of the devil creating idle hands and empty minds, but then I once had to sit through dog and pony shows on a regular basis.

]]> By: Alice https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20168 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:49:28 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20168 I am already starting to get .docx and .pptx files. Microsoft’s Mac BU won’t have a converter to market until late spring or more likely this summer. iWork ’06 can’t read that format – hopefully iWork ’07 will but that’s not much help to me now. In the meantime, I had a co-worker download the Windows converter, but it didn’t work on his machine. He’s running Office 2000 so maybe that was throwing a glitch, we don’t know. Another co-worker has a more recent version of Office and was successful in getting the converter to run. The upshot of dealing with the new! improved! Office is that an old fashioned .doc and .ppt version now reside on the shared drive so we can all access the client’s documents. Thank you Microsoft. (and yes, I know the client could have output as .doc before sending, but trust me, that would be a technologically advanced concept so it was easier to convert on our end. ugh)

]]> By: TheCultureGhost https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20166 Thu, 01 Feb 2007 02:35:12 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20166 When Vista was first released to the business community back in the fall “The NY TImes”
ran a couple articles about the initial response. It was lukewarm at best.

TinkerToy PolyTechnic just hired a new IT manager…this guy is so full of himself. I’ve already had a run in with him over, of all things, furniture for disabled students. However, his big vision is to remove all the adaptive software we are running all over campus (highly specialized programs like Zoomtext, Kurzweill, etc) for our students and replace them with the “features” that Vista offers. This should make for an interesting fight.

]]> By: Bryan https://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/31/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/comment-page-1/#comment-20160 Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:53:57 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/2007/01/30/windows-vista-released-to-consumers/#comment-20160 The better graphics programs don’t rely on operating system resources to perform their tasks, only to access the hardware. The hardware routines wouldn’t have changed all that much. Generally the request for a specific level of Windows means that they want to use expanded capabilities in addressing hardware, and there are no major expansions between XP and Vista.

Linux was definitely not designed to be nice to designers.

The “kill switch” is the ability of Microsoft to disable the operating system by sending a code over the Internet. It is a stupid function, included to “fight piracy.” They are going to be in major trouble if they use it, and even worst if someone hacks the code and starts shutting people down.

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