New generation Computers

[Timber]

I was thinking that with everything going on with the transition of the new operating systems that are available and the way we buy computers these days I thought it might be a good time to express my experience & views.

All my computers are with in 15 months old now and most are with in the last 6 months. 5 are running XP and 3 are running Vista. I have had considerable difficulty with Vista and my VPN client at work. Much of this is do to the Vista system but I have also learned that a lot is also simply not being familiar with the OS (operating System) What we did was added 2 new XP systems to deal with these issues but also keep a Vista because this is the way the future is going to be. Service Pac upgrades will eventually deal with all the issues that have to do with VPNs & other corporate issues. The XP OS is simply not available any more as of the 1st of February

My personal computers consist of 1 XP lap top and 2 Vista systems 1 lap top and 1 desk top system. I will say the Vista OS is a bit more difficult to use but I attribute much of that to simply not being familiar with it and looking to use it like XP. I guess the 1st thing is all the prompts that scare people when you deleting or downloading. Just say yes and move on they are very annoying but the OS is pretty forgiving in respect to undoing what you change. Over all I rather like Vista and I think all of us will learn to love it as much as XP. Keep in mind that XP was a nightmare too before service pac 2 was released

 

[Blackbird_BX]

Related rant

I've noticed that when Microsoft comes out with a major OS or application upgrade, they seem to redesign the user interface based completely on testing with people who have no experience with the computers or the previous version and come up with a new interface that testing finds to be most intuitive the newbies. It also seems that each iteration of Windows would bury access to things such as network settings and such a layer deeper in the user interface and change titles for the same controls to confuse the experienced, making end user support more difficult when you have a mix of versions to support.

M$ used to be pretty good about providing an option for experienced users to revert to a "classic" interface more familiar to people used to the older product. They seemed to have pretty much stopped giving users that option with their most recent iteration. I'm not sure about Vista, since I've not had any real exposure to it, but if you can't deal with the new Ribbon interface of Office 2007, you either have to learn to live with it or stick with Office 2003.

 

[Soundguy]

I'm trying to 'bridge the gap'.

When XP hit.. I stayed with win98 for quite a while.. couple years in fact.. just waiting till XP was full out, and as bug free as it was gonna get, and also waited till all current hardware was designed with XP as the primary OS , vs one made for win98, that was 'XP Ready'.. etc. Then i jumped in and got my XP machines.

I plan on doing the same for Vista... IE.. I plan on waiting till near the end of this year before I add a new pc with vista..etc..

soundguy

 

[orezok]

The school district I work for buys hundreds possibly thousands of computers every year. All now come with Vista and the first thing that technology does when they arrive is to re-image them with XP. Isn't it sad that Microsoft wasn't able to develop an operating system that is network friendly.

We have over 80 staff in our IT department, run gigabit to the desktop and are the only K-12 district in the US to ever win a Smithsonian award for our network infrastructure.

These guys know what they are doing an will tell you that Vista is junk!

Gigabit to the desktop is a wonderful thing. Even though they throttle it, I still get over 5 megabit per second (5,000 KB/sec) downloads.

 

[LMTC]

I have needed to buy two "new" PCs in the past few months. Ebay. Had little difficulty finding decent dual core HP units, mostly with Media Center (which is essentially XP), and all the hardware we needed for around $400 (CPU only...we have monitors). I'll go to vista like I went to xp....kicking and screaming when there is simply no other alternative. Still prefer 2000 Pro and office 2000 over anything I've used.

 

[Blackbird_BX]

The school district I work for buys hundreds possibly thousands of computers every year. All now come with Vista and the first thing that technology does when they arrive is to re-image them with XP. Isn't it sad that Microsoft wasn't able to develop an operating system that is network friendly.

We have over 80 staff in our IT department, run gigabit to the desktop and are the only K-12 district in the US to ever win a Smithsonian award for our network infrastructure.

These guys know what they are doing an will tell you that Vista is junk!

Gigabit to the desktop is a wonderful thing. Even though they throttle it, I still get over 5 megabit per second (5,000 KB/sec) downloads.

I won't necessarily say Vista is junk (One of our techs has been using it fairly happily on new hardware for a year, but we both prefer MacOS X.). We buy desktops and notebooks with Vista and image them with XP in my little district (4 IT staff) as well. Did the same thing with XP until we finally reached the critical mass to make an image with XP worthwhile. XP SP2 was out by the time we did. We still have a mix of Windows 2000 and XP on our network and have no plans to deploy Vista widely until all of the W2K systems are off the network. Due to budget constraints that make for a 10 year replacement cycle for desktops , it will be a few more years before we do. Deployment of Office 2007 will be even further off, since the retraining curve is so steep and we've only just started buying systems that meet the minimum recommended hardware from M$ (Office 2007 minimums exceed AutoCAD 2007 minimums if you turn on auto spell check ).

As for Gigabit to the desktop. Egads! What school district in California has the money for that kind of network infrastructure?

 

[orezok]

As for Gigabit to the desktop. Egads! What school district in California has the money for that kind of network infrastructure?

Blackbird - I sent you our master technology plan by PM if you're interested.

 

[Soundguy]

That's why the teachers can't get paid more... all the $$ is spent so people can surf fast.... go figure!

soundguy

 

[California]

... we've only just started buying systems that meet the minimum recommended hardware from M$ (Office 2007 minimums...

Why follow Microsoft down that expensive path? OpenOffice should be sufficient for an educational setting. Call it Sun Office if you need credibility to get it approved.

Does MS Office 2007 really have any advantage, aside from maintaining their proprietary non-interoperability?

 

[Blackbird_BX]

Does MS Office 2007 really have any advantage, aside from maintaining their proprietary non-interoperability?

That's the question that a lot of people have been asking since it was released. Microsoft kind of shot itself in the foot with the major interface change. I read that quite a few companies have considered moving to Open Office rather than upgrading to Office 2007 because the training costs associated with 2007. Might as well go the free package if you're going to have to pay for user training either way.

My understanding is that many of the advantages of Office 2007 of Office 2003 come from its tighter integration with the Microsoft Office System back end services like SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange 2007, so if you're not planning to take advantage of that...

 

[orezok]

That's why the teachers can't get paid more... all the $$ is spent so people can surf fast.... go figure!

soundguy

Eighty eight percent of our general fund (budget) is expended on salaries and benefits. Less that one half of one percent is expended on technology. We are fortunate that our systems are so advanced that we get several million dollars a year in technology grants.

Try and take away streaming video of live events or the ability for multiple students to research and prepare video content that would blow you away.

All this is managed by vBrick to a ceiling mounted networked video projector on an 8' screen in each and everyone of our classrooms.

Much of our educational material is computerized and we are just rolling out wireless student "answer remotes" that allow a teacher to ask a question and the students can answer A thru E on their wireless device instantly. This allows the teacher to instantly know what percentage of the students "got it" and to review the material as needed. This is real time learning.

Yes surfing happens, but it is very restricted and controlled.

There is not a teacher in our district that would have it any other way. One of the reasons that we are able to recruit and retain the best quality teachers is TECHNOLOGY!

 

[JESSE1]

My Dell desktop is nearly 6 years old. I've been configuring new computers on the Dell site. Probably looking at an XPS, not sure about what I really need. Just can't configure one cheaper than about $1900 with what I want on it. Easy to spend way too much money on one. The new one will still be about half what I spent 10 years ago on my first Dell.

 

[Soundguy]

Perhaps your teachers make more money than our teachers do here in florida. All the schools my wife has taught at.. I bet the teachers would take a 1% pay rase, and stick with 'raise your hand' to answer a question, and then look at test results to see who knows the answer.

The last 2 schools my wife has been at.. say 10 ys or so, my guess is that she and her friend have the best A/V setup in the entire school. I built it.. it's computer, and a/v integrated.. setup on carts.. some of it is wireless.. some of it requires a snake.. and of course network connection for the pc.. etc.

The rest of the school thinks having morning anouncements on tv is their 'high tech' experience. ( I had to go in and fix that too.. the cable company providing our cable service and maintenance couldn't fix a video artifact problem for months.. after sending in thier techs about 7x, and having the schools IT guy look at it, i went in and fied it for them in about an hour.. turned out to be a bad crimped on end of a cable on some rack mounted gear that allowd the 2 schools to share video feeds... 10 cent cable end put on haphazardly was stumping all the cable technicians and It people.... looks like their money needed to be invested elsewhere... IMHO


soundguy

Eighty eight percent of our general fund (budget) is expended on salaries and benefits. Less that one half of one percent is expended on technology. We are fortunate that our systems are so advanced that we get several million dollars a year in technology grants.

Try and take away streaming video of live events or the ability for multiple students to research and prepare video content that would blow you away.

All this is managed by vBrick to a ceiling mounted networked video projector on an 8' screen in each and everyone of our classrooms.

Much of our educational material is computerized and we are just rolling out wireless student "answer remotes" that allow a teacher to ask a question and the students can answer A thru E on their wireless device instantly. This allows the teacher to instantly know what percentage of the students "got it" and to review the material as needed. This is real time learning.

Yes surfing happens, but it is very restricted and controlled.

There is not a teacher in our district that would have it any other way. One of the reasons that we are able to recruit and retain the best quality teachers is TECHNOLOGY!