During junior Anthony McCabe’s first year at St. Michael’s College, his computer died. Of all the pressures a first-year faces, having a computer crash shouldn’t be one of them. By November 2006, he knew he was going to have to purchase a new one.
Around this time, Microsoft was hyping its new Vista program to all the computer companies. Hewlett-Packard (HP) gave McCabe a certificate for an upgrade to Vista when it was released. McCabe’s luck was looking up. He received a Vista upgrade package that installed easily.
Out with the old, in with the new
More than a year ago, Microsoft made an announcement that Windows XP would be off the market in January 2008. Due to extensive customer dissatisfaction, XP was given until June 30, 2008. As seen on many Internet forums, people were beginning to panic as the deadline is now about two months away.
“Vista is an upgrade to XP that markets better security and better user interface,” says Joann Trottier, head of Information Technology.
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A computer lab in Jeanmarie. (Photo by Abby Robitaille) |
Microsoft is currently in production of its next operating system. It’s more feasible that St. Michael’s skip a version and move from XP to the next one, Trottier says.
Professor John Trono, of the computer science department, says there are currently no computers using Vista on campus, only those owned by students.
“Sometimes an upgrade of a program will come out that has more features but it’s harder to use,” Trono says. “People stick with the programs they know.”
He’s heard the hype about Vista, as well a lot of complaints from people that have problems with it, he says.
There’s still some compatibility testing that needs to take place with applications before IT can switch over to Vista, he says.
“The reason that we haven’t switched them at the college at this point is because Vista requires more memory to run well than what the majority of our college computers have,” Trottier says. “It’s also not compatible with all of the programs we use on campus.”
The office
McCabe doesn’t regret making the switch, he says.
“I switched because I like change and Microsoft was way overdue for change,” McCabe says. “There was Windows 95, Windows 98 then XP in 2001… and Vista in 2007.”
He says he didn’t find many major changes with Vista; one advantage of Vista is the 3-D Aero Glass graphics, which make the windows partly transparent.
“It’s really cool to show people,” McCabe says.
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A screenshot from Windows Vista. (Public Domain) |
One disadvantage McCabe encountered was the inability to turn off or change the startup sound he had previously been able to do with XP. McCabe notices how slow the school computers run with XP’s network setup. Sometimes XP takes many minutes to shutdown.
Vista has not been free of problems for McCabe, but he believes minor problems are to be expected with a new operating system.
“Some installations are incompatible. Some changes I make don’t save after a reboot,” McCabe says.
The compatibility issues arise with Microsoft Office ’07, which was released along with Vista.
McCabe says that when he saves a document in Word, PowerPoint or Excel, or any other Microsoft Office program, the document becomes incompatible with XP computers.
“In order to open anything saved from Microsoft Office 2007, you must select ‘Compatible for office 97-03,’ which could be the most insane thing I’ve ever heard,” McCabe says.
These don’t qualify as major problems for McCabe, but they are certainly not reasons to shun the system entirely, he says.
McCabe knows that St. Michael’s is waiting until Vista’s bugs are worked out, although he thinks it would be optimal to upgrade all of the computers over this summer and have everything Vista ready, he says.
“It’s an inevitable switch and the earlier people know how to use it and get used to it, the better,” McCabe says.
Working the bugs out
For next year, St. Michael’s is going to stay with XP. IT staff are currently testing Vista, but for now, whether or not to use XP or Vista will be left up to the students.
“The low end of our recommendation is XP, but we’ll accept both (operating systems) and be ramping up our help desk to support both,” Trottier says.
St. Michael’s is in the process of switching computers in the labs and classrooms from Gateway to HP. The current computers are approaching the end of their warranties, she says.
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A screenshot from Windows XP. (Public Domain) |
“We went out to bid for the replacement of those computers and had reviewed Gateway, dell and HP,” Trottier says. “HP is a better fit for us.”
This summer, the campus will have both Gateway and HP computers, she says.
St. Michael’s will soon be offering HP laptops to students with a bundle that includes on-site software support and Vista. An HP expert will be on campus, Trottier says.
“We are recommending Vista for student PCs simply because that’s what’s mostly available there and that’s the direction that they’re heading,” Trottier says.
IT tries to stay on a common platform as long as possible, she says.
“As long as we have old systems that can’t run Vista, we’re going to stay with XP,” she says. “At the point which all the systems are able to handle a new operating system, we will make the transition.”