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Corporate America Not Ready For Vista
thefickler writes to point out a TechBlorge article about a study indicating how few corporate computers now deployed are capable of running Windows Vista. The article says that the study, by Softchoice, will be released next week. The study found that 50% of the PCs inventoried (from a sample of 112,000 from 472 organizations) are below Vista's basic system requirements. Roughly half of those PCs will need to be replaced outright to run Vista. 94% of corporate PCs are not ready for Vista Premium Edition. The article notes that the need to upgrade hardware "could... mean that organizations will hold off upgrading to Windows Vista until their next hardware refresh," as some analysts have been saying for a while now.
They are like corporations, size-wise. Heck one of my last schools just recently made the switch from Windows 2000 to XP SP2. I begged them to get rid of Netscrap and use Firefox on the computers, but the IT department said no. I don't know why Universities want to hang on to Netscape so much. Nescrap and new Win XPSP2. That's the computing life in public US Universities. So it will be at least two years before Vista makes it to computers there.
Large/medium sized corporations rarely "upgrade" their workstations. They roll out new hardware periodically. I imagine that most will roll them out as Vista PC's.
The total cost is higher in your scenario but the cost per machine is much much lower.
"That's all well and good, but what features exactly were taken away in Vista that were found in XP?"
It won't work on computers already in place in businesses, so that's a heck of a feature retraction. I consider backward hardware compatibility an important feature.
"How is playback of encrypted content a bad thing? Is there some magic mechanism which disables your ability to play unencrypted content?"
It's called DRM. Protected Video Path will one day require users to have a certain new monitor to play their store bought movies and video content. When Microsoft and software vendors decide what you get to play unencrypted on your computer, it's not even your own computer anymore.
Oh You POS
Our company isn't in any hurry to upgrade, nor are a lot of companies I talk to. Most like ours, have spent a lot of capital in the last 24 months upgrading from NT4 to XP, from Office 2000 to Office 2003. We have XP tweaked out, locked down, patched up and running perfectly, sort of the way we had NT4/Office2000 tweaked. If we were to upgrade to Vista, to get the same performance, we would have to dump an extra 512 meg of ram into every box, since we have them running 512meg now. XP for our purposes runs pretty well with 512 meg of ram, but on a couple of test boxes, 512 meg with Vista is like running XP on 256. Yeah it runs, but you do a lot of swapping. For now, we are holding off on Vista/Office07, until at the earliest Q2 of 07. Any NEW computers bought/built, will be built with an OS update in mind, but will come configured with XP, NOT Vista.
Big corporations are going to take months if not a year or more to actually start a large-scale rollout of any major software change, much less a new operating system. MS and everyone else releases to them early so they can start the process. (Well, and it makes the companies feel special.) The corps will test on boxes that approximately match what they think will be on the desks when the new system would go into production, not what is there now. They're the ones that drive the patches and the service packs, testing with so many possible interactions with different application packages. Small companies and home users will likely just be running common stuff that is tested for in the QA lab, and they'll still find bugs anyway.
And the biggest corps of all will ask for lame features just to prove how big and powerful they are, to get MS to give in to something stupid. Better to get those out of the way before you release to manufacturing. (You thought it was the 5 employee legal office that asked for the 3 pages of menus to set all those intricate rules for bullet points in Word? It was probably the secretary of some high level exec at a customer with several thousand desks to push software to.)
Of course they'll wait for a big patch package or SP before they'll roll out. It gives them time for other people to find the bugs by hitting them first, so they don't have to. If that sounds mean, consider that this QA model is pretty much how a lot of open source projects work, the lots-of-eyeballs model. It's still herding sheep through the minefield looking to see what goes boom. OSS guys just feel better about finding a flaw, like they are part of the team.
As an aside, I used to be a QA guy. I liked actually getting paid to find bugs, not simply doing it because it made me feel warm and tingly. I reported a bug to Real Networks once, looking to see if they had a fix. They wanted me to walk through the steps to reproduce the error since they hadn't see it before, I told them what my rates were. The phone call ended pretty soon afterward.
You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*
3) I'm not seeing what Vista will actually *do* for me over XP.
Bitlocker for laptops
Better power management via group policy for desktops, just to name two biggies
5) I'm unwilling to perform the carnal acts necessary to get that extra funding.
Unless you need hardware upgrades there likely won't be a funding need since the upgrade is likely covered under your SA agreement.
6) I'm not deploying another MS OS before the first service pack.
This one if completely legit =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
94% of corporate PCs are not ready for Vista Premium Edition
1. There is no such thing as a "Vista Premium Edition".
2. If they mean the closest -- "Vista Home Premium Edition", that's not supposed to be a common Vista edition for corporations.
3. Are these talking about meeting recommendations or requirements? I see few corporations being willing to run Aero Glass, and without that, you can easily get by with 512 MB or 1 GB RAM and no special graphics card to speak of (assuming it meets XP requirements).
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Let's start with some facts:
t ml= /library/en-us/wmpsdk11/mmp_sdk/glossary.asp Search the term "component enforces those rights." on the page.
Vista's *six* SKU's are sold in various states of disabledness. For example, if you want to use a DVD burner, you must upgrade. Hmmm,.no matter the version of XP you could use a DVD burner... That's just one of many restrictions.
Let's move to your clearly uninformed question: "Is there some magic mechanism which disables your ability to play unencrypted content?"
Why, yes there is! The latest WMP phones home to MS when you play a song and catalogs your content. When the inevitable OS reinstall happens and you attempt to play the same songs you get some bad news. It seems it's okay to play the music on that "other" OS install, but not this one. You agree to this when you click-through licenses. Here's a link to a guy that experienced it. http://www.bandddesigns.com/blogger/arch/002942.h
Here's Microsoft's SDK http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url
Now, Microsoft and their media friends are taking away your right to first sale as secretly as possible. Vista will help them meet that end very nicely. Set top boxes and a variety of media subscription models will help greatly as well. Add in dragging some children into court and consider it done.
I assure you, this is only the beginning. Please consider using another OS that ensures your current freedoms. Many Linux distros are good,
I'm sure the above-average PHB senses this anyway. Which is part of the reason the Vista uptake will be so slow.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
did you hapen to know that bitlocker is basically volume level DRM? so that means if any of the following happens
1 you lose the password to the account and your "root" admin gets run over by a bus
2 some random Zero day borks the account
3 a DDOS on the authentication server burns your block of COA serials
4 Microsoft just one day "decides" that your system is unauthorized (maybe you are in Their way)
You are shall we say "traversing the proverbial polluted tributary without visible means of propulsion" or "afixed via a rotated metal rod with a spiral fin"
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061111-819
The state of internet journalism is truly pathetic.
Nikon CaptureNX for Win is a .NET app. Crashes, won't save files, dog slow, file browser can't see files.
The version for Mac Tiger works like it's supposed to.
Unless I am mistaken, Windows standardized on 92+ pixels per inch. PDF, Postscript, and Mac OS standardized on 72 pixel per inch because that was a common printing/publishing standard and the first GUI's were for "desktop publishing".
m aging/RN-ResolutionIndependentUI/
Also, what you are asking for is resolution independent graphics, and that is already available as a user option with Mac OS 10.4 and will ubiquitous with Mac OS X 10.5.
http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/GraphicsI
That's an interesting view of reality you have there. You believe Microsoft invented the hardware restrictions that the MPAA and RIAA are trying to force down our throats?
Hmm. Palladium. Product activation. Windows Genuine Advantage. Plays for Sure. Microsoft has been pushing DRM (weren't they the ones who came up with the term?) with or without the backing of the AA's for years.
Backwards compatibility is not a feature, if you're going to complain about it then let's have a discussion about computers unable to run SUSE 10.1. Why can't I run it on my 386? or my 486?
Because that's a dumb comparison. No one wants to run a new operating system on a 20 year old processor. However, plenty of people will want to be able to run new operating systems on three to four year old hardware - hardware that was new during Longhorn's/Vista's development. What's so unreasonable about that?
Biggest questions with switching to Linux, from a firm of 3000+ computers. This is all written from the standpoint of a discussion I, the IT director, has had with my current staff and my direct manager, the CFO. These are honest questions raised by the CFO and myself, who don't know enough about Linux yet to answer them.
Application compatibility - Most applications that our users currently run have been written for Windows. How do I run those inside Linux, without resorting to a Windows emulation program? (Not just talking about Office, but also about client-server accounting/payroll program from a vendor, HR software, federal and state government tax and retirement plan submission software, video editing, photo editing, and more). If I have to use an emulation program, how seamlessly does it emulate the speed and functionality of the real Windows application? (If we have an attendance secretary who inputs 2000 students attendance a day, and each entry takes her 2 seconds longer to do, that adds another 5 hours to her work week... Expand that across the board to the other positions, and I start having a lot of decreased productivity)
Do I still need to pay Microsoft for the yearly licenses for Windows, or is the emulation program running on just a emulation layer that does not require a full install of Windows?
If I have to look at conversion to separate packages of software, including retraining of employees and support staff on new packages and dealing with missing functionality, that severely impacts the morale and productivity of employees in company in supporting the new software.
Training of New OS - How high is the learning curve (and by that, I mean users who are very reluctant to major software changes, such as most secretaries of executive-level officers) of switchng from a Windows 2000 to Linux, as opposed to the learning curve of switching from Windows 2000 to Windows Vista? How much will I need to do to retrain my support staff to handle these issues?
Support by established company - There are multiple brands of Linux (Ubuntu, Redhat, Slackware, Suse, Fedora, Debian, Knoppix, and many more). How many of the brands offer same business day support via call-in phone number, similar to a Microsoft support incident contract? Is there a single established site that contains an exhaustive knowledge base for incidents?
Upgrading of new OS versions: How different is the versioning of OS's like Redhat, or Ubuntu, or SUSE, from that of Windows? Is the Redhat of 3, or 5, or 7 years ago essentially unchanged from that of today? Could the Redhat of today run on a computer of 5 or 7 years ago without the disabling of any functionality? Can the OpenOffice of today run on the RedHat of 5 years ago? We're looking for uniform versioning across all our computers. One of Linux's big points that we keep seeing toted, anecdotally, is the ability to run it on a P3-600 without any degrading, and we need to know how true that is. If we're making a decision to install an OS that will run for the next 5 years with no upgrade, we need to answer these questions now.
Peripheral compatibility - Yes, Linux supports printers. But does it support existing and future peripherals, (such as Paperport single sheet scanners, business card scanners, PDA synchronization, digital camera synchronization, dv camera importing and editing, etc) for peripheral companies that do not and will not provide Linux drivers, and are in some cases the best of breed or the only company that supplies these peripherals? I do not want to hire on an additional staff member to program drivers for these.
Employee Use at home rights: How much of this software is available under use at home rights? How will an employee purchasing a new computer for home get Redhat, or Slackware, or whatever, installed on their new computer from Gateway, or HP, or Dell?
And since our company is also in charge of supporting computers inside a college computer environment:
Application compatibility: Many educational CD's
You can set a custom DPI in Vista.
Right click on the desktop, choose Personalize. On the left, choose "Change Font Size (DPI)".
Applications that are DPI-aware will scale their fonts to match Vista's setting. For those that are not DPI-aware, Vista will scale it for you. The downside is that if Vista has to scale a small font up to meet your DPI, then it will look fuzzy.
2. If you emulate windows in linux, you still pay the microsoft tax.
3. Too high a learning curve for what you're doing.
4. Many different distros make their money on support. Fedora, Suse to name a couple.
5. I've used many different flavours of Linux. The faster the computer the better. Linux just never seems to be as fast as I want. It's not really the linux but the desktop (KDE or Gnome) that are the processor hogs.
6. Printers.. good luck.
7. Windows Apps.. good luck.
8. Real World. Windows on the desktop, linux in the server rooms.
Honestly, I hate Microsoft the company with a passion. I'm currently using the best thing they ever made and that's windows 2000. I've tried, Lord knows I've tried to use Linux. I have 10 computers at home and probably 50 Linux distros on cd that have made it onto a machine at one time or another. I have yet to see one distro do everything I want. I either get printing problems, or it doesn't want to play with my windows network, or it's slow or it crashes. You'll hear tons of fanboys in here probably mod me down for such remarks but the cold stark reality is that Linux right now is only good for home users who want to surf and check email or as a server platform. None of those dumb Windows screensavers, games, apps etc. that users like to download will work. Very few games will work and not many home users are proficient enough to play with emulators.
Linux is remarkable in the server areas though. They just blow windows away. I'll never use anything else for a webserver again. SME server is an excellent replacement for a windows domain controller.
Bottom Line: Most businesses use accounting software that is not compatible with Linux. That reason alone is enough to seriously curtail any large scale Linux adoption. Therefore, since it's gonna be a while before Linux really makes it into the real world, and your students WILL be using Windows when they leave school, and it's a fair learning curve to administer Linux machines... forget Linux on the desktop for a while. When software companies start writing their accounting software for Linux, then it's worth it to start.
Disclaimer: All the above is only MY opinion. You may not agree. Use at your own risk!
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
Here's the information according the one of the developers.
0 2/dpi-scaling-in-windows-vista.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/kamvedbrat/archive/2006/12/
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
I'm not sure what you mean by "staying relevant". For me, they are becoming more and more irrelevant all the time. I've never been a big PC gamer, and Wine is getting pretty close to running all the games I do play. Plus there's all the wonderful DRM, overtures toward "trusted" computing, and Vista requiring signed drivers, which are all slaps in the face to anyone who actually wants to control the machines they own.
And for other people I know, the same is happening, but can be summarized as "Mac Mini/Macbook". They use their computers for e-mail and the web, and Apple makes a damn good computing appliance for this purpose.
Of course, businesses are a whole different story.
The argument would be a lot easier if I didn't actually run RC2. Applications not compiled with DPI-aware manifest look like a steaming pile of shit when scaled due to blur. And that, of course, includes the vast majority of your "old" apps, and even some "new" apps as well, even the ones that ship with Vista - e.g. Calendar. Even apps that _are_ compiled as DPI aware show broken UI and ugly icons in places. I didn't even have to dig deep for this. If most of your apps are not DPI aware, you'll probably be better off running your LCD at a non-native resolution. Which kinda defeats the purpose.
It remains to be seen what Apple's implementation will look like, but if you know Steve Jobs at all he'd rather eat broken glass than release something that doesn't look good.
Never mind, I'm sure the usual mixture of blackmail and bribery will see vista deployed in some high profile corporate site before too long.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Disclaimer: I have done lot of migrations from Windows to Linux, so I have experience to talk about. In short - Windows to Linux is doable, and it is not so nightmarish, as someone would like to paint it. However, it asks one thing from your IT departament - discipline, which is very rare thing to find among Windows sysadmins. So usually you should look for human factor when something is blocking your migration.
.NET enviroment then you should check out Mono goodies. All Novell/MS deal contraversy aside, Mono is really serious project. Also lot of apps can be ported via Python/GTK, which combo is very very easy to use and learn. For example, check out this project http://www.moeraki.com/pygtktutorial/pygtk2tutoria l/index.html.
1. Windows apps, custom apps - WINE simulator is aimed to be fully blown simulator of Windows libraries, are still in active development, but progress is made everyday. WINE also have two commercial offsprings - Crossover Office by Code Weavers, really good product, and Cedega, not-so-good, but still solution for lot of Windows software, mostly games. Any of these settings you can achieve that your apps run flawlessly in emulation environment. No Windows license is needed, unless explicitly cited in EULA. I would go with Crossover Office, they are not cheap, but not very expensive either. As side note, for advanced users WINE is a bless, because you can make actually work a lot programms with little or even no configuring or hacking. Use lot of small tools with WINE with default configuration (as installed) and I am fine. Of course, EVERYTHING must be tested, so there would be any surprises down the road. Also if apps are coded in
2. As I already said, emulation layer requires no Windows installation nor license.
3. Retraining - if your users just need to do a job what they should do, simple retraining will do just fine. Windows are still Windows. Web browsers are still the same browsers as in Windows, and OpenOffice is very similar to Microsoft Office, yes, there are differences, but if pointed out in retraining and later manuals, it is usually no issue. All is needed is good manual for most visible changes, and helpful admins. And no, you don't have to learn them how to thinker with console.
4. Support by established company - there are several ways to get support from commercial entity. First of all, there is RedHat with RHE and it's contracts, Oracle with RHE support (less expensive but still lot of money), Novell with SLE and Novell Linux Desktop (prices are more SMB oriented), IBM (big iron and large and medium corporations) and then comes Cannonical with it's interesting version of support - they provide platform for various support groups - local, noncommercial, user-based, commercial, group-based, etc. They have their register of commercial supporters of your area. Of course you can't forget Debian, which has community support, which is proven itself in action. Ubuntu is built upon Debian. So more or less, covered distros are RedHat Enterprise, SUSE Enterprise, Ubuntu Dapper (stable, 3/5 y support version), and Debian. If I have to choose from this list, I would go with Ubuntu/Kubuntu Dapper with local commercial support. Why? It is very strong and good community support + lot of references and kb collections. There are no one BIG place, but there are several big places - Ubuntu WIKI, Ubuntu Forums with HOWTOS and manuals, and more. There are also very friendly support ticket system in Launchpad, also IRC channel #ubuntu at irc.freenode.net will provide your admins (or your commercial supporter) with necessary info.
Go with Novell/RedHat, if you need heavy-weight support behind our Linux desktop (They are serious companies with smartest of minds in Linux/Free software world on payroll), or Oracle/IBM, if you are big corporation and wanna do "right thing" for your shareholders.
5. OS upgrades
SLES/NLD (Novell offer) and RHE (RedHat of
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!