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In a very unusual
announcement, the ACSA and Comp America have issued a flowing and
positive joint statement about
Microsoft's new Vista operating
system and Office 2007 giving them a rating of 4.5-5 stars out of
five...
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a) Users running Vista have, hands down,
experienced double or more productivity. After adapting to the
new arrangement of resources, particularly with Office 2007, it
has become clear that Microsoft took a very different approach:
focusing on work flow throughput rather than raw system speed.
As a result, we have found Vista gets 5 stars for improving the
speed we can work at, freeing up unnecessary waits and
bottlenecks, both in system performance and in working
throughput figures.
b) Users running Vista have been able to rely on instinctive and
eyes free activities with Vista working more reliably based on
expertise with windows gestures and interactions, allowing work
to move more quickly.
c) We recommend equipping Vista with at least 2GB of RAM and a
4GB high speed USB Flash Drive under Ready Boost. This
constitutes an average $100 investment, yet it achieves
instantaneous operations during work flow. Not much penalty to
pay, one which pays for itself in days.
d) We recommend picking a vendor who knows which peripheral
combinations are fully supported by Vista drivers, since some
older devices' manufacturers have not gotten around to adding
the library to their driver that includes a Vista interface.
e) Always run Service Pack 1 for best experience. If you
have Vista unreliability, then your vendor has a hardware
quality problem: switch vendors. CompAmerica (http://www.compamerica.com)
has experienced a 0% failure and outage rate with Vista since
release of Service Pack 1 and believes any vendor with negative
Vista reliability should not be chosen as a supplier.
f) If you are in an IT department, upgrade your Servers to
Server 2008 first, then replace your PCs or migrate them to
Vista, in between get your users a bit of hands on training with
Vista. It does not take a lot, just a little, and they'll be
working nearly 100% in no time. Database applications
should be reviewed with the DB manufacturer (Oracle, IBM,
Microsoft, etc.) before migration to insure reliable transfer to
your new environment takes place.
g) Standalone networks (those without servers) can put in Vista
stations and Office 2007 immediately and start doing new work
under the new environment. Leave the old PCs up under XP and
access them via shared disk or something like Logmein to use
older applications in a Vista IE7 window. Over time, you'll have
migrated all your data and work to your Vista environment and
can scrap them.
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CompAmerica's president, Jack A. Shulman, a co
chair of the ACSA, was quoted:
"Microsoft Vista at first set me off, I didn't want to migrate. We
were too stressed out and tired from the lengthy period of time it took
to get XP up and stable. But after Microsoft released Vista SP1 (Service
Pack 1), I put in two stations, one at home and one on my office
desktop. I was flabbergasted when my 86 year old mom, whom I care give
for, not only adapted to Vista without a tumble, she preferred its
interface finding it more acceptable to her eyes (she has cataracts) and
to use its mail and internet. Then I was very pleasantly surprised that
under Vista, I found myself working more effectively at work and at
home. I'm a perennial skeptic: yet I found it very pleasant, and
while XP was just fine, I found that subtle cues and responsiveness in
Vista started to eliminate rough edges and delays and missing "order"
that I had become accustomed to (perhaps I shouldn't have) as found in
Windows XP and MAC/OS. Even though Microsoft still has a way to
go, such as cursor control, and print driver corrections, in Vista, it
is much more resilient than XP ever was, and I have reclaimed at least 2
hours a day of my time using Vista. The old disquieting delays are
missing. The lost time from a power user desktop with windows that don't
behave is missing. Unexpected hangs are gone. And the newer
technology such as Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Phenom make Vista a sleek
and happening system."
"Vista seems to be just a way better operating system,
period. I believe it will net us a 25% reduction in labor
force cost, and much higher productivity."
"I even found when I by mistake mis-installed an older
version of Adobe Acrobat, that it recovered more cleanly, removing
everything properly and reinstalling it properly. I'd had found in XP I
had to reinstall the entire XP to get it corrected. Not with Vista. It's
much better organized and seems to have considered keeping things apart
that might mess each other up under XP. While you should equip Vista
with a dual/quad CPU and at least 2GB and a 4GB Ready Boost drive,
you'll be very happy you did, once you give Vista a chance. The key here
is: give it a chance, and clearly give the new technology a chance.
Don't be fooled by the commercial competitors who are decrying it. It
really is a much better system than XP and XP was not bad to begin with.
Microsoft can confirm I was one of the most outspoken Vista critics. But
now, I am no longer a Vista critic, I like having my time back. I
appreciate that Vista is less stress inducing. It is much more pleasant
to use than anything else on the market."
ACSA went on to indicate that it had tested Vista versus MAC/OS, Linux
and XP and in their opinion found Vista had major advantages of
"organization, resilience, and ability to undertake very complex
activities reliably" that exceeded all three of its competitors. "Where
we hated the idea of Vista before, now we are totally enamored of the
experience. It's head and shoulders better than XP and has many
capabilities that we believe are simply not present in MAC/OS or XP or
require extensive additions there and in Linux. But one has to try
it and get to know it before you judge it. It's quite surprising."
stated one user. "It seems the negative press and advertising on Vista
fails to consider: most people have not tried it, so they seem to be
taking bad press as accurate. It's not, and those 'I'm a MAC' ads are
just silly and way off the mark misleading."
ACSA, the American Computer Science Association Inc., is a global
association of computer scientists, geeks and the public. Founded
in 1992, the ACSA provides programs of service, consumer support and
other philanthropic activities, such as 10 Billion Acres (http://www.10ba.org),
a project to replant the 8.5 Billion Acres of trees cut down since 1492.
ACSA is a 501(c)3 Non-profit Charitable Private Foundation under IRC
Codes.
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Contact: John Buchman,
Press Coordinator - 908-272-0016,
info@bellnac.com
Bell North America Public Relations
6 Commerce Dr, Cranford, NJ 07016 |
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©2008 American Computer Science Association
Inc.
All references to Microsoft Vista are trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
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