[mso] Re: Is it worth changing over to?XP ?
- From: "Dian Chapman" <dian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 16:12:37 -0600
>Mine turn! First I love that spouses can agree to disagree so
publicly!!! Greg Chapman says "yes" and Dian Chapman says "flat-out NO"
<hee, hee>
And in five years, we've only had ONE argument that was of any
concern!<g> We respect each other's opinions (most of the time<smirk>).
I can appreciate Greg's opinion and if I were also a senior systems
engineer, responsible for the problems of about a bazillion employees in
a dozen remote locations and had to keep all those systems and servers
running...then I TOO would be the first one to beg for the latest,
greatest software...budgets be damned!
Plus, realize...as an MVP...I get all MS software and betas free. So I
have every version of Word, including the next one. XP is ok and I agree
with Linda that, if you're still using 97, you SHOULD upgrade to either
2000 or XP, cos' 97 has problems. And I also agree with Greg that using
Outlook XP is much better than previous versions.
But when talking Word...I still prefer 2000 and generally use it most of
the time. I know why MS has set up the user interface so even a monkey
can use it without much problem. Wizards galore...so you can deal with
productivity and not have to deal with learning how to use the program
before you can get your work done.
But the question was...the user has 97 and is happy with it. Should he
spend the money now to change to XP. I think he'd be better off doing
what one of my students recently did and find a cheap version of 2000 to
purchase. That'll provide more stability and less of a learning curve.
XP doesn't offer all that much as compared to 2000, in my opinion. And
they've added more hassles for regular users, since they need to relearn
how to do things that have changed, unless they spend time putting Word
BACK the way they're used to using it. Like adding back the old Mail
Merge dialog rather than that stupid wizard. Again, I see the
point...who needs to learn mail merge when it can be a hassle. But damn
it...at least give the users a better chance to make a choice! Because
I'm a loyal user...*I* have to spent time digging to get back the
productivity I need and yet the newbie has it easy? I also have to work
twice as hard to handle forms...now having to clear my development
fields cos' some folks can't handle learning how to create forms
properly. And give me the CHOICE of using the task pane or NOT if I
don't want the damn thing! Yes...I could go on and on, but I'll step off
the soap box now.
The bottom line is...as someone one...Linda?...said...the next version
will be available in not too long. So at this point, I'd wait to see if
it might be better to use the newest version rather than spending the
money now on XP, or find a cheap version of 2000...since it's older and
you can find it cheaper on the net.
Dian Chapman
Technical Consultant, Instructor,
Microsoft MVP & TechTrax Editor
Word AutoForm/VBA eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Tutorial web site: http://www.mousetrax.com/techpage.html
TechTrax Ezine: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax/
-----Original Message-----
From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of April Pace
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 3:16 PM
To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [mso] Re: Is it worth changing over to?XP ?
Mine turn! First I love that spouses can agree to disagree so
publicly!!! Greg Chapman says "yes" and Dian Chapman says "flat-out NO"
Without getting into all the pros/cons about the technical aspects of
upgrading to XP, I will give you my two cents of why to upgrade to
WinXP.... If you are like me, I have a home office, with two small
toddles... their favorite way of getting my attention, is to come in and
hit the off button on my 'puter killing what ever I had been doing since
my last save... In WinXP, I can make the off button work just like the
Start/Turn Off Computer .... Now when they hit that button, instead of
it killing my puter, it asks me if I want to Shut
Down/Restart/Cancel.... And I can just Cancel the move and kill them
instead... Also If your puter/mouse ever locks up, And you can't to a
normal restart... you can hit that button and get to the restart option
without having to do a hard shut down....
April
-----Original Message-----
From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Chuck H.
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 9:00 PM
To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [mso] Re: Is it worth changing over to?XP ?
Well, it sounds pretty darn logical to me, and I'm considering upgrading
to Win XP Professional. The thing that we can't get around, however,
and that bugs the devil out of me, is that the Longhorn release is not
too far down the road now and, not long after that, Blackcomb. If
Microsoft is going to release another OS every 18 months to two years,
we may as well get that third job and start saving more money for
constant upgrades!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Chapman" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 2:29 PM
Subject: [mso] Re: Is it worth changing over to?XP ?
>
> Hi Jamshed!
>
> My own opinion is yes, you should go through the pain (very little
> other than that pain applied to your wallet)for both the OS and the
> Application Suite. I've been running both, full time and exclusively,
> since their release. Here are the creteria I use for that opinion:
>
> 1. Compressed Time - In the computer industry, a lifetime of more than
> 24 months is a long time. It seems only yesterday that you installed
> Windows 98 and Office 2000. Sorry chum, that's been at least 3 years
> for the operating system and at least 1 for the application suite. If
> you wait much longer, you'll be at least 2 versions behind what's
> going on with your applications and you're already 2 versions behind
> on the OS.
>
> 2. Old software problems continue to this day, unpatched - NT4 for
> will never approach the security of W2K and W2K will never approach
> that of XP. Why? MS will stop patching them and will issue a new patch
> for products that have aged out of support only for the ugliest of
> breaches. Since installing Office XP, I have at last achieved a level
> of code security I couldn't even pretend to manage with Office 2000,
> let alone earlier versions. For instance, managing attachments in
> email is something I *do* want active protection against. The only way
> for me to set attachment security levels with Lookout 2000 was to
> apply the security patch...which then kept me from getting any
> attachments at all unless I was also on an Exchange Server. Pfui! At
> the OS level, the security issue is easing quite a bit. Yep, there are
> just as many exposures being found as ever and MS' legacy continues to
> haunt them as these old pieces are brought under the MicroScope. But,
> timely application of the patches is now much easier thanks to the
> Automatic Update Service MS released. And that tool is more well tuned
> to XP than any other version of the OS. Watch for this to change even
> more away from older OSes as time goes on.
>
> 3. Data Structures live forever - Every time any software manufacturer
> kills off a piece of its past, it stubs its toes. It's a given. The
> change from WordBasic to VBA within Word was both wise and painful. To
> make less pain, some of that old WordBasic structure is still
> available to you. The same with those godawful formfields. Those
> things work like they were designed by a Lotus Notes developer. Yep,
> they work, but they're a pain since they don't work like the rest of
> the system that hosts them. Word XP goes a step farther in making it
> easier to move away from these artifacts by making the use of ActiveX
> controls in a document even easier than it once was.
>
> 4. Is the interface the "only thing"? - Nope. I'm delighted with some
> of the things available now in XP for the developer that have never
> been there before. For instance, there is better access to OS dialogs
> than ever before. That doesn't mean, of course, that they didn't also
> compound the problem by breaking some more built-in dialogs and
> getting even more inconsistent in the names and values of some
> intrinsic constants. But that's all geekspeak, right?
>
> 5. Why did they have to go change the interface? - This always raises
> folks' ire. So the good news is that Word XP looks an awful lot like
> Word 2000 in most ways. If you're going to get tripped up, this is
> probably the biggest reason why. It's because despite the face, some
> things work differently underneath. Try building a userform and
> locking the template for Forms. It used to be that any data you might
> have typed in a field would be deleted. Well, that's a special setting
> in XP now. The default is to now leave that stuff untouched. It's also
> interesting to note that this change came because people asked for
> it.(I'm one of
> them!)
>
> On the OS side of this equation, XP looks more like a Mac than ever
> and has finally, I think, matched the Macintosh for flexibility and
> ease of use. If you don't like chamfered corners, though, the old look
> is still there, waiting for you to turn it on.
>
> 6. Uniformity - Personally, as much as I loved Windows 9X and the
> half-breed application suites that were made because of it (read that
> as Office 95 and 97), it's time to move on and finally get a unified
> Windows platform. Windows 9x was never going to be that platform and
> neither was Windows NT. Windows 2000 came RDC to it but XP finally
> sank the nail and these things finally have a chance of being stable,
> I finally have a chance to write one body of code that will run
> everywhere that has Windows under it and we can narrow down our
> troubleshooting trees in recognition that we finally have one platform
> in the Windows world.
>
> Conclusion: If any of those things are important to you and your
> opinions happen to align with mine, you want to get started migrating
> really soon. If you're a touch more the Luddite than I am or worse,
> there's no compelling need to move forward. Bear in mind this
> difference in opinion won't be enough to keep me from jabbering to you
> that you ought to upgrade, though.<g>
>
> Greg Chapman
> http://www.mousetrax.com
> "Counting in binary is as easy as 01, 10, 11!
> With thinking this clear, is coding really a good idea?"
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> > Behalf Of Jamshed Mehta
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:01 AM
> > To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [mso] Re: Is it worth changing over to?XP ?
> >
> >
> >
> > I have been using WIN98 S.E. & OFFICE2000 and am happy
> > with the
> > situation. Now that the XP products are well
> > entrenched, I am
> > wondering whether I should migrate to them. What is
> > the experience
> > and advice of you fellow list members on XP? Is it
> > really beneficial
> > to spend money and go thru the hassles of a new installation?
> > Cheers,
> > Jamshed F. Mehta
> >
>
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