Some Vista "WTF's?" I found.... (2 Viewers)

[HEMI6point1]

Fortunately, we only installed Vista on one of our six PC workstations. We are having HUGE problems printing to our two digital presses and Mitsubishi DPX plate imagesetter. I know it's frustrating to have problems at home, but when MicroSoft's newest product prevents professionals from producing items for sale, it really P$$$$ me off!
I wish we could just use our macs, but MicroSoft has convinced the public that S$$$ like Publisher, Word and Powerpoint are real graphics programs.
And . . . of course, older versions of these programs do not work with Vista, forcing us to spend $400 for professional version of Office on each computer with Vista installed.
Do I hate MicroSoft? - you bet your A$$ !!!!!

$400?! There are some (reputable) online shops that sell the academic versions of Office 2007 Pro for less than $200.

 

[downtime]

Office 2007 will run on XP.... I guess I am missing something here.... I understand the issues with a new OS and any sort of high end/special equipment, but the newest version of occie works fine on XP so I am uncertain as why you would "need" Vista....

There is a file conversion update for Office 2007 that has been out for awhile that works well from what I have seen, plus the PDF save update.....

 

[HEMI6point1]

I have been getting a few calls from people complaining about issues when they try to use Office 2000 and 2002 with Vista. Yes, they will install but have serious issues.

Then when I tell them that Vista only works with Office 2003 and above they get all mad and scream, "Then why didn't the salesman tell me that!" Yeah, like the salesperson knows you're going to be putting 7 and 5 year old software on a just-released O/S.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

$400?! There are some (reputable) online shops that sell the academic versions of Office 2007 Pro for less than $200.

What part of this do you not understand? If you are a graphics business and have installed Vista and need technical support Microsoft is going to be able to detect if you do not have full licenses for all of their products. There is no way around this without risking huge legal problems. We are trying to look into multiple license packs for Office. Of course, Microsoft is too busy to reply to our requests.

 

[downtime]

What part of this do you not understand? If you are a graphics business and have installed Vista and need technical support Microsoft is going to be able to detect if you do not have full licenses for all of their products. There is no way around this without risking huge legal problems. We are trying to look into multiple license packs for Office. Of course, Microsoft is too busy to reply to our requests.

Look here for a reasonable description: http://download.microsoft.com/downl...0C-C9B00024DF33/open_license_programguide.pdf

OEM quantities are also an option but will not have the benefits of the open licese program or the support.

Am I correct in assuming the reason for Vista is to get around the 4G memory limit by implementing the 64 bit version? Otherwise I am uncertain as to why you would deploy Vista in a production graphic environment?

 

[downtime]

From my perspective, as a Microsoft Partner, this is what I look at for a general perspective in regards to MS licensing programs...

Open Value: Stay current and get more from your technology investments with Software Assurance . By placing an initial order of five or more licenses with Software Assurance, your customers can spread payments annually and enjoy a host of other benefits designed to offer them more value, more manageability, and more assistance. Choose the Company-wide Option and enjoy additional savings.

Open Volume: Potentially save your customers even more if their organization is able to make a larger initial up-front order in one or more product pools (applications, systems, servers).

Open Business: With Open Business, your customers can save on estimated retail prices by placing an initial order for five or more licenses or one server license. Customers can combine any set of Microsoft products to qualify for the five-license minimum.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

Am I correct in assuming the reason for Vista is to get around the 4G memory limit by implementing the 64 bit version? Otherwise I am uncertain as to why you would deploy Vista in a production graphic environment?

We are an Adobe Authorized Service Provider. We were informed that Creative Suite 3 would run significantly faster on the Vista platform. We downloaded CS3 (an 8 gig file!) yesterday and . . . it is much faster!
Time equals money - customers want higher quality and it is not unusual for us to receive gigabyte graphic files. This is a good thing for our PCs.
On the mac side, CS3 is optimized for G5s with Intel quad processors.
So . . . we get to spend more money for more macs! If you want to service high line customers in the graphics industry the upgrades never stop!

 

[downtime]

Am I correct in assuming the reason for Vista is to get around the 4G memory limit by implementing the 64 bit version? Otherwise I am uncertain as to why you would deploy Vista in a production graphic environment?

We are an Adobe Authorized Service Provider. We were informed that Creative Suite 3 would run significantly faster on the Vista platform. We downloaded CS3 (an 8 gig file!) yesterday and . . . it is much faster!
Time equals money - customers want higher quality and it is not unusual for us to receive gigabyte graphic files. This is a good thing for our PCs.
On the mac side, CS3 is optimized for G5s with Intel quad processors.
So . . . we get to spend more money for more macs! If you want to service high line customers in the graphics industry the upgrades never stop!

A way around the issue would be to implement the 64 bit Vista and Applications for processing and modification, but use a TS connection that loads an XP 32 bit print driver for actual output.

Thuis is off the top of my head.... But the printing issues can easily be isolated from the application and processing in a way which may actually speed up things all around your place if you off load print functions to one box.....

The hardware could load up a server or desktop OS, load VMWare or other virtual environment, and that will allow multiple OSs such as DOS, Win 95, Win 98, 2000, XP, 2003 Server, Linux, or whatever to load. These desktops can remotely perform the printing functions while locally the machine utilizes the 64 bit Vista and 64 bit apps necessary to speed up processing.

Plus the machine can be backed up through the "host OS" and the viruals sorted out so that in the event of a failure you can do a recovery from a single CD and hard drive backup of anything from a single file to the entire OS and configuration. even do a different piece of hardware in the event of a catastrophic failure.

 

[willy]

I would stick with the Mac...no need for all that huss & fuss.

But I hear your pain, Jim..nickel & dime you to death.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

But the printing issues can easily be isolated from the application and processing in a way which may actually speed up things all around your place if you off load print functions to one box.....

Wow - thanks for your expert opinion on how to do a workaround on $75,000 worth of proprietary printing software to a million dollars worth of digital and offset printing equipment! We do have one box - a mainframe server that integrates 12 PC's and 8 macs. I'll pass this on to Adobe, Creo, Hamada, Minolta, Mitsubishi and Heidelberg. I'm sure they will be in touch very soon.

 

[.]

Just a hint, use this thing:

 

[willy]

But the printing issues can easily be isolated from the application and processing in a way which may actually speed up things all around your place if you off load print functions to one box.....

Wow - thanks for your expert opinion on how to do a workaround on $75,000 worth of proprietary printing software to a million dollars worth of digital and offset printing equipment! We do have one box - a mainframe server that integrates 12 PC's and 8 macs. I'll pass this on to Adobe, Creo, Hamada, Minolta, Mitsubishi and Heidelberg. I'm sure they will be in touch very soon.

Jim, it would be better not to bring up an issue then. Seems to me Ted is just trying to help..no need for the sarcasm if you already know no one this side of hell can help you.

[I fixed the QUOTE]

 

[downtime]

Wow - thanks for your expert opinion on how to do a workaround on $75,000 worth of proprietary printing software to a million dollars worth of digital and offset printing equipment! We do have one box - a mainframe server that integrates 12 PC's and 8 macs. I'll pass this on to Adobe, Creo, Hamada, Minolta, Mitsubishi and Heidelberg. I'm sure they will be in touch very soon.

Hey, I will shut up. No problem. I was just trying to help. I have been integrating systems for 20 years in a variety of IBM, Vax, PC and Mac environments. In no way do I pretend to know more than any of the fine engineers at the major vendors but I do understand the process whereby each vendor basically supports their own stuff.

I'm the guy that people call to sit in the middle of the vendors and figure out how to make all the stuff work together. I am usually in a situation where I am not an "expert" in any one of the vendors involved, but i do understand the core fundamental concepts and implementation strategies necessary to provide a complete solution to companies that have issues such as yours.

I'm the idiot who invented the concept of the Network Plus certification in 1996 and pushed CompTIA to implement it. I'm the idiot who served on the President's Y2K commission and spoke at the PC Expo in NYC. I'm the idiot who was a SME for the development of the Internet Plus Certification (now defunct). I'm the idiot who.....

Yea... I'm the guy that people call when they have a situation such as yours to implement a strategy to "fix" things to they can operate more efficiently, more reliably, and better utilize their million or multi million dollar investments in software, programming, hardware, and personnel in regards to their technology infrastructure.

Anyway... I know nothing about your exact environment and all i was doing was to, in a friendly way, try to let you know that there are ways to make technology work for you that your proprietary vendors will not implement because they will not be held accountable for the other vendors in your infrastructure matrix.

If I said something to upset you I apologize as i was only trying to help in an informal and friendly way. Geeeeeez.......

Here is a recent article I wrote so you can put a face to my name: The Auto Industry May Be Ready For Car VARs - Digital Home Integration - Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness

 

[BlueStangGT]

.....

Not sure what you were going for here, Brent but I love your sig! A Joe Walsh reference!

 

[willy]

What was that again, Ted??

Seriously, I knew your background..and I also know you're trying to help..it's what you do.

Nice post.

 

[downtime]

What was that again, Ted??

Seriously, I knew your background..and I also know you're trying to help..it's what you do.

Nice post.

I didn't mean to come on so strong. None of us really know anyone online and there is an ever growing population of keyboard quarterbacks... Somehow I just figured that with this small community and using real names that we might all be just a bit more polite sometimes, myself included.

Thanks for the kind response, Dave.