Arthur Fuller
fuller.artful at gmail.com
Tue Aug 20 03:21:51 CDT 2013
First of all, there are no stupid (dumb is a special word to be used only in the context of people unable to speak; implying nothing about their IQ, which in itself is a can of worms; thus my rephrasing of your call for help) questions, only stupid people. Back to your question. I would heartily recommend a move to Windows 8, as opposed to a move to Windows 7. I have previously blogged about how much I hated Win8 but have since changed my mind, and now I'm quite comfortable in this new environment. The key thing is to notice what happens with a single tap upon the Windows key: it switches you from Tiles to a familiar Win7-like interface. Second important item: you can rearrange your Tiles simply by clicking once and then dragging and dropping them to any configuration that you desire. My own preferred configuration is that "Start" includes the tiles for Chrome, FireFox, SSMS, MediaMonkey, Alpha Anywhere and the standards such as Weather. In terms of RAM, Win 8 is less demanding than XP or Win 7, so you won't have to upgrade any hardware to leap into the Brave New World. I would suggest that you consider a leap to Ubuntu or Mint (both Linux-based) but that might be too large a leap for your ~50 user base. However, there may be a middle ground: take your most advanced user and set up a dual boot on his or her machine, and have him/her toy with OpenOffice and/or LibreOffice and see how it works out. The large failing of both office products is their inability to duplicate the functionality of VBA within the Office line of products. I have made some serious dollars in knowing how to integrate the Office apps with custom code, and so far as I can see these customizations are not possible in OpenOffice and LibreOffice. On the other hand, if you have no need for such custom code, then either OpenOffice or LibreOffice are free alternatives to the MS package. Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are freely downloadable, Thumbnail: Just because M$ wants you to abandon XP is not a compelling reason to do so. If it works, it works. No point in breaking what works. Or, to put it another way, when was the last time you sent an email to the SP team at M$? If anything exemplifies the term "unresponsive", I would cite M$ as my principal evidence. Should you choose to migrate, I see no point in migrating to Win7. Bite the bullet and go to Windows 8. It takes a couple of days to become familiar with the transition, so you may have to factor the cost of lessons into your migration strategy If you're determined to migrate and also remain within the Windows realm, then Win8 is the best approach If you're more open-minded (this thought extends from your mention of budget constraints), then I would suggest a move to either Ubuntu or Mint, both of which are freely downloadable, and also included in these distros are OpenOffice and LibreOffice. My suggestion, in sum, is to download either Ubuntu or Mint and install it on one machine, for your senior tech person to play with. Should said tech-person issue a "Go" then one by one, each system can be replaced with a Linux version. The problem is the VBA code, which is not portable to the various implementations of Officw. However, there is an alternative approach, whose name is WINE This package enables you to run Windows apps within a Linus window On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 3:07 PM, Brad Marks <BradM at blackforestltd.com>wrote: > All, > > I work part time for a small manufacturing firm (about 50 employees) > with a very limited IT budget. > > Currently there are about 20 older PCs running Windows XP (SP3). There > are two purchased application systems and a number of Access 2007 > applications. > > It is my understanding that Microsoft is dropping all support (including > security updates) for XP in April of 2014. > > My background is primarily in application development and database > administration. In the past, I have relied on fellow employees for > "Operating System issues". > > I have some dumb questions. > > How serious is the issue of Microsoft dropping all support for XP next > April? > > What are most firms migrating to? Win-7? Win-8? > > I would guess that either Win-7 or Win-8 will need more horsepower than > XP and neither will run very well on older PCs. True? > > Will Access 2007 applications run Okay with either Win-7 or Win-8? > > Thanks, > Brad > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- Arthur