Vista Windows, Friend or Foe?
A Small Business Owner's Guide
Microsoft Windows Vista is the first new desktop operating system to come from Microsoft since the 2001 release of Windows XP. Like all such new offerings, it brings upgraded features while making some existing hardware and software obsolete.
Vista represents a significant change from Windows XP, and requires some thought before diving in. Firstly, there are five versions to choose from: Home Basic, for cheap PCs, that are generally are unsuitable for business; Home Premium like XP Media Center, and the most commonly available version.; Business, works well with servers; Enterprise, for larger businesses; finally Ultimate which combines features from Business and Home Premium.
Vista is designed to address many of the security shortcomings of XP, and does so somewhat at the price of ease of use, and more demanding hardware requirements. You really need a modern dual processor and 2GB of RAM to run Vista properly, so upgrading your existing PC isn’t much of an option.
Back to software, many of the programs you use everyday will need to be upgraded or replaced. For example, only the 2007 version of QuickBooks works with Vista, and it often runs very slowly on older XP PCs. This often leads to replacing not just one PC but several.
Why upgrade to Vista? Well if you buy a new PC from a major retailer, you may not have a choice. Of the major PC manufacturers, only Dell and HP still offer PCs with XP, and only on their websites. So you either have to switch to Vista, or have PCs custom built by a local store, not really an option with increasingly popular laptops.
So why not buy a PC with Vista and load XP on it? Often because you can’t, the manufacturers don’t make device drivers for XP, or at least make it difficult to find them.
Hidden costs, we’ve covered some of them, the obsolete software, the need to upgrade multiple PCs at once, but there are others. Vista isn’t terribly reliable yet, it crashes a lot and there are lots of updates to install. Also, it looks and feels different enough that people will take a while to get used to it, and to get used to the new versions of their favorite programs on Vista. Also, you need to move all your files over and convert them to the new versions, in the case of QuickBooks 2007, you may encounter problems doing so.
Are there alternatives, yes with both pros and cons. Inspired by their iPods, more people are buying Macs and liking them! There are Mac versions of most software that runs on Windows, and Macs can even run XP at the same time, for those programs that really need Windows. And if you are at little more cost conscious and adventurous, Linux is an option, with Dell shipping the Ubuntu version preinstalled on PCs.
Resources: On-Site Support 1 800 905 GEEK, other local IT vendors/Chamber Members; Microsoft Website: http://www.windowsvista.com/; Google - get an error message you don’t understand – pop the text into http://www.google.com/ and the result often comes up; independent view:. http://www.theeldergeekvista.com/.
Alex Burns, Franchise Owner, 1 800 905 GEEK, alex.burns@1800905geek.com.
