I have to completely disagree with your assessment of the Office 2007 changes.
I, personally, have found them to be worth the short learning curve. On a podcast I heard a challenge for people complaining about the changes, have a regular user use Office 2007 for 4-6 weeks. Then tell them you are going to switch them back to the previous version. All of a sudden they don't want to complain anymore and want to tell you how great the 2007 series is and to go away and stop saying silly things. When I converted my dads non-profit over I certainly saw this. Change is sometimes inconvenient and has a cost, but the end result of change can far outweigh the transition costs. It's not 'throwing out 25 years of working UI conventions', it's applying the knowledge learned and gained to give people a significantly improved experience using the tools. I do not consider myself a 'power' office user and have definitely befitted from the greater accessibility of features. I do not see the changes as moving the position of the steering-wheel/pedals/shifter arrangement, I see them as changing the position of the radio controls (now more accessible on the steering wheel) and moving the on board GPS map so you can see it and reach the controls without moving out of your seat (not suction cup stickied to your windshield) and simplifying how you connect your blue tooth phone to play through your cars stereo system. Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 9:46 AM, Sam Cayze <sam.ca...@rollouts.com> wrote: > Yes, great assessment Ben. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Linda C Jones [mailto:newsrea...@nyc.rr.com] > Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 11:45 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Gone way OT: Windows 7 On TechNet Now > > Very well said. My sentiments exactly! > > Linda > > Ben Scott wrote: >> On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 8:24 AM, John Hornbuckle >> <john.hornbuc...@taylor.k12.fl.us> wrote: >> >>> And as you say, Vista isn't nearly as bad as the FUD-spreaders would > have people believe. >>> >> >> Of course, neither is Linux. I must admit, the Linux fan in me is >> somewhat amused to see Microsoft falling victim to one of their own >> favorite tricks. I have a hard time dredging up any sympathy for >> Ballmer and company. Especially when they're obviously trying real >> hard to get people to move off XP to Vista/7, when many of their >> paying customers are apparently are saying we'd rather not. >> >> >>> ... just plain unwilling to learn something new. >>> >> >> A big part of my objection to Vista (as an IT management weenie) is >> that the apparent improvements don't warrant the apparent costs of the >> changes. The ROI just isn't there. Aside from the learning curve, >> there's lots of incompatibilities. Drivers. MSIE 7. Roaming >> profiles. UI. Sure, those incompatibilies only affect existing stuff >> -- guess what, we've got existing stuff we have to worry about. So >> does 99% of the rest of the world. >> >> If there were some radical improvements -- like there were with the >> 95/98/NT4 -> 2000/XP switch -- it would be one thing. But I frankly >> just don't see it with XP -> Vista. >> >> Image-based deployment? We've already invested time/effort/money in >> RIS here, and now we're supposed to invest in something different that >> does the same thing. BitLocker? Licensing issues make it non-viable >> for all but very large companies. Better GPOs? Don't help our 100 or >> so existing XP stations. >> >> It seems like the major added capabilities in Vista are Aero, >> DirectX 10, and home multimedia stuff. Fine for home users, I guess. >> But none are something I want in a business environment. Indeed, in >> business, *we want a consistent UI*. Otherwise support, training, and >> documentation all become more expensive. >> >> Likewise, a big part of the reason we haven't deployed Office 2007 >> anywhere is the radical UI change. Sure, people can get used to it. >> Sure, it's arguably an improvement in some ways. But guess what? >> Throwing out 25 years of working UI conventions for a very marginal >> improvement in usability is just plain not worth it. >> >> It's like the auto industry engineers who keep trying to replace the >> steering-wheel/pedals/shifter arrangement. Sure, it might be possible >> to do things a little better, but it's simply not worth the effort of >> teaching hundreds of millions of people how to drive all over again. >> >> Heck, the very thing that keeps many people on the Microsoft >> platform is that it isn't worth the pain and drawbacks of switching to >> something Linux or Mac. When it comes right down to it, a computer's >> pretty much a computer, regardless of the software you're using. All >> the various offerings have their strengths and weaknesses. But >> throwing out something that mostly-works just to replace it with >> something else that will mostly-work is a bad value proposition. >> >> So Vista isn't the train wreck some say it is, but it also didn't >> provide Microsoft a good ROI for the huge amount of time and money >> they spent making it. Maybe it will pay off eventually by making it >> easier to introduce improvements in future versions of Windows, but I >> kinda doubt it. In 50+ years of the IT industry history, such >> scenarios have rarely paid off. >> >> -- Ben >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
