Windows 7 Upgrade

[Tyiell]

Hi All,

 

I didn't want to post this in the Windows 7 group because this post exists (in part at least) because I can't be bothered to do any proper research - I just want opinions from those who have the time and inclination to give them

 

Basically our network manager has decided to roll out a mass upgrade of the servers to Server 2008 and the clients to Windows 7. I fully approve of the server 2008 part, and and the roll out is scheduled for the summer so no criticsm that we are rushing into it is implied here, but I am interested to know what real advantages there are for going to Win 7. Many of the staff laptops and some of our desktops are not going to handle it (many only have 512 MB RAM, some even have 256...) causing more expense than the already considerable cost of the licenses.

 

In the face of these disadvantages, the overall cost, and the inevitable outcry of "it looks different I can't cope!!" from staff and students, I haven't seen much to really justify doing the upgrade as a priority - I understand MS will supply security updates for XP until 2014. I am curious to know what the advantages are of upgrading so soon...

 

Oh and I don't count "it looks nice" as an advantage - I get that enough from the media department when they want to buy Apple Macs

[timbo343]

The costs for upgrading the desktops is pretty large. I know just last week we were testing Win7 and looking at how it runs with our current programs etc, and we have found that we will need at least a gig to run win 7 smoothly as it uses about 512 just for the OS, so the cost for us to bring desktops up from 512 to 1gig will be about £1700 and that is to do about 50 machines.

 

As for testing of software we have found that our version of photoshop which is version2 will not run on win 7 and the version of premiere (v3) wil not run either. It seems to me this is a good time for software makers to start rubbing their hands.

 

The plan that i have taken is to upgrade to win 2008 over the summer then once everything is ok on this side roll out win 7 room by room. Obivously there will be a mixed bag of OS but is it better to roll out bit by bit and deal with problems as they occur or to deal with a mass roll out and a mass of problems.

[Tyiell]

Worrying that some Adobe products aren't compatible - we have the CS3 Master Collection - is that the same version as your premier I wonder? Media will kick up a hell of a fuss if that doesn't work and I can't blame them!!!

 

Thanks for your input!

[sidewinder]

CS3 suite works fine for us on 7

[Ric_]

If you have a Schools Agreement or another form of Software Assurance, the actual licensing costs are moot since you've paid for the upgrade already. Windows 7 has a number of advantages (compared to XP):

* Better DPA compliance through the use of Bitlocker (a driving factor for my migration)

* IMHO Windows 7 has much improved memory management and Windows 7 on a 512MB machine is no worse than XP on the same machine - it will consume more RAM if it is available but that is just common sense

* Ease of deployment has been improved - gone are the days of tens of different images for each different machine build

* The new interface definitely improves productivity - I hate to think how I managed with XP when I think of how many apps I have open at once!

* Kids like new stuff... they see you running XP still when they are running an OS that is two generations newer at home and they will get frustrated and take it out on your kit!

[PeteM]

* Kids like new stuff... they see you running XP still when they are running an OS that is two generations newer at home and they will get frustrated and take it out on your kit!

 

Our kids get more frustrated when things don't work. Thats when we get the vandalism issues. (Mainly laptop damage)

[Tyiell]

If you have a Schools Agreement or another form of Software Assurance, the actual licensing costs are moot since you've paid for the upgrade already. Windows 7 has a number of advantages (compared to XP):

* Better DPA compliance through the use of Bitlocker (a driving factor for my migration)

* IMHO Windows 7 has much improved memory management and Windows 7 on a 512MB machine is no worse than XP on the same machine - it will consume more RAM if it is available but that is just common sense

* Ease of deployment has been improved - gone are the days of tens of different images for each different machine build

* The new interface definitely improves productivity - I hate to think how I managed with XP when I think of how many apps I have open at once!

* Kids like new stuff... they see you running XP still when they are running an OS that is two generations newer at home and they will get frustrated and take it out on your kit!

 

Good to hear some positive points - I had no doubt there were some, but they seemed a little thin on the ground!!! So the new deployment system - does one image work for all machines then? This is the first I have heard of this - sounds like a massive benefit...

 

We don't have a schools agreement - we have bought XP individually with each machine. This means we either have to begin an agreement, or buy individual win 7 licenses. I'm not convined the Schools agreement is worth it from what I have seen. The annual payment is about 1/3 of the price of buying them outright, which means it is only cost effective if you upgrade to Windows 8 (or whatever) within 3 years. Otherwise it evens out on the 3rd year, and you start paying over the odds for each year from then. Given XP lasted easily 9 years - thats triple the price of buying them outright!!

[mbird]

The agreement we have has office bundled into it - which makes Software Assurance seem so much nicer

[Tyiell]

True, I suppose office gets upgraded more often than Windoze. Even so, I reckon it would work out more expensive - Office 2003 lasted us 5 years, and we got office 07 pro plus licences for £30 a go...

[mbird]

I will have a look at exactly what we get, i know we get Win 7 Pro (Ultimate without the games) and Office 10, exchange 10....

...but we have the servers on the agreement too.

 

Also, we get a flashy download site from Microsoft. Definitely the best bit

[timbo343]

In our agreement we get:

Servers &CALS,

Office &CALS,

ISA (forefront)

SQL

 

But will be adding the OS to the agreement for win 7.

 

As for tyour question about CS3, i think they are very different products. I know that premiere elements is on version 8 and we are on version 3. Version 3 of Premiere just hangs and wont let you do anything, apparently this is a common thing as a lot of people are having the same problem. To be fair, i was supprised at how much a copy was, it only worked out at about £50 a copy. As for Photoshop, we would have to upgrade to version 8 too as we are running version 2 and this too was about the same price.

[mbird]

Bear in mind that XP mode has recently been enabled for NON virtualised CPU's on win 7. Not sure how it works with networks, but it has enabled me to run some legacy programmes just using an XP window.

[Cmd.exe]

We don't have a schools agreement - we have bought XP individually with each machine. This means we either have to begin an agreement, or buy individual win 7 licenses. I'm not convined the Schools agreement is worth it from what I have seen. The annual payment is about 1/3 of the price of buying them outright, which means it is only cost effective if you upgrade to Windows 8 (or whatever) within 3 years. Otherwise it evens out on the 3rd year, and you start paying over the odds for each year from then. Given XP lasted easily 9 years - thats triple the price of buying them outright!!

 

We're at the same point here too... buy outright again or sign up to SA.

Problem is, the decision has to made at some point, now, next year, whatever. We're going to upgrade this summer.

We want the the new features in 2008, 7 and new office. We also aim to use 'industry standard' software that also means using uptodate stuff.

I also agree with the respect/vandalism comment - Kids DO respect newer computers and software.