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W hither Windows? The reporters of ENT News sum
things up quite nicely when they
comment that the days of doing a simple Windows
upgrade are long gone: there are now so many flavors of Windows and
Office to choose from that knowing when and how to upgrade gets quite
confusing. Since questions about what version of Windows (XP? Vista?
What version of Vista?) to purchase and what version of Office (2003?
2007? What version of 2007?) to purchase comprise the majority of
information that my colleagues and I in Academic Computing Services
answer during the orientations in the summer, it is not too early to
begin exploring these options for the UNT student community.
First of all, even though everyone knows who the father of
Anna Nicole's baby is, no one - it seems - knows EXACTLY what version
of Vista or Office to buy or where and when they will become
available. However, I shall do my best based on communications I've
had with our Microsoft representatives and articles from various
websites and news services. I will review recommendations for
students for Windows Vista and Office 2007 and
then briefly describe hardware needs as well.
Windows Vista - Windows Vista comes in five varieties
according to some articles and four varieties according to Microsoft so
we shall simply go with Microsoft's versions: Vista Home Basic, Vista
Home Premium, Vista Business, and Vista Ultimate. An easy rule-of-thumb
ALWAYS is, do not buy anything with 'Home' in the title because your
options for network connectivity are limited. Vista Business is
recommended for UNT students because they will not have to be concerned
as to whether or not they can use Eaglenet Wireless or ResNet with this
version. Also Vista Business has significant backup and restore
functions to save your data. As Vista is deployed on campus, Faculty and
staff members will likely be using Vista Ultimate primarily because of
its increased security functions such as file encryption. However,
on-campus deployment will be done on a per-department basis as
requirements dictate and resources allow. If you want to see all of the current features
of each type of Vista. check Microsoft's official
website,
which has a handy chart summary.
Office 2007 - Office 2007 also comes in many varieties
and it is not so easy to know which to buy. Much of that will depend on
one's field and major. Microsoft's handy chart of features
is
here.
Many students may only need Office Home and Student or Office
Standard, however, since one can never be sure what a professor
might want, the best bet is to get Office Professional since it includes
the versatile Publisher and also Access. Office Ultimate is a bit
overkill for students since its additional features are geared more
towards business users with applications for team collaboration, forms
publishing, and high-level researching. It's best to check with your
major department to be sure which version of Office is required for your
courses.
Where and how to purchase these products? The UNT
bookstore will be receiving student and faculty/staff versions (for
personal use) of Vista
and Office 2007 in a matter of weeks. According to Jean Probst of the
UNT Bookstore, recent documentation indicates that they will be carrying
Vista Business Upgrade for students at an educational rate and Vista
Ultimate for faculty and staff. Office 2007 Professional also seems to
be what will be available. Since these fall in with the recommendations
given above, UNT community members should be able to get the software
they need right here on campus. Probst added that Office and Windows XP
and 2003 products will also continue to be available.
What about Macintosh users? Bask in your superiority
and go buy an iPhone....just kidding! Office 2008 for Macintosh is
slated to be released within the next month (or the next quarter
according to what article one happens to be reading on a certain day)
and will also be available at the bookstore at educational rates. The
latest Mac OS X upgrade has been pushed back by the company until the
Fall. Oh, and you Linux folks....well, just go back to enjoying free
computing the
way it ought to be - you have nothing to worry about!
OpenOffice remains a viable
option for the same functionality that Microsoft Office provides (and
it's free.)"
A little about hardware requirements: the nice thing
about buying a new Windows PC this year is that you really only need to
be concerned about one thing if you are planning to upgrade to Windows
Vista and that is how much RAM you have. While one can 'get away
with' buying a new machine with only 1 gig of RAM, it is strongly
recommended that one get 2 gigs of RAM for the best performance on a
machine running Windows Vista Business, Office 2007 Pro and various and
sundry multimedia and entertainment applications. In short, if you like
multi-tasking, you need 2 gigs. Other things to look for include getting
a dual-core processor (becoming increasing standard on consumer
products), as large a hard drive as affordable and a DVD burner. Most
computer manufacturers (Dell, Gateway, HP etc.) will bundle their
hardware with basic Windows Vista and Office products preloaded but in
most cases what they offer will be unsuitable for a UNT community
member. However, when configuring a computer online for purchase, all of
the manufacturer sites I researched allowed one to upgrade to the
recommended Vista and Office 2007 versions for a nominal extra fee.
Also, if you buy a laptop be sure to have both a standard network card
and a wireless card for optimal connectivity on campus.
As an aside, I saw a demonstration of a cool product for laptop
owners the other day: Computrace - described at
http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/. Computrace is an application that
reports the location of a stolen laptop via internet connection and has
been found to help considerably in recovering stolen computers. It is
certainly worth a look!
But my parents are sending me to UNT with grandma's old
computer that has Windows XP and Office 2003 on it - how will I survive?
You will survive just fine. Office 2007 is backwards compatible
with older versions of Office (though you need to be careful about how
you save your documents) and will open documents created on earlier
versions. There is no problem switching between versions of the Windows
OS and it looks like XP is going to be around and supported for quite
awhile. The general access computer labs and the different colleges and
schools on campus are taking a measured approach to upgrading Office and
Windows software (meaning that they are taking it nice and slow....) and
will have plenty of tools available to help students, faculty, and staff
move smoothly between older versions of software that they might have at
home or in the dorm, and newer versions that might be available in labs
and classrooms.
Purchasing questions?
If you and thinking about upgrading your home computer and have
purchasing questions about all these new varieties of software that
Microsoft has thrown at us, I strongly encourage you to contact the UNT
Helpdesk at 940-565-2324 or
helpdesk@unt.edu . Additionally,
contact the UNT Bookstore at 940-565-2592 or
unt@bkstr.com to find out what they have in stock and at what price
point. In short, don't sweat it - we are all just as confused as you are
and you can be rest-assured that many upgrade options and prices will be
available.
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