A
Albert Fischer
There is no way a novice could navigate through Vista.
Stick with XP Home.
Stick with XP Home.
D
Dave B.
Is that your opinion, derived from your novice skills?
R
Ron Farren
I have been having similar thoughts. I am no novice but I am the
Educational leader for a Computer Club that is populated by nearly 200
retirees. The average age is well into their 70's. Most of them have
retired from professional careers and are not to be considered "dummies".
However, I am going to have a hard time recommending that any of them
upgrade to Vista. My phone rings a dozen times a week now and I would hate
to think what would happen if they all decided to upgrade.
There is a large group of users out there, not all of them retirees, that
need a system that works without having to "relearn" it! I understand and
appreciate the need for security but upgrading OE and renaming it Mail will
lead to more confusion.
I am scheduled to make a presentation in January telling them everything I
know about Vista. I can see the blank looks in the audience now!
Maybe we need a button the changes the looks, inhibits cosmetic features,
keeps the security and makes it look like XP. I am sure a lot of the club
members would rather it looked like 98!
Ron
Educational leader for a Computer Club that is populated by nearly 200
retirees. The average age is well into their 70's. Most of them have
retired from professional careers and are not to be considered "dummies".
However, I am going to have a hard time recommending that any of them
upgrade to Vista. My phone rings a dozen times a week now and I would hate
to think what would happen if they all decided to upgrade.
There is a large group of users out there, not all of them retirees, that
need a system that works without having to "relearn" it! I understand and
appreciate the need for security but upgrading OE and renaming it Mail will
lead to more confusion.
I am scheduled to make a presentation in January telling them everything I
know about Vista. I can see the blank looks in the audience now!
Maybe we need a button the changes the looks, inhibits cosmetic features,
keeps the security and makes it look like XP. I am sure a lot of the club
members would rather it looked like 98!
Ron
J
jonah
Ron I have been messing about with Vista for some time now and overall
I think its pretty good. Its not really a case of re-learning its just
a lot of tweaking to get stuff how you want it, under the skin its
just XP with Linux type security (in its half assed MSFT way). You can
maybe do a course in tweaking Vista back to look and run like XP and
make some cash at it, I will be doing the same thing - custom builds
and installations for people who do not have the time or patience to
do it themselves.
I have got most of my regular XP apps to run, I have got rid of the
fancy graphics, disabled UAC, added a true admin account (not that I
would recommend all of the above to a novice) and many other tweaks to
get it running as I wish. Its not a great deal of effort and research
to set Vista up so its not too different from XP in feel, just the UAC
will be the obvious difference assuming you keep UAC enabled.
Keeping standard apps across all OSs is another way of lessening the
shock, I use Firefox & Courier Mail on my Vista Box, XP boxes, Win
2000 and Linux boxes. Always the same no problems.
Jonah
M
mmmmark
jonah said:
The point is for it to be successful in the mainstream, it has to be easy to
setup and tweak. The average soccer mom isn't going to be able to do all
those things you mention above.
The contrast is that OS X is dead simple to setup by anyone above room
temperature. I hope Microsoft, in their zeal to be "Apple like" hasn't
forgotten the most important part--simplicity.
We'll see. They may be adding some setup wizards that we haven't seen yet.
Stay tuned.
-Mark
G
Guest
The same was probably said when windows 3.1 first appeared
P
Pete
x-no-archive: yes
Everyone seems to say that Vista is Mac like. Is the start button still
there??
I once owned a "fat Mac" -512 meg RAM and found the interface messy on the
desktop.
-Pete
Everyone seems to say that Vista is Mac like. Is the start button still
there??
I once owned a "fat Mac" -512 meg RAM and found the interface messy on the
desktop.
-Pete
W
wgd
Ron, I think you are approaching this in the wrong way. First, there is no
rush to upgrade to Vista. XP will probably be supported for years to come.
Since your retirees are members of a computer club, I assume they have
some interest in new computer technology. Vista should provide an exciting
new learning opportunity for your members. Vista is definitely different
from XP and there will be a learning curve involved. I wouldn't try to
turn Vista into XP. Instead you could educate your members on the features
which make it better than XP (snazzy UI, improved security, universal
search, etc).
When you give your talk to your members be sure to advise them on the
hardware requirements. Without appropriate hardware they will not have a
good Vista experience. The graphics capability is especially important due
to the new Aero Glass UI.
The release of the first new version of the Windows operating system in 5
years should be a positive event for your computer club.
Also, you should make it clear to the members that you are not "on call"
to provide technical support for every problem they may encounter. Maybe
you can schedule problem resolution sessions for your regular meetings.
Good luck!
J
Jonah
Read Ron's post again, he is a "Educational Leader" in a computer
club. My point is he can learn to set Vista up as close to XP as
possible then teach his members how to do the same. I seriously doubt
Ron is a Soccer Mom............
And since you brought it up its called Football not Soccer, 90% of
the worlds population play Football, far more than play Gridiron
Football. "Soccer" comes from "Association Football" a term which was
coined in UK Public Schools in the late 19th Century - like "Rugger"
for Rugby which is like gridiron football without the girlie armor
plating and helmets.
[Ducks for cover
]
Course they have.
MSFT probably won't but there will be plenty of third party tweaks and
applications, the O Riely guys are writing reams for the new Vista
books already, using open office obviously.
K
Kerry Browm
Actually I think most beginners would have an easier time with Vista than
XP.
XP.
C
Colin Barnhorst
I wouldn't call it "XP under the skin" but I would call it NT. Tons of
stuff has been rewritten for Vista, like the network stack, presentation
layer, and on and on. I is a lot less like XP under the skin than is
apparent from the GUI which does have a more traditional Windows flavor.
stuff has been rewritten for Vista, like the network stack, presentation
layer, and on and on. I is a lot less like XP under the skin than is
apparent from the GUI which does have a more traditional Windows flavor.
J
Jonah
snip
Yeah Colin it is quite different in important areas and I should have
said NT not XP, but it can be set up to run in a familiar way, where
it is different is not something thats going to concern a novice user
for day to day stuff. I don't think a novice changing to Vista will
have quite as many problems with it as a power user, ignorance is
bliss and all that. Plus I really like RC1 mostly, its a vast
improvement on 5384 and verging on useable for a secondary machine.
Jonah
S
Steven Wabik
i even thought that at first. novice users should just stick with xp. there
are just so many damn changes. if microsoft really wants people to upgrade
to it with alll of its advanced features and more complex menu systems, they
really should just add a advanced tutorial to it that runs when u first
start up vista for the first time and that could also be ran from the start
menu as well. i'm an advanced user and it took me a while to find certian
things.
are just so many damn changes. if microsoft really wants people to upgrade
to it with alll of its advanced features and more complex menu systems, they
really should just add a advanced tutorial to it that runs when u first
start up vista for the first time and that could also be ran from the start
menu as well. i'm an advanced user and it took me a while to find certian
things.
D
Dave B.
True, but I expect that with a new OS, if everything remains the same, what
would be the point of a new OS?
would be the point of a new OS?