Flip 3D, one of the heavily-touted new features in Windows Vista, the XP replacement. The software will not be on school computers for some time. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/WIKIPEDIA

On January 30th, 2007 Microsoft Corporation released to consumers worldwide Windows Vista™ operating system and Microsoft Office® 2007; however, according to ITS, neither product is likely to be seen in widespread use around campus for at least another year or two.

The Software

With a myriad of new features this launch marks the most significant product release in Microsoft’s history. “Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 will transform the way people work and play,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, in the official Microsoft press release, “Personal computers have become a key part of the daily lives of almost a billion people worldwide. Millions of consumers had a hand in helping us design, test and create the most exciting versions of Windows and Office we’ve ever released. Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 squarely address the needs and aspirations of people around the globe.”

Windows Vista’s™ new features include Windows Aero, which according to Microsoft, “is the best-designed, highest-performing Microsoft user interface ever.” Aero includes a new translucent appearance of the start menu and window borders, as well as new features called “Flip” and “Flip 3-D” that allow for easy transfer between open windows. Vista also introduces “Live Icons” in Explorers which preview a thumbnail image of any file. Vista also introduces the “Fast Sleep and Resume” feature, which allows for a quick transfer to the “sleep” state where the user’s current session is saved to memory and the hard drive so as to not lose the session if there is a loss of power. The new default “off” state is this new “sleep” state that is a combination of XP’s separate Standby and Hibernate modes. Vista also includes the “Windows Mobility Center”, which allows users with laptops to manage location transitions and battery power, and “Shadow Copy,” which automatically saves files while in use so as to avoid accidental file deletion and allows users to revert back to previous versions of a document.

Microsoft Office has undergone major changes with the release of Office 2007. The traditional menu and tool bars have been replaced by the Ribbon that, according to Microsoft, is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. Commands are organized in logical groups, which are collected together under tabs. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as writing or laying out a page. To reduce clutter, some tabs are shown only when needed. For example, the “Picture Tools” tab is shown only when a picture is selected.

“These are the most amazing versions of Windows and Office ever,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, in the same Microsoft press release. “The visual effects are spectacular; the navigation is streamlined and intuitive. They make it much easier to protect your PC, yourself and your children online. And they work together to help you accomplish more throughout the day.”

A Measured Reaction

Despite the corporate-sponsored excitement surrounding Microsoft’s new products, Andrew J. Speyer, Choate’s Director of Information Technology Services, says Choate’s upgrade to Vista will “Probably not [be] for another year.” Speyer revealed that the school has had the software for some time, based on the agreement with Microsoft (that allows for upgrades without additional cost to the school); however, “We usually wait at least eight to ten months to make sure [the new software] works with all our systems.”

Additionally, if a member of the Choate community were to upgrade their own personal computer to the new operating system, their computer will not be able to connect to the Choate network. “Next year we’ll probably have to have a way for kids who have got Vista to connect, but it will not be on school owned machines yet,” explains Speyer, “We’ll make it work, in the fall, for Vista, but right now it’s not one of the supported systems we have.” Furthermore, Speyer revealed upgrading to Office 2007 is also “Something we are going to recommend you don’t do yet. Students should use the current version of Office until we’re ready to switch.”

Because Vista needs at least 1 GB of RAM to work well, “We’re going to need new PCs,” says Speyer, “We’re going to need a bigger machine that has more memory.” Replacing the entire fleet of campus computers takes three years, and, because ITS did not start planning for the upgrade until Microsoft officially released, the new software the three year cycle started only in this year’s annual computer purchase. Speyer says he will try to roll out Vista after the second wave of bigger computers, “And we’ll be in a phase where we have Vista in the majority and some XP in other places. Then we’ll try to address Vista across the campus in a twenty-four to thirty-six month period.”

Furthermore Speyer admitted, “[ITS] usually lets Microsoft come out with its first set of patches” before upgrading; that is, ITS is waiting for Microsoft to release its first set of significant upgrades before implementing the software within the Choate network. However according to Microsoft employee and Choate graduate Aaron Painter ’00, “The feedback we’ve heard from business customers so far is that many of them plan to upgrade much sooner than they might have with previous version, primarily because there are so many incredible advances in security and ease-of-use across the products.”

“While the common reaction to any new operating system might be that one should wait for updates,” Painter told The News, “I can personally say I’ve been running Vista both at home and work for many months – and continue to be impressed by the improvements in security, ease-of-use, mobility and digital entertainment. Surely Microsoft will release updates to the software over the coming years, but the current versions of these product have been extensively tested such that data from over 1 billion observed user sessions went into the product design for the new Office applications, 5 million beta test versions of Office 2007 and Windows Vista were downloaded worldwide… There is simply no reason why anyone should wait.”

Biding Time

Alternately, ITS is waiting for the release of the Mac version before upgrading to the new software suite. “So when both versions are out and they’re both new then we’ll just flip it,” explained Speyer, “Which sounds easy, but it’s really not. There is going to be a lot of training.” However, Speyer is still unsure of the logistics of the roll over, or even if the RTAs, residential technology assistants, will receive training in the new software in the fall before the switch is made. According to Painter, “This latest version of Microsoft Office has a slight learning curve, but the overall ease of use allows even the most basic of users to easily produce documents which are better looking, along with a host of other new features.”

In the ITS office, there is a test computer with Vista and Office 2007 up and running. Speyer explained that, “We run it and when we try to work on a problem, like with CHIP, we go over here and make sure it works with Vista, and we run it through its courses.” However Speyer admitted that “We haven’t done a lot.” The Vista operating system has a variety of new safety features that make the consumer’s personal computer much more secure. However, Speyer is unsure of how this will affect Choate’s rules and limitations on computer use.

Even before the release of Vista and Office 2007 there was the release of Internet Explorer 7, which has a new java code. “Now IE7 causes problems for us.” explains Speyer, “We have to do some recoding because it just has a different java, a different look and feel. So that’s our first priority: making internet explorer work for everything that exists now.” On the other hand, Speyer is confident that the recent modifications to the Choate network and the new wireless system will work with Vista, “we may have to make a few modifications… but it will work.”

Speyer is not running Vista on his own hardware, telling The News “I’m the Mac guy.” Speyer admits, that in his own opinion, XP is the first Microsoft operating system that he thinks is “good,” but he thinks that Vista is “a little heavy handed.” His only major complaint was that Vista “needs a lot of horsepower to do the basic stuff.”

Because of this setback, Speyer told The News, “[Vista] is going to force kids who have older computers to buy newer computers. They’re going to want the [new] features and they won’t run on the old hard wear.” Computers purchased within the last two years are most likely compatible with Vista and Office 2007. According to Microsoft, the requirements to install and run Vista are an 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and a 20 GB hard drive with 15 GB of free space. However to fully experience the software, users will most likely want at least 1 GB of RAM.

Painter explained, “I see daily how dominant technology is in the business world and understand how imperative it is that those entering the business world do so with a firm command of common business applications,” and, “Given how prevalent Microsoft Office is in the world,” Painter advises, “it’s imperative Choate students begin using it as soon as possible – not only because it is so much easier to use than previous version, but also because it helps train them for future jobs and internships.”