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Product News for the RoofLogic User Community
Flash! Flash! Flash! WINDOWS VISTA? BEWARE! Be smart. Wait until the dust settles... If you’re smart, you’ll wait a few months before making the move to Vista, the new operating system released by Microsoft in January. We’re not trashing Vista. It’s important for you to know, though, that a lot of little problems are cropping up in the early days of the Vista release. If you doubt anything you read in this news flash, go to Google and type “I hate Vista” (no quotes). You’ll see what we mean. Here are just a few reasons to put off any upgrade plans for a while. Your current computer probably can’t run Vista, at least not with all the bells and whistles of Vista Ultimate. You need lots of horsepower, lots of memory, and high-end video to run Vista’s 3D graphics, animations and tool bars. If your computer isn’t gutsy enough, you can only run "Vista Basic". All the "fun" features are disabled. What’s the point? If you’re a laptop user, word on the street is Vista’s Aero graphics eat laptop battery power for breakfast. If you’re going to save power, you’re going to have to disable all the 3D effects and video streaming, again, by running in Windows Vista Basic. And you bought Vista because why? Vista is missing some drivers. We’ve seen this first hand. Mike, our technical services guy, can’t print from his Windows Vista laptop to our much loved Dell color laser because there’s no Vista compatible driver for it yet. We were surprised. Our Dell is a pretty popular printer. Imagine not being able to print an invoice? Remember, gang—it's the little things that kill ya. Loading software is more complicated. Even with full administrative rights, you still have to answer a series of pop up questions adding more time to the installation process. This is due to Vista’s User Account Protection. It’s supposed to safeguard against accidentally installing spy ware and such, but a lot of computer writers don’t think the process has been fully thought through. Oh, these little problems will be fixed. But why should you be the guinea pig? Let somebody else go first. Don’t upgrade if you don’t have to. If you’re buying a new computer this year, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!! (Did we scream loud enough for you?) Dell’s Public Relations department tells us you can get these computers from their Small Business line with either XP or Vista.
These computers, from the Dell Consumer line, come with Vista only.
In short, insist on Windows XP Pro. If you can’t get that, walk away. We’ve been testing RoofLogic products on Vista for a couple of months. RoofCAD seems to be fine. Digitizer testing continues. We’ve seen one quirk in Asset Manager while previewing reports but it’s not a showstopper and we have developed workarounds. There are issues with Estimator. If RoofLogic products are critical to your business, that’s just one more reason to wait before you upgrade to Vista or buy a new computer with Vista pre-installed. If you have questions or need help, call Doug the Support Geek at (416) 778-0843. Questions? Contact us at RoofLogic Report. ADMINISTRUDEL Copyright 2007 by True North Estimating Systems, Ltd. All rights reserved. True North Estimating Systems, Ltd. 100 Broadview Avenue, Suite 410 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4M 3H3 P: (416) 778-0843 F: (416) 778-5880 Contact Product Sales by e-mail Contact Product Support by e-mail Our Web Site Contact RoofLogic Report by e-mail OUR PRIVACY POLICY: The names on our mailing list (including yours) are private and always will be. We will never, ever sell or otherwise furnish any names (including yours) in our customer database to anybody else, period, final, end of story. So there ya go. Send questions, comments, or suggestions about this electronic magazine to RoofLogic Report. |