Planning Your Next 100 Upgrades Fact vs. Myth

1
Planning Your Next 100 Upgrades Fact vs. Myth

• Presented by
• Maryam Phillips, System Administrator
• MCLINC
• (mphillips_at_mclinc.org)
• Vince Messina, Customer Account Manager
• Polaris Library Systems

2
The Clients Perspective

• On servers
• Fact - Microsoft is the platform!
• Compatibility
• Anti-virus
• Backup software
• Firewall considerations
• Upgrading Polaris version?
• Licensing Tips
• Software Assurance
• Techsoup.org

3
The Clients Perspective

• On Clients
• Montgomery County Library Information Network
  Consortium
• Mixed OS environment
• MYTH Not enough notice for obsolescence
• MCLINCs approach to Polaris 4.0

4
Client Operating Systems

• Vista is here!
• Windows 7 is coming!
• As early as June 2009
• PLS relationship to Microsoft as Gold Partner
• Polaris compatibility is assured
• Why not adopt Vista?

5
Professional Software Life Cycle
http//support.microsoft.com/?LNen-usprlifecycl
escidgp3B5Bln5D3Blifecyclex4y14
6
Mainstream/Extended Support
7
XP/Vista Life Cycles

• http//support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex

8
Vista Clients Fact vs. Myth

• MYTH Vista wont work with Polaris. Works fine
  with release 3.3 (and even 3.2)
• BUT Vista has compatibility issues
• MYTH Vista is slower than XP
• Vista has an indexing tool that takes a long time
  to run when you first start using it. Once your
  PC is indexed performance improves dramatically

9
Vista Clients Fact vs. Myth

• MYTH Vista only needs 1GB RAM
• MCLINC has purchased all Vista PCs with 2GB
  minimum. RAM is cheap. Save yourself the
  hassle.
• MYTH Vista doesnt play nice with other
  applications
• Check the compatibility Wikis
• Software
• http//www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vist
  a_Software_Compatibility_List
• Hardware
• http//www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vist
  a_Hardware_Compatibility_List

10
Vista Clients Fact vs. Myth

• MYTH Vista doesnt play nice with other
  applications
• Check Microsoft
• http//support.microsoft.com/kb/933305

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Software Compatibility

• Polaris 3.3
• Windows Mail (Old Outlook Express)
• Browsers IE 7, Firefox 3.02
• Symantic PC Anywhere version 12.1 (required
  upgrade)
• Adobe Reader 8
• MS Visual Studio/SQL Server Mgmt Studio 2005
• Office 2007
• Drive Image 4.3
• Avast
• Front Page 2003 (some issues)
• Sidewinder GUI (firewall)

12
Summary

• Vista can work for you if you are willing to do
  some research first
• Questions?