Blog Entry

Submitted by Eric (not verified) on 10 April 2006 - 10:34am.

Our machines are mainly from 2002. P3 w/ 512MB RAM.

Our Microsoft reseller is looking to sell us Vista and new hardware. He's looking to make lots of money. We are only a small shop.

If I can squeeze another three years of XP out of these machines then I'll be a happy man.

Submitted by Flyingguy (not verified) on 10 April 2006 - 5:57pm.

Windows Vita aka ( Can we look in your wallet?)

I have seen now compelling reason recommend Vista to any of my clients, I barely see a need for them to use XP. Win 2K is for the most part finally very stable, for a standard workstation. It will run fine on current hardware.

Why on earth would any organization find the need to go out and spend around $2000.00 PER USER just to have transparent title bars???

Once again we have marketing weenies driving the decision process, or CTO's that have their heads firmly implanted in their BackOffice.

The business case is, "Will this make my employee's any more productive" and I cannot for the life of me see the answer as yes.

One client insisted on a complete XP wholesale upgrade. After about 30 days they were screaming for me to strip out all the various bells & whistles and turn off theme's etc. etc. etc. because users were just totaly pooching the machines.

I see Vista as yet another port on Windos 2000 with some very expensive ( read massive hardware upgrades ) bells and whistles.

- Bill

Submitted by Marcus (not verified) on 10 April 2006 - 10:51pm.

So if you have various elements of the business on effectivly different OSs (Business and Enterprise) doesn't that add to the support headache?

And seeing as you need Select agreement (or whatever it's called) to buy Enterprise, how many business will just standardise on Ultimate (which is Enterprise for those business that aren't on SA and includes best bits from the best consumer edition.)

Submitted by Wolfie2k6 (not verified) on 12 June 2006 - 5:40pm.

Er... $2000 per USER to run Windows Vista?!?!?!

I have it running very nicely, thank you - with all bells and whistles - on a box that cost me less than $500. That's including a set of high end Altec Lansing speakers.

Wake up folks - hardware is CHEAP.

Submitted by NOVELL: Cool Blogs » Blog Archive » Vista update (not verified) on 14 June 2006 - 5:05pm.

[...] I blogged in April about the hardware baseline for Vista - I pointed out that the minimum specs were pretty steep: [...]

Submitted by Martin Buckley (not verified) on 14 June 2006 - 7:54pm.

Novell will have beta versions of all of our client-side tools - from the Novell Client, to ZENworks, GroupWise and iPrint closer to the release of Vista.

Watch this space.

Submitted by Sarkany (not verified) on 5 July 2006 - 11:30am.

I just received my beta copy of windows vista. Is there a client that will work for it? I tried 4.91 sp1.

Submitted by Jason Gutierrez (not verified) on 6 July 2006 - 6:42am.

How closely is Novell planning to release a GW client after Vista Ships? Since we are an educational institution, our contract will get us Vista 3 months prior to the public release. We had guys from MS here telling us that we would most likely be seeing it in November.
Just curious.

Submitted by Martin Buckley (not verified) on 12 July 2006 - 7:58am.

Mark

We are working with Microsoft on the Vista release - and making sure our solutions run on that platform.

We are committed to a timely release of client components - we are just waiting for solid dates for availability.

For example - just this morning Gates said there is a 20% chance that Vista will slip from January 2007. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/windows_vista_gates_delay/

The next release of Windows could hit further delays, according to Bill Gates who conceded there's a 20 per cent chance Windows Vista won't arrive next January.

Gates told partners in South Africa there is an 80 per cent chance the already delayed Windows Vista would be available as planned in January 2007. Microsoft's out going chief software architect left listeners to connect the dots.
Click here to find out more!

Further delays to Windows Vista will occur if beta testing throws up further bugs, Gates said. "We've got to get this absolutely right. If the feedback from beta tests show it is not ready for prime time, I'd be glad to delay it," he said.

Submitted by Blntskul (not verified) on 26 July 2006 - 7:38pm.

I'm in an educational institution. I couldn't disagree with you more. Novell has done a pretty good job of hitting the moving targets that Microsoft throws out there. If you haven't been paying attention, Microsoft has a vested interest in handicapping the competition. I would rather have a solid product offering from Novell in a reasonable time frame than to have something quick out of the gate. That's their history and it's served their customers well. Microsoft has traditionally taken the opposite approach, by promising and not delivering; by releasing buggy products early and fixing the problems over time, at our expense.

I have looked at Vista, and it brings absolutely nothing new of any substance to the table. They've made changes purely for the sake of change. Maybe it'll be worthwhile for the enthusiast, but not likely if it's evaluated objectively. I hope you have great success in your educational institution with Vista the day it releases, but if you're smart, you'll use Windows XP until Microsoft irons out the inevitable and innumerable bugs over the first year of its release. Running the newest thing from Microsoft is expensive and wholly unnecessary - and if you're in education, you should be a better steward of your constituents' monies.

BTW, if you think it's cool to suggest that Novell go bankrupt - you deserve what you'll get if they cease to offer superior products to Microsoft's. Just don't wish that on the rest of us.

Submitted by ROY (not verified) on 2 August 2006 - 11:13am.

Hi, I am beta testing Vista. Did you ever find a client?

Submitted by Joseph (not verified) on 22 August 2006 - 5:21pm.

I've been beta testing Vista (Beta 2) for about 4 weeks now. The new security features are very desirable and every one of my users that see it ask "when can I upgrade?" I run a Netware 6 file server and love it for its stability and efficiency. According to Dell I will be able to run Vista on the exact same GX620 workstation I currently use for $938. If I don't get a client beta soon, I'm going to have to take a serious look at migrating to AD. Dell has promised to assist at a very reasonable rate.

Submitted by Mark A (not verified) on 24 August 2006 - 11:56pm.

Why will the various versions be confusing to users. Almost no-one buys box product, they get it with a new PC. There are a plethora of versions of XP available (why do Dell sell Media Centre with there home PCs for instance).

Submitted by Chupacabra (not verified) on 8 September 2006 - 5:52am.

Vista RC1 is now out, and Novell still has *nothing* to offer in the way of beta software for the NW client, or Groupwise. In typical fashion, Novell will be late again to the party - and it will cost them customers.

Submitted by Jeffery E (not verified) on 19 September 2006 - 11:22am.

Yeah. You would think Novell would have at least a beta to work with to help prove to people that they are still playing that game and will be able to supposrt us when the world moves to Vista next year. Them being late is why some people do not take Novell seriously when they really have a superior product.

Submitted by BSD (not verified) on 25 September 2006 - 12:30pm.

Yet another education IT worker that is disgruntled about not being able to effectively test Vista in our Netware 6.5 environment. We have just ordered 4500 PCs and 1000+ laptops. Our PC vendor told us that these PCs will ship with XP, but I have only a small (was it 30 or 90 days?) window to upgrade to Vista. This upgrade will be no cost to us if we migrate during their timeframe, but cost afterward. Without even a beta client, I cant start building an image yet to migrate these PCs... Please, Please, PLEASE if there is an internal beta, Novell MUST make it available to the techies that continue to support your products!!!!!

Submitted by BobDobbs (not verified) on 14 November 2006 - 11:37am.

So, its now November, Vista has been RTM'ed, so it will be available to those of us in the large corporate and educational fields this week, and will be available at CompUSA for any business on December 1. Yet, still no word on availability of the client or admin tools. What gives? I, like the above posters, have a large eDirectory / Novell File and Print / Zenworks environment and am unable to respond to our customers.
Don't give me a lecture on why we don't need it or how much its going to cost me. I'm writing this from a Vista RC2 desktop, and have lots of devs that are going to want the desktop within weeks. We would like to start testing sooner - rather than later. So now that it's released, no more excuses - can we get an estimated date for the Novell client?

Submitted by ryan (not verified) on 22 November 2006 - 12:10pm.

vista is out and we are tesing it ... but we need a client ... a 32bit one will do ... does anyone have any info? management does not understand why novell has not put a client out now when the final release has been out for a week now
thanks
ryan

Submitted by jkelley063 (not verified) on 5 December 2006 - 8:14am.

OK Novell, time's up! MS just released Vista to Manufacturing. I'm running this build (6000) (RTM) on my desktop. Why is it that every other vender can provide a beta driver and Novell can't? The Vista SDK has been posted on the MSDN site for months now! Again, Novell is a day late and a dollar short. I'v been holding out for keeping Netware, but without a new client I may be forced to swap to AD. My users won't let me postpone Vista.

Submitted by ship (not verified) on 11 December 2006 - 6:50am.

It seems that the Novell client works for the Vista 32 bit version, right? What is that? Client 4.91 sp3?

Submitted by Martin Buckley (not verified) on 4 January 2007 - 1:55pm.

Nyle

So CIFS works really well; I've also had great success with IPP printing in Vista.

The other piece - ZENworks - you'll have to wait a short time for that; we're going to start the beta of the next version of ZENworks that supports Vista in the next couple of weeks.

Submitted by Matt Huffman (not verified) on 18 January 2007 - 6:08am.

Okay, Vista is here, where is the Novell client? I can't make a valid decision as to deployment without being able to test it on my environment. I can't get it into my environment without a client - Catch 22 Mr. Heller?

Submitted by Martin Buckley (not verified) on 12 February 2007 - 9:34am.

Take a look at the technology preview: http://www.novell.com/beta/auth/beta.jsp?id=2046&type=1

Submitted by Mike Goodman (not verified) on 11 July 2007 - 11:18am.

well here it's July and no sign of a fully functioning client for Vista. Kinda makes you wonder