How I use Ideamason - and why

Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 29, 2006 at 08:36 AM

>>Are you
>>serious? At least in Germany, you would have had
>to try hard to find a Windows PC in the
>>last 4-5 years that does not fit the
>requirements (including the need for Word).

>Windows XP has been out
>since late 2001 (5 years old). In computing, that’s ancient history. As far as I know
>even “slow” companies have 4 to 5 year PC replacement cycle (thus almost everyone
>would have upgraded from either NT or 2000, and most consumers I know use Windows XP
>Home right now. In fact, most consumer PC’s come with MS Works preinstalled these
>days.
> >So, I don’t see how this could be an obstacle for people to purchase
>software???

In the University I work in there are still a good proportion of academic staff running win2000, with a replacement policy that seems to be based on a “replace when broken” approach. If my department reflects the whole University then about 20% are running win2000. 12 months ago that would have been 80% running win2000. It certainly influenced my assessment of Idea Mason, when I first looked at it. Not so importnat now, as 3 out of the 6 PCs I use regularly now have XP installed.

I am certainly aware of many large businessses, home users and self employed consultants still running wIn2000 or even win98se, who see no particular reason to upgrade because the OS is still fulfilling the primary needs.

Having said that, I can understand why a company would choose not to support an old OS, but certainly in the UK, I see a high proportion of people who are not yet using XP.

Graham