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Just when you thought you were catching up with Microsoft’s latest operating system blitz, PC World is reporting that Windows 8 is due to be released in 2012.
Now I recognize that the Windows 7 release has been A LOT smoother than the launch of Windows Vista, but news like this leaves me wondering how churches and ministries can keep up – both from a financial standpoint and a computer maintenance standpoint?
I know quite a few churches that still run Windows 98, let alone 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7. As a ministry professional, how does your church deal with the launch of operating systems and software (whether it be Mac or PC)? Do you even bother to keep up? We’re interested in hearing your feedback.
Comment
For all churches, if you're a registered charity, then Microsoft has phenomenal charity licensing costs for most of their products (including Windows, Office, and Windows Server products). Just contact a retailer such as softchoice.com.
And please don't let this subject dissolve into a PC/Mac/Linux flame war...
We use mostly laptops here which seem to have a 3-4yr life span. With that said we don't have any "7" users yet but we do have multiple Vista users. A number of us have opted for something more stable like OSX (mac) and a couple have switched to Ubuntu (FREE) which neither get infections. All our desktops run XP.
Our thing is with the constant upgrades of MS office. Most programs only support MS office. Which is sad because open office is just as good or better.
We use mostly laptops here which seem to have a 3-4yr life span. With that said we don't have any "7" users yet but we do have multiple Vista users. A number of us have opted for something more stable like OSX (mac) and a couple have switched to Ubuntu (FREE) which neither get infections. All our desktops run XP.
Our thing is with the constant upgrades of MS office. Most programs only support MS office. Which is sad because open office is just as good or better.
I look after IT at a Christian Healing Centre in the UK. When we began five years ago a decision was made to go with Windows XP. Since then we could see no point in going to Vista as it is slower, more resource hungry and generally unwieldy. We now have 6 XP PCs networked via Windows Server 2008 and XP continues to do everything we need. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" :-)
I look after IT at a Christian Healing Centre in the UK. When we began five years ago a decision was made to go with Windows XP. Since then we could see no point in going to Vista as it is slower, more resource hungry and generally unwieldy. We now have 6 XP PCs networked via Windows Server 2008 and XP continues to do everything we need. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" :-)
Our church is small with bi-vocational staff. With that said, if the OS and software is working fine, then NOTHING is TOUCHED. ;>) Drives me crazy because my Dells and Macs at home are always on top of all updates.
About the only thing I've been successful with is to have the staff to not ignore OS updates and virus/mal-ware, etc., updates.
Our church is small with bi-vocational staff. With that said, if the OS and software is working fine, then NOTHING is TOUCHED. ;>) Drives me crazy because my Dells and Macs at home are always on top of all updates.
About the only thing I've been successful with is to have the staff to not ignore OS updates and virus/mal-ware, etc., updates.
I think that's a great question to ask and I appreciate AM's commitment to helping ministries.
I'm pretty knew at our church in semi-rural Montana, but as you can imagine, there has been little effort spent on trying to keep up in many of the technology/media arenas. We still run XP Pro on almost all computers at the church and I'm grateful they didn't make the change to Vista, or we'd be worse off.
I don't know how we're supposed to keep up with the updates. When I was in college, we paid one technology fee each year and that mostly covered our licenses for any new operating systems/Office products that came out during that year. I wonder if someone could strike up a similar deal with Microsoft and then sell rights to the partnership to churches at a discounted rate...Just a thought.
I think that's a great question to ask and I appreciate AM's commitment to helping ministries.
I'm pretty knew at our church in semi-rural Montana, but as you can imagine, there has been little effort spent on trying to keep up in many of the technology/media arenas. We still run XP Pro on almost all computers at the church and I'm grateful they didn't make the change to Vista, or we'd be worse off.
I don't know how we're supposed to keep up with the updates. When I was in college, we paid one technology fee each year and that mostly covered our licenses for any new operating systems/Office products that came out during that year. I wonder if someone could strike up a similar deal with Microsoft and then sell rights to the partnership to churches at a discounted rate...Just a thought.
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Just when you thought you were catching up with Microsoft’s latest operating system blitz, PC World is reporting that Windows 8 is due to be released in 2012.
Now I recognize that the Windows 7 release has been A LOT smoother than the launch of Windows Vista, but news like this leaves me wondering how churches and ministries can keep up – both from a financial standpoint and a computer maintenance standpoint?
I know quite a few churches that still run Windows 98, let alone 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7. As a ministry professional, how does your church deal with the launch of operating systems and software (whether it be Mac or PC)? Do you even bother to keep up? We’re interested in hearing your feedback.
Comment
For all churches, if you're a registered charity, then Microsoft has phenomenal charity licensing costs for most of their products (including Windows, Office, and Windows Server products). Just contact a retailer such as softchoice.com.
And please don't let this subject dissolve into a PC/Mac/Linux flame war...
For all churches, if you're a registered charity, then Microsoft has phenomenal charity licensing costs for most of their products (including Windows, Office, and Windows Server products). Just contact a retailer such as softchoice.com.
And please don't let this subject dissolve into a PC/Mac/Linux flame war...
We use mostly laptops here which seem to have a 3-4yr life span. With that said we don't have any "7" users yet but we do have multiple Vista users. A number of us have opted for something more stable like OSX (mac) and a couple have switched to Ubuntu (FREE) which neither get infections. All our desktops run XP.
Our thing is with the constant upgrades of MS office. Most programs only support MS office. Which is sad because open office is just as good or better.
We use mostly laptops here which seem to have a 3-4yr life span. With that said we don't have any "7" users yet but we do have multiple Vista users. A number of us have opted for something more stable like OSX (mac) and a couple have switched to Ubuntu (FREE) which neither get infections. All our desktops run XP.
Our thing is with the constant upgrades of MS office. Most programs only support MS office. Which is sad because open office is just as good or better.
I look after IT at a Christian Healing Centre in the UK. When we began five years ago a decision was made to go with Windows XP. Since then we could see no point in going to Vista as it is slower, more resource hungry and generally unwieldy. We now have 6 XP PCs networked via Windows Server 2008 and XP continues to do everything we need. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" :-)
I look after IT at a Christian Healing Centre in the UK. When we began five years ago a decision was made to go with Windows XP. Since then we could see no point in going to Vista as it is slower, more resource hungry and generally unwieldy. We now have 6 XP PCs networked via Windows Server 2008 and XP continues to do everything we need. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" :-)
Our church is small with bi-vocational staff. With that said, if the OS and software is working fine, then NOTHING is TOUCHED. ;>) Drives me crazy because my Dells and Macs at home are always on top of all updates.
About the only thing I've been successful with is to have the staff to not ignore OS updates and virus/mal-ware, etc., updates.
Our church is small with bi-vocational staff. With that said, if the OS and software is working fine, then NOTHING is TOUCHED. ;>) Drives me crazy because my Dells and Macs at home are always on top of all updates.
About the only thing I've been successful with is to have the staff to not ignore OS updates and virus/mal-ware, etc., updates.
I think that's a great question to ask and I appreciate AM's commitment to helping ministries.
I'm pretty knew at our church in semi-rural Montana, but as you can imagine, there has been little effort spent on trying to keep up in many of the technology/media arenas. We still run XP Pro on almost all computers at the church and I'm grateful they didn't make the change to Vista, or we'd be worse off.
I don't know how we're supposed to keep up with the updates. When I was in college, we paid one technology fee each year and that mostly covered our licenses for any new operating systems/Office products that came out during that year. I wonder if someone could strike up a similar deal with Microsoft and then sell rights to the partnership to churches at a discounted rate...Just a thought.
I think that's a great question to ask and I appreciate AM's commitment to helping ministries.
I'm pretty knew at our church in semi-rural Montana, but as you can imagine, there has been little effort spent on trying to keep up in many of the technology/media arenas. We still run XP Pro on almost all computers at the church and I'm grateful they didn't make the change to Vista, or we'd be worse off.
I don't know how we're supposed to keep up with the updates. When I was in college, we paid one technology fee each year and that mostly covered our licenses for any new operating systems/Office products that came out during that year. I wonder if someone could strike up a similar deal with Microsoft and then sell rights to the partnership to churches at a discounted rate...Just a thought.
Leave a Comment
For all churches, if you're a registered charity, then Microsoft has phenomenal charity licensing costs for most of their products (including Windows, Office, and Windows Server products). Just contact a retailer such as softchoice.com.
And please don't let this subject dissolve into a PC/Mac/Linux flame war...