Rob, a business associate of mine (my boss) sent me an email showing me that Microsoft just released MS Office 2010. I told him I had been running the Beta (at home) for at least 6 to 8 months. His reply to that was… Well?
Yes it is well. At our place of occupation (job) the “standard” version is Office 2003 and of course we are still running XP pro as the OS. You know (maybe you don’t) big business is usually the last to do any software upgrades. Those in Information Technology (IT) have a dozen reasons why this is, but the bottom line is dollars. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Actually that is a pretty good as a business policy.
It’s only the techno-nuts like me who always want to be cutting edge with computer software. Rob and I both have Office 2007 on our corporate computers so we are a bit of the maverick group. All we have to do is justify why we need the latest and greatest. Of course we are always warned that, “You know, IT can’t support that package.” That’s from the support group who still insist IE6 is the only officially supported browser.
Office 2010 is actually a very good corporate team based collaboration system. Big international companies with far flung team members go ga-ga over this type of sharing stuff. Microsoft is marching to their drum beat.
I don’t consider Office 2010 a huge step above Office 2007. Like I said 2010 is more collaborative. However a step up from Office 2003 is going to be a user and IT support nightmare. The upgrade learning gap just got wider. Ya’ know it’s gotta’ happen sooner or later. MS won’t make XP pro and Office 2003 forever.
So how should I save this? Is it .docx or .dox, nooo… better stay with good OLD .doc.
Dan, Christie has a special buy option through her work to get Office 2010 really cheap. I am running the 2003 version now with XP. Can I upgrade to 2010 and still run XP?
Hi Ray,
Office 2007 is running fine in XP Pro with all the updates. I am using version 2002 with SP3 (service pac 3). What is needed in the .Net3.0 full updates. I see no reason Office 2010 should not run just as well. Here is a link to a free trial.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/
Component Requirement
Computer and processor 500 MHz or faster processor
Memory 256 MB RAM; 512 MB recommended for graphics features and certain advanced functionality.1
Hard disk 3.0 GB available disk space
Display 1024×576 or higher resolution monitor
Operating system
Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit operating system (OS) only) or Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0, Windows Server 2008, or later 32- or 64-bit OS.
Graphics Graphics hardware acceleration requires a DirectX 9.0c graphics card with 64 MB or more video memory.
Additional Requirements Internet Explorer (IE) 6 or later, 32 bit browser only. IE7 or later required to receive broadcast presentations. Internet functionality requires an Internet connection.
Multi-Touch features require Windows 7 and a touch enabled device.
Certain inking features require Windows XP Tablet PC Edition or later.
Speech recognition functionality requires a close-talk microphone and audio output device.
Internet Fax not available on Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, or Windows Vista Home Premium
Information Rights Management features require access to a Windows 2003 Server with SP1 or later running Windows Rights Management Services.
Certain advanced collaboration functionality requires connectivity to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or to Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007.
Certain online functionality requires a Windows LiveTM ID.
Other Product functionality and graphics may vary based on your system configuration. Some features may require additional or advanced hardware or server connectivity; http://www.office.com/products.
1 2 GHz processor or faster and 1 GB RAM or more recommended for OneNote Audio Search. Close-talking microphone required. Audio Search not available in all languages.