Is eCabinet's Ready

[Gary Puckett]

OK everyone is down on Vista, but is eCabinets ready for windows 7? Also has anyone downloaded the free version of windows 7 and what are your thoughts? Because XP will not be around forever.

Gary

[John J. Desmond]

Gary,

Here is a question that will show nothing more than my ignorance. Can Windows 7 be downloaded on a machine that has XP? You can't run both at the same time, correct? I would be afraid to download the beta and find out that eCabs is not ready. I am interested in finding out but not ready to lose eCabs function. I think a person can go back to XP from 7 though. Is that true?

John

[Gary Puckett]

Hi John,

I am not sure, I talked with an agent from MS and she told me I could download the free version and I have Vista, but I also have a dual processor. She also told me that eCabinets is not compatible with Windows 7.

How this all started is I contacted MS to find out about installing XP on my system. They wanted to know why I wanted to do this I told them that a program I had was not fully compatible with Vista. She asked me what program it was and I told her eCabinets, she confirmed and said yes that program is not compatible with vista. I asked her about Windows 7 and she told me I could download the free version but eCabinets is not compatible with W7 either.

So I guess I'm between a rock and a hard place, I guess I just put up with the bugs untill something happens.

Gary

[DanEpps]

A couple of things to note...

First, you could install Windows 7 in a virtual machine running on XP but it would most likely be extremely slow.

Second, what would someone from Microsoft know about eCabinets? Nothing.

What the rep told you relates only to software that has not been certified as Vista-ready by Microsoft. There are hundreds of thousands of programs available that are 100% Vista compatible but are not certified by Microsoft.

All the lack of certification means is that you cannot put a "Vista-ready" label on the software (or non-certified hardware for that matter).

I doubt that eCabinets will ever be certified with Microsoft even though it will certainly be Vista/Windows 7 compatible in the future.

[Gary Puckett]

Dan,

You certainly know more about this than I do, I just stated what I was told by a MS agent. All I want is for the system to work fully with the system I and many others have. You would think that as old as XP and with Vista out there and now the beginning of Windows 7 that a guy could pick up XP for a decent price. She also told me that the reason you can buy XP from an out source is because of their stock and once that stock is gone it's gone.

How many members do you think who run Vista have just given up on eCab. because they just don't want to work with the bugs. eCabinets is a powerful tool and has great potential, to let the client see their project before completion which in my opinion can close the deal. I don't want to start this Vista thing all over again, all I was doing is asking a question because I wanted to know if the MS agent new what she was talking about on the eCab Windows 7 thing.

Gary

[DanEpps]

...You certainly know more about this than I do, I just stated what I was told by a MS agent...

I just wanted you to know what Microsoft means when they say "Vista-ready." It is nothing more than a label that says software or hardware meets Microsoft's certification requirements and has been certified by Microsoft.

...All I want is for the system to work fully with the system I and many others have. You would think that as old as XP and with Vista out there and now the beginning of Windows 7 that a guy could pick up XP for a decent price. She also told me that the reason you can buy XP from an out source is because of their stock and once that stock is gone it's gone...

Microsoft has already end-of-lifed XP and all that can be sold is what vendors have in stock.

...How many members do you think who run Vista have just given up on eCab. because they just don't want to work with the bugs. eCabinets is a powerful tool and has great potential, to let the client see their project before completion which in my opinion can close the deal. I don't want to start this Vista thing all over again, all I was doing is asking a question because I wanted to know if the MS agent new what she was talking about on the eCab Windows 7 thing...

I would hope no one has given up on eCabinets because it is not yet Vista-compatible. You have to remember that one of the stated goals for eCabinets is to have it Vista-compatible in the next release (release, not build).

I don't see this as starting "this Vista thing all over again." In order to continue to be a viable software package for the Windows environment, eCabinets must (and I sure it will) maintain current operating system compatibility. About the only software developers who really developed for Vista were the huge software companies who could afford to dedicate programming staff to making their software Vista-ready. One reason they did this was to keep from losing their Microsoft certification for their software.

These same companies will have Windows 7 compatibility soon after that version is released to the public. Will eCabinets be Windows 7 compatible when Microsoft releases it to the public? Maybe...only Thermwood can answer that. Even if they have that as a goal does not mean it is a done deal though. Changing software for new operating systems can be a huge undertaking. Since Windows 7 is mostly a re-release of Vista, and Thermwood has stated that eCabinets will be Vista-compatible, I would say that it probably will be compatible with Windows 7.

Trust me, I fully understand and appreciate your (and other's) frustration. You can't get a new system with XP and eCabinets can be bandaided to work, though not fully, with Vista. This has been happening to software development for Microsoft platforms since the disappearance of PC-DOS and it will likely continue for our lifetimes at the least.

As users of any software, all we can do is to wait for the next release and hope it will be fully compatible with the current operating system version. Hang in there, we'll get through it.

[Dean Fehribach]

Everyone,

Windows 7 will not be the saving grace that everyone is hoping for. Currently, the issues that affect eCabinet System's compatibility with Windows Vista will still be there in Windows 7. In developing Vista, Microsoft made a paradigm shift in its security focus and all that code will still be there in Windows 7. Microsoft wants everyone to think that version 7 will be better than Vista so you'll run out and buy that upgrade; in a lot of ways it will be better, but Windows 7 is still built on Vista's code base.

Insisting on ditching Vista compatibility development and focusing on Windows 7 compatibility development is a red herring. Making an application compatible with Windows Vista will most assuredly ensure Windows 7 compatibility.