From the mouths of business users: Vista and Office need-to-knows

The consumer launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 is next week. But business users, partners and developers have been able to get their hands on these products since late November 2006. A number of these folks are starting to weigh in with their two months' worth of advice.

On the IntellAdmin site, there's a list of "Vista's Five Sins" (from an IT administrator's perspective. Post author Steve Wiseman limits his "rant" to user-interface-specific elements of Vista that are driving him crazy. On his short list is everything from the "mess" that is the Vista networking interface, to the falure to improve search or copying functionality.

On CRN, there's yet another Vista top ten list. (Hold the groans. This one is different.) It's a list of ten licensing and pricing changes of which corporate and small-business users should be aware before taking the Vista and Office 2007 plunge. The list was compiled by software-licensing expert PCMS IT Advisor Group. There are no brand-new gotchas on there. But there are plenty of reminders about the Client Access Licenses (CALs), where there are lots of potential hidden costs.

Meanwhile, over on APC Magazine, Dan Warne -- a well-known thorn in Microsoft's side --  publishes his list of ten reasons to move to Vista. Given that it's Warne doing the listing, these aren't your same-old security/search/Aero interface things. Warne's No. 10 is "Face it. You have no choice." Heh.

Speaking of business-centric tools, Microsoft released to the Web late last week the final version of its Vista and Office 2007 Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) package, which includes tools and guidance aimed at businesses planning Vista migrations and deployments. There's also a separate  Office Migration Planning Manager tool available.