Windows 7 is an all-ages show

My great aunt is 92 and, as of Friday, she's a Windows 7 PC.

Now, Hilda is already not your typical nonagenarian. She is frequently online, does her finances in Quicken and recently abandoned AOL for Gmail (something I still haven't gotten my parents to do).

Unfortunately, while her mind is quick as ever, her Windows XP PC had slowed dramatically over the past few years, becoming nearly unusable. It's one of those things that many find so irksome about Windows PCs.

In any case, Hilda (I'm sparing her some spam by not including her last name) decided she needed a new computer and I offered to help. It was just a day after Windows 7 had made its debut and we headed to a local computer store. I found her a basic PC, monitor, and printer for $450 after rebate. She didn't really need the monitor, but it helped me a great deal as I transferred all of her files from her old PC to the new one.

If it were still the Windows Vista days, I might have been tempted to downgrade her new computer to Windows XP, so she wouldn't have to adjust to the new operating system.

But, with Windows 7 working so well, I actually felt comfortable she could make the switch, even though she's at the other end of the age spectrum from Kylie.

It took me almost no time to set up the new computer, but several hours to transfer over her settings and documents and then re-install Quicken and her other programs.

Amazing techie that she is, it took her almost no time to adjust to Windows 7's new look and feel. It's a few days in and I'm glad to report that things have continued to be smooth.

"It really is not very different from the XP I used before," she told me in an e-mail this week.

Sonata inaugurates Microsoft offsite facility

Sonata Software, a provider in software services, today announced the opening of Sonata's second Offsite Facility (OF) for Microsoft at Sonata's new Global Village facility in Bangalore.

The new development center has been designed keeping in mind flexible, scalable and independent operations, said a press release.

The facility would provide design, development, testing, production and maintenance of Microsoft's products.

A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Sonata engages with Microsoft over multiple engagement models, technologies, platforms and geographies. With Sonata's wide array of service offerings, the state-of-the-art facility promises to deliver high-impact solutions for Microsoft.

Inaugurating the facility, Hal Howard, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics, said, "Sonata has been a key partner for Microsoft in our commitment to provide best-of-breed 'People Ready' solutions to our customers. Sonata's deep domain knowledge and technical skills help us ensure accelerated development cycles, improved time-to-market and increased competitive agility."

B Ramaswamy, president and managing director, Sonata Software, stated, "We continue to invest aggressively to build capacity in order to serve our customers. This strategy allows us to quickly scale our organization, support the business demands of our global customer base, and further establish our leadership position in Software Product Development services."

He added that their relationship with Microsoft is an intrinsic component of Sonata's growth strategy and continues to provide significant synergistic opportunities for both companies.

Source & Credit: news.ciol.com