Work Question: Will Gerber Omega Composer Work with Windows 8?

UPDATE: I finally went ahead and got that new Windows 8 computer, as I've noted in previous posts. And I have to report, so far things are working just fine. Gerber Omega Composer installed just fine. My Gerber fonts moved over just fine. The program opens faster than I've ever seen it open. The only glitch I've seen so far is that the little purple USB fob couldn't be found on the first try. I unplugged it, and plugged it back in once, and since then all is well.

I can't speak to compatibility with plotters, routers or digital printers, because my home business is design-only. But other good news was that the CorelDraw X5 Graphics Suite seems to be fine, even though I was warned it might not be compatible. And I got an alert from Corel right after install that provided a service pack, without me having to go look for it! Further, I was able to install Microsoft Office 97, no joke. I pared it down to Excel, Word and PowerPoint, but all seem to work just fine. Now, if I could just find a replacement for Windows Live Mail. My biggest problems to this point (even after running Windows 8.1 Preview) are just adapting to the Windows 8 environment.

ORIGINAL POST 04/03/13:

I know this is an oddly specific question to pose to my blog audience, but truth is, when these articles ping to search engines, it may trip the answer from somebody out there in the vast internets, so I figure it's worth a try! If you have no knowledge of the sign industry or software, just scroll on by. Thank you.

Okay. At my sign company, we have four workstations that run Gerber Omega software, specifically Composer, all version 2.6.1. While Gerber Scientific makes Omega version 5.0 these days, we're still back on the earlier version, mostly because of the Great Recession. We're running on mostly

Ours aren't this old, but some are close!

Windows XP computers (even one Windows 98 machine to run our ancient router!). We would like to gradually update our equipment, because doing it all at once would be cost prohibitive.

But we can't even really get started, because we don't know if Omega 2.6.1 will run on a Windows 8 computer, particularly with a 64-bit processor. We have two Windows 7 setups, which both run the software just fine (though the Braille Interpreter must be run from Virtual PC on the 64-bit computer*). Our shop does use other software to run the laser cutters, and I do some designing in CorelDraw and other programs, but if Omega won't run, we'd be completely hobbled. I'm hopeful that since the ISA sign show is here in Las Vegas this week, that there will be some Googling on this subject going on, and somebody out there can answer me. So here is the question, clearly as Google bait: 

Will Gerber Omega Composer 2.6.1 run in Windows 8 on a 64-bit Computer?

Here's hoping! Thanks, everybody.

The Mac Experiment, Continued: The Cult of Mac is Trying to Convert Me. . .

No, nobody knocked on my door. They didn't stick a pamphlet in my door, or hang a tract on my gate. But the Apple Cult is working its magic on me. It's a slow creep, and it's taken 2-1/2 years, but I have to say, I'm at least partially in their thrall this week.

Last week was a different story--as I related here at the time--when my second (admittedly used) Macintosh laptop experienced a useability problem. My first try at the iUniverse was a PowerBook G4 that was insufferably and unusably slow. My second was a decent MacBook Pro (first generation), that had a video card meltdown. I was essentially the victim of an unrealized, and too late recall. And so, my little experiment in dabbling in the OS X side of things--while keeping my PC/Windows 7 main system--had experienced its second major roadblock.

Noooooooooooo!

The first time, I got my used Mac at 5+ years old, and for $300. The second time, I sold the old (plus some other computer equipment), and paid $650ish for an almost 4 year old system, almost breaking even overall price-wise. The third time, I was faced with a $550 repair, and instead bought a third Mac in less than 3 years for $860. This one is 3-3/4 years old refurb, and when you do the math of what it would have cost to fix the old one, plus the $200 I sold the broken one for, I actually came close to breaking even again, and got a newer/better computer.

How much better? Oh-so-much better! I didn't know what I did not know, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld. While my first-gen MacBook Pro was plenty useable before its "little problem," it wasn't a) as pretty as this newer one, nor b) as all-around better. I love the keyboard. I love the screen. I love the way the aluminum case looks. It is faster at almost everything. Setting it up right out of the box--and I'm a PC guy used to tweaking and fiddling for hours--was nearly effortless. Though I'm only moderately familiar with where and how to set up Mac stuff, I got all of my info entered and done within minutes. But that's not all.

My software isn't this obscure, but it seems
as unlikely to work on a Mac.

This system came with "Parallels" and Windows 7 installed and ready to go. I use a particular kind of software for my sign graphics business that is PC only. It couldn't possibly work on my Mac, right? Not even with emulation software. Wrong! It runs, and runs perfectly. I was able to copy all of my system files to a USB thumb drive, copy them over and set them up in no time. I was only hindered by the download time for the software, and that was only because I didn't feel like moving from one end of the house to the end my wireless router is in.

Next, I went back to my PC, to get my (very cumbersome, very unintuitive) iOmega Cloud Drive to communicate with the Mac. This is not a PC problem but an iOmega problem (which is now apparently Lenovo EMC's problem, since they've changed hands). Still, once I got the info sent to the Mac, it was smooth sailing. Bada-bing, bada-boom. And the icing on the cake? When I went to set up the MacBook Pro to my wireless all-in-one Lexmark printer? No joke, done in 10 seconds flat.

So now--as long as I'm thinking ahead and take the special USB fob my graphics software needs--I can travel with my MacBook Pro to anywhere in the world, access my files from my home cloud drive, and through Windows 7 work on any of my projects for either of my jobs! I'll never be free from work again! Yay?

Okay, I don't love my Mac this much. . .

Bottom line, this was the easiest setup of any computer ever in my career as "guru." How long until I'm as proficient on the Mac side as I am on the PC side? Soon, I hope. But it's the hardware side that worries me. While it's fair to say that all laptops are a challenge if something goes wrong with the hardware, I'm finding that Macs don't age particularly gracefully, and that Apple kind of washes their hands of them at a fairly young age (the hipster "genius" with the lensless glasses at the Apple Store barely disguised his contempt for my 5-year-old ailing Mac).  So it's not all unicorns and rainbows. Still, I'm impressed, and I have a smile on my face when I use my new(ish) Mac!