Absolutely.
The world needs to move ahead. The technology advances. Who doesn’t want to keep up with the progress, stays behind. That’s how it has worked since the dawn of civilization.
I can’t know the exact reasons why Microsoft has decided to stop support for the Classic client with NAV “7”, but I can offer my view and position on why I believe this was absolutely necessary.
Yesterday, during a coffee break at the What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Technical for Application Consultants training in Vilnius, Lithuania (a fabulous place, by the way), a discussion arose around the destiny of the Classic (or C/SIDE) client in NAV. Some participants stated that “it’s never going to go away” because “Microsoft would not dare shutting it down”.
Unfortunately, it is going away, and quickly. Maybe it wasn’t too obvious at first, because Microsoft never actually said explicitly that “Classic client is going to be discontinued”, but if you read the latest Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, it’s there.
I am one of those people who only use keyboard with NAV. Classic, of course. Seriously, I can keyboard my way through NAV and do literally everything—and I am dead serious about the everything part of it—with only my keyboard. With Classic, mouse is quietly resting under piles of papers. In RTC, mouse is an active animal.
Yes, absolutely, this is the number one reason why I never adopted the RoleTailored Client and I still use the Classic one extensively. (Another one is a minor and an irrelevant fact that NAV 2009 still isn’t available in my region.)
So, in hope that this blog finds its way to the right address in Vaedbek, Denmark, I’m compiling a list of less-known or less used keyboard shortcuts that I use to navigate through Classic client, which mostly can’t be achieved (or can’t achieve exactly the same goal) in RTC.
Couple of days ago, a blog post from Alex Chow, a fellow blogger and an MVP, caught me off-guard. He blogged about his chat with an unnamed senior Microsoft executive at Directions 2010, about his concern of what’s going to happen to small partners after the changes in the Microsoft Partner Network get into effect soon.
It seems Microsoft is intentionally getting rid of small partners.
Is it really so? What is it that’s actually changing, and can (or will) Microsoft actually just get rid of the small partners?
RoleTailored client for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 was one of those things for me that looked really nice in presentations, but in real-life, I didn’t see much value there. It looked good from far, but far from good. I would dare saying it saw more runtime at conferences and presentations than in real life. For partners, it was difficult to sell it. With new customers, okay, there were considerable chances the RTC would convince them. With old customers, you were been better-off not showing it at all.
IMHO, RTC wasn’t market ready. For me, it looked like a proof of concept. A darned good one, but still just a proof of concept.
Have you noticed I have been talking in past tense? It’s intentional.
Because I’m changing my mind today, and I’m doing it lightning-fast.