Vista: Good Enough for the U.S. Army
(Sorry. Once we got the drill sergeant's voice in our head, it was hard to stop.) CNET reported today that no less than the U.S. Army is in the process of migrating nearly 750,000 desktops to Windows Vista from Windows XP. Why the move? "To bolster security," according to an Army News Service story. That echoes our longstanding belief that Vista's security benefits alone are reason enough for enterprises to abandon XP as soon as possible. Interestingly, the story mentions that the Army will offer in-house training sessions, "quick-tip handouts," and free online training to help personnel with the transition to the new OS. However, "because several of the division's employees already use Vista...at their homes, it has shortened the learning curve for [the Soldier Support Institute] overall." (SSI was the first division to begin migrating to Vista.) Sounds like a pretty smart way to roll out a new OS. The Army is also effectively readying itself for a Windows 7 migration down the road, as it's much easier to transition from Vista than from XP. As you may recall, enterprises like the University of Western Sydney and the City of Miami also elected to adopt Vista. Still don't think it's the right choice for your organization? Drop and give me 20! |
Comments (2)
This has to be a waste to spend taxpayers money on. Major waste. So the Army buy Vista computers when Seven will be out in just a few months? Why not at least wait for Seven, "the better Vista," as Sweaty B calls it. Not that I think its much better. At least it will be supported longer than Vista, which means something to us taxpayers.
But then the objective was security? Why not Dell with Linux, that is the most secure choice available. Now that would save us taxpayers some real money. UAC only cuts out about 35% of malware. And MS irresponsibly still sets up its operating systems, by default, with an administrator account only, including vista and seven with UAC. Its up to the user to setup a "normal" (limited) account, which 99.x% do not do. MS is responsible for the malware problem by not following the rules of sensible security rules. MAC and free operating systems like Linux, bsd, and others, can all do this, why cannot MS?
Posted by chips b malroy | May 25, 2009 8:46 PM
This wait until Windows 7 is out in a few months argument to upgrade gets old.
Look at the history.
Once it comes out, then we need to wait until compatibility issues are resolved.
You always wait until SP1 comes out from Microsoft before transitioning.
These are just 2.
So an argument to wait on XP before large scale upgrades to Windows 7 is essentially a wait until late 2010. Depending on the organization, this is a valid option. But I can't see the Army, for example, using their volume license agreements to do a mass upgrade to Windows 7 in, say, November 2009. Too many custom applications that need to be tested, and possibly updated, to do this.
Posted by kevin | May 30, 2009 7:56 PM