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October 21, 2009, 01:00 PM ET

How Good Is Windows 7 for Colleges?

With the new Microsoft operating system, Windows 7, hitting the shelves tomorrow, there has been a lot of hoopla surrounding the product. But will it help colleges? Microsoft representatives demonstrated the new operating system at The Chronicle's offices to bolster a claim that the new Windows — unlike a previous effort, the much-reviled Vista -- will be a major boon for higher education.

To find out if the product lives up to the hype, The Chronicle spoke with a number of college CIO's and IT project managers who have already tested and, to various degrees, deployed Windows 7. Their conclusion: Microsoft has taken a solid step forward, creating something that could save institutions some money and improve security, and is decidedly not Vista. But at the same time the new OS, in the words of the tech columnist Walter S. Mossberg, of The Wall Street Journal, is “much more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary product.”

At Central Bible College, in Missouri, Windows 7 is allowing employees to continue using “legacy computers” that are three years old. The college downloaded the OS in January and began deploying it to a small number of college computers almost two months ago.

“The aggressive machine specs of Vista made it challenging to implement on our older hardware,” says Daniel E. Ruiz, executive director for technology. “And we were not fans of XP, since it’s a system that’s basically a decade old, but Windows 7 is so efficient it makes it possible to recapture our old equipment.”

Mr. Ruiz said the college is going to wait to roll out the product institutionwide until Microsoft comes out with a Service Pack 2, a collection of software patches that will deal with potential bugs. Organizations usually do that, preferring that other groups find and suffer through the initial bugs.

At the Kentucky Community and Technical College system offices, where there are about 250 employees, Windows 7 has been put in place and lauded for its improved security.

Tony Eversole, the IT project manager, says that having Bitlocker — a full disk-encryption feature — come standard (it had to be added to Vista) has been a good way to secure the confidentiality of data. Also, the advent of Bitlocker to Go, a feature that encrypts files on portable flash drives, could be a boon for a modern office.

“Our work force is completely mobile, we all use laptops, and everyone takes their laptop wherever they go,” says Mr. Eversole. “We haven’t allowed flash drives before, but with Bitlocker to Go, we might start allowing them again. It’s important that people get more leeway when handling their own data.”

While security has been beefed up on the new OS, everyone interviewed said they would not be giving up on third-party antivirus monitoring programs.

“It’s a little early to tell, but it could take a while for Microsoft to catch up to the best antivirus software,” said the University of New Mexico's CIO, Gilbert Gonzales.

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Comments

1. stevefoerster - October 21, 2009 at 05:56 pm

It's shameful that universities, supposed institutions that are capable of teaching these sorts of things to others, would talk about their need for improved information security and need to make better use of older hardware, yet not consider using Linux. Many distributions are now just as easy to install, configure, and use as Windows, and there are no licensing fees. It's time to consider it.

2. samueloulrey - October 21, 2009 at 06:04 pm

This is the humor column, right?

Like Cobol, Microsoft and Windoze have hampered technological development.

3. ericstoller - October 21, 2009 at 10:39 pm

I have a difficult time asking "how good" when all I can think of is "how bad" Windows has been for so many years. This glass is half empty.

4. jffoster - October 22, 2009 at 08:19 am

Well, re the commonts above, I thought Windows 3.11 was actually pretty good and that Windows XP is real good. I'll stick with XP at least until 7 gets through Gamma Testing.

5. laoshi - October 22, 2009 at 09:15 am

Whenever you read the phrase, "Service Pack 2", run! In my experience with Winders, XP's SP2 cause many network apps to malfunction, and Vista's SP2 makes my Blackboard access so slow that server connections are frequently closed. Now, should I gamble on my half-ass Vista SP2 system in favor of Winders 7 which already envisions a second service pack? I don't think so.

6. salrosario - October 22, 2009 at 11:31 am

Only technologists would get so religious about Windows/Mac OS/Linux(es). If you are a non-technical person who is comfortable and satisfied with Microsoft Office and other Windows-based applications, wait 6-12 months for early bugs to be fixed, and then ask your friendly IT folks to help you upgrade. I am personally looking forward to the upcoming Office 2010 applications.

7. stevefoerster - October 22, 2009 at 02:15 pm

salrosario, it may be technologists who talk about this the most, but that's what you should expect since we know a lot about it. My suggestion that schools look at Linux wasn't "religious", it was simply a statement that the technology has matured, especially when it comes to ease of use, and the lack of licensing fees should put it on the list to consider for any institution that's having to do more with less these days.

8. kjpalmer - October 22, 2009 at 02:17 pm

I am looking forward to using Windows 7. The fact that MS learned from the Vista debacle and supplied a very stable, compatible, and efficient operating system is a good thing. After all, the MS OS must work with combinations of applications, hardware and drivers than any other OS in the world... and it does it well.

9. livefreeordie2 - October 22, 2009 at 04:34 pm

I've been using Windows 7 for over a month. It's quick, it's stable, and they've fixed virtually everything that made Vista a pain in the neck. Despite stevefoerster's praise, Linux is not suitable for general desktop usage. According to the September data from Net Applications, Windows has a 92.77 market share compared to 5.12 for Mac and 0.95 for Linux. Whether it's students or employees, people are already "skilled" in the use of Windows. No one would want to waste their time learning a new OS - it's unnecessary.

We'll begin implementing Windows 7 at our institution probably over the Christmas break for some labs and faculty and finish upgrading the campus over the summer. The quicker we can put the Vista nightmare behind us, the better!

10. garlanjc - October 23, 2009 at 12:00 am

For me, the inability to upgreade from XP to Windows 7 without reinstalling all my software is a deal breaker. Life is too short to waste hours reinstalling all my programs. I don't particularly like XP, but I'm not going to bother changing it for an OS that is only an incremental improvement.

11. stevefoerster - October 23, 2009 at 06:48 pm

If this were a few years ago, I wouldn't be praising Linux. And I know it's been a long time coming, with a lot of enthusiasts each and every year announcing prematurely that the year of Linux on the desktop has arrived. But as someone who's used Windows since version 3.1 but tried Linux recently, I'm serious that it's finally ready for everyday use. If you don't believe me, check it out -- it's free to try it for yourself.

12. squeezer - November 02, 2009 at 07:42 pm

@Stevefoerster:

Linux has come a long way, and yes, Ubuntu and other popular distros are very good looking, fast, and free, but Linux is not necessarily more secure than Windows (or OS X) -- security by obscurity is not security. Google "Linux exploits" or check out www.rootkit.com sometime to see what I mean.

As livefreeordie2 metioned, the cost to swap your infrastructure over, including training, licensing (not all Linux software is free), and dealing with compatibility problems between packages such as Open Office and MS Office, or the GIMP and Adobe Creative Suite, makes it not worth your organization's money, or your time. Maybe next year will finally be The Year of Linux.