February 12, 2008
Colleges Hold Off on Installing Microsoft's Vista
An informal survey shows that most colleges are delaying the installation on campus computers of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Vista, released to the public a year ago. Gary O. Roberts, Alfred University’s director of information-technology services, polled colleges online and asked them two questions: Has their campus switched to Vista, or do they plan to upgrade to Vista in the next four to six months? Twenty-eight college officials answered no to the first question, while five officials answered yes. To the second question, 25 respondents answered no, and six said yes. Mr. Roberts said Alfred would not adopt Vista until 2009.
The data confirm what Jonathan Stallings, an account manager for Matrix Integration, has been been observing about his clientele, which are largely colleges and universities. Matrix Integration, based in Jasper, Ind., is a technology vendor.
“I don’t know of any colleges that have plans to go to Vista this year,” he said. Mr. Stallings said that Vista did not integrate smoothly with other software and that college help-desk staff didn’t know the software well enough to support it. “Super-technical people, like engineers, love Vista because it’s a more powerful operating system, but the general user hates it,” he added.
Greg Smith, chief technology officer of George Fox University, said techie students on campus applauded and cheered when they found out the university was not planning to support Vista.
Still, colleges may be compelled to move to Vista sometime next year. That’s because Microsoft is telling PC manufacturers, such as Dell and Gateway, that after this summer they won’t be able to ship out computers with the old Windows XP operating system in them. So as students buy new machines, they will start getting used to Vista and expect college technical staffs to be familiar with it. Meanwhile, Microsoft is allowing colleges with whom they have license agreements to downgrade the software on their PC’s from Vista to XP.
The problem for many students, though, is that CD’s of Microsoft’s XP-Pro are becoming more expensive at college bookstores. Microsoft is trying to nudge students to Vista. Noel Lephart, director of information services at Indiana Business College, said that the campus bookstore used to be able to buy a CD of XP-Pro for $70, but that now it costs about $90. And that price increase is passed on to students. —Andrea L. Foster
Posted on Tuesday February 12, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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This is another example of how MS shoves its poorly designed software down people’s throats due to it dominance in the industry. At one time, I had thought that Linix might give MS a run for the money, but this monopoly is too strong to beat. Maybe someone will come along and topple the giant some day. We can only hope.
— charlie Feb 13, 09:22 AM #
Maybe, us educators need to embrace Apple’s technology across the board. If enough campuses became Apple wired, then maybe we would get better service from MS or Apple.
— Concerned educator Feb 13, 09:40 AM #
Unfortunately, Apple has an even more closed economy than Microsoft. Additionally, open source alternatives also can carry significant buried costs for support and development, so the Linux route might not solve this problem, either. I’m not saying that Microsoft is faultless and I personally see no compelling reason to adopt Vista. The problem is that there really aren’t viable cost-effective OS solutions that can easily replace MS without a signficant investment in all of the collateral operations that support any OS.
— Don Vescio Feb 13, 10:32 AM #
I have been using Linux and open source, free software for about a year. I run them on a 5 year old computer with very limited RAM (128 MB!), HDD, and processor. I simply installed them on my PC. There was no magic bullet nor extra work involved. And I don’t use any MS apps anymore for anything. My software has fully and more than adequately done the job.
I am unaware of any extra burden (“collateral”) put on me nor my company I am setting up at this time because of the change. There are many myths being perpetuated in the name of the MS monopoly. They simply are not true. My software is just as easy to use and obtain as well as being free and fully configurable. As a matter of fact, I plan on learning how to compile my OWN version of Linux for FREE distribution.
I am elated that I did not listen to people who either had a vested interest in MS, were unaware, or just beholden to Redmond for sometimes bizarre reasons. I would love to see the lies and half-truths start rolling if the US colleges in mass joined with the Free Software Foundation to promote free, open source alternatives to MS. I would pay to see that. I would even “upgrade my OS (operating seat)” just for that special moment of corporate lies and intimidation.
Do your own research if you are interested in change. Join one of the Linux Groups. They are all over the USA. And come with an open mind and an empty pocketbook cause it won’t cost you any dinero. Or just download a free Linux distro and install it besides your Windows OS whilst you “play” with it”. Long live free, open source software.
Note: this email was posted using PuppyLinux 3.0.1 and Firefox. Cost: nada.
Peace
— Mike J. Feb 13, 03:24 PM #
Vista is one of the worst products Uncle Bill has ever foisted upon PC users. It crashes constantly, doesn’t work particularly well with many web sites, and is not backward compatible with many fairly recent software applications. I for one am hunting for a used machine running 2000 or XP on Craig’s list and ebay.
— Mark Smith Feb 13, 07:22 PM #
I’d like the author of the 3rd post to elaborate more on this “closed economy” at Apple and what that means for an institution who might want to go that route.
— jm Feb 13, 10:21 PM #
Regardless of whether universities officially adopt Vista or not we are supporting it. I can understand concerns or issues expressed about Vista, but delaying adoption formally just means most campuses will have 2 year’s worth of incoming students already using Vista before they adopt it. And since so many student services are online (LMS, Banner, etc.) campuses that delay too long will ultimately provide a disservice to the very folks they are there to support.
— Corey Feb 14, 12:18 PM #
Vista is the ultimate and inevitable culmination of years of lobbying from network techs for a product that would eliminate the need for clients, leaving them free to wander the office hallways in shorts and Metallica t-shirts, sucking up to middle management that pretends to understand IT by blindly supporting network techs.
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