U.S. Army Upgrading to Windows Vista, Office 2007

[the_one111]

[citation][nom]apmyhr[/nom]I think most of you have a sever lack of understanding on how government bureaucracies and large enterprises work. They are not going to stick with XP because support for XP will stop in a few years. Also, they will not switch to Windows 7 becuase its new and untested. You can bitch all day about Vista, but the fact is that it is more secure than XP, is now in SP2, and has been fully tested by the Army's own validation program.[/citation]
Listen to this man, he has a higher IQ than most people.

 

[matt_b]

[citation][nom]the_one111[/nom]If you have that old of a computer you need to upgrade anyway. No matter what you do.I haven't seen a BSOD in about 6 years, what hellhole did you come from?[/citation]
Had one on my XP computer at work two months ago. Had two on a couple of laptops over the last few years: one running Vista premium 32 bit about two years ago, the other on one running Vista Home/basic 64 bit last month. All of these were unrecoverable hard-fault BSOD that had to have the OS reinstalled. I have also encountered a handful of others in the same time frame at work that were fixable by simply rebooting the computers/servers. I must live in some hellhole as well

 

[dman3k]

Military intelligence is to intelligence what military music is to music.

 

[Guest]

So how many of you use army computers? Seriously you wanna complain about vista and xp? This is not just one computer they are talking about. What might be good for you might not be good for them. They need something that will be compatible over their network so this is the route they are going. Sure there are other platforms out there but the fact of the matter is they want something constant that can be repaired by an army computer technician. The army does not have the luxury of being at the top with technology. They need something that works... and for now that is vista. I'm not a stickler for vista either. It has its ups and its downs and yes windows 7 seems great but the truth is you need at least two years (1 year minimum) to test out a new OS before it goes to a whole network of computers. That's how government offices, city offices, newspapers, school districts, and other orginizations work. There is a process to things so you stick to yours and they'll get back to making our country a little safer.

 

[maaksel]

I work tier 3 IT for the DOD - windows 7 will take ~3 years before it hits the 'standard user'. Take 2 years just for me to get a pilot box.

 

[maaksel]

Try to get your facts right before you sputter off nonsense. When is the end of life for XP? Do you even know? The DOD will not (and should not) accept machines that are out of warranty status for longer than 90 days. That means a refresh on a machine now, when will the end of life of XP occur?

Once again, think before you speak - those of us that are 'in the know' about topics like this would appreciate it.

Also, the government is not the only market affected by this. MANY companies in the private market are in the same boat.

[citation][nom]worst 3[/nom]really, waited all this time and cant wait a few a bit longer till win7 comes out and is tested. the government seems love to waste money, and i thought they were going to be more efficient with there computer usage and upgrades.[/citation]

 

[Adamk1101]

My new Macbook Pro has crashed 4 times in the last couple weeks. My 4 Vista x64 machines: none.

Maybe they should change the commercials around because I'm getting way more complaints from our Mac users lately about crashes than from our PC users. Not only that but Windows 7 is blowing away Leopard in performance and system resources. Leopard is a resource HOG! Want to know why there aren't any Mac Netbooks? Try running Leopard with 1GB of ram and you'll quickly find out. Read up on Windows 7 usage on netbooks. It uses less ram than XP Pro and OSX.

Do your research people. If your research comes from a biased and outrageous series of TV commercials... I'm sorry.

 

[ossie]

Who did m$ bribe this time?

 

[grieve]

You guys are on glue....

XP Support ends April 2014! YAH 2014!!!! Read the news.

You’re telling me they can't skip Vista to save cash and goto Win7 before 2014? Lol Wake up. That’s 4.5 years to pass validation.

My company (we) investigated Vista long ago and decided to pass due mostly to hardware requirements. We are deploying Netstation/NEOware everywhere possible but of course we still have three hundred some laptops out there, all running XP. These machines will continue to run XP until we clear Windows 7 which we have not begun testing.

XP is dated and I no longer run it @ home but it is absolutely sufficient for a business environment. Why Dump Vista on everyone’s laps only to upgrade to Win7 3 years later. It is a huge waste of time and money…. Start Validating Win7 and leave everyone on XP, office 07.

 

[apmyhr]

[citation][nom]Adamk1101[/nom]My new Macbook Pro has crashed 4 times in the last couple weeks. My 4 Vista x64 machines: none.Maybe they should change the commercials around because I'm getting way more complaints from our Mac users lately about crashes than from our PC users. Not only that but Windows 7 is blowing away Leopard in performance and system resources. Leopard is a resource HOG! Want to know why there aren't any Mac Netbooks? Try running Leopard with 1GB of ram and you'll quickly find out. Read up on Windows 7 usage on netbooks. It uses less ram than XP Pro and OSX.Do your research people. If your research comes from a biased and outrageous series of TV commercials... I'm sorry.[/citation]
I love your comment and you have some great points about Macs. But its kind of irellavent for this article...

 

[hemelskonijn]

And just when i think nothing could amaze me more i read the comments to this article.
At least half the people responding here are right, there is no justification of this kind of waste of money.
Lets say that 80% of the U.S. army staff uses the computers to write reports email and lists stocks (dare i say maybe watch some porn).
You cant seriously think that you can do those tasks better on Vista Linux BSD or any other operating system.
The future lack of support is also a bogus excuse as they have there own geeks and if they cant trouble shoot their windows network they should hire some new geeks.
So in the end it all boils down to which platform/OS would be best to deploy on such a large scale using tax payers money.

Linux: costs are near to nothing if your hired geeks are true hired geeks though getting support might be rough.
need to educate most of the end users.

BSD: Same as above though thought to be more secure and stable.
need to educate most of the end users.

MacOS: No way you guys would support them buying all new nice powermacs even if you love mac's you have to see this is way to expensive.
need to educate most of the end users.

WindowsXP: Every one knows how it works and it runs for several years now on the same systems that do there tasks well (never change a running system) no education needed.

Windows Vista: The most expensive plus the most resource hogging OS on this list thus meaning buying more and faster hardware and on top of thar the extra costs of educating the end users.

Take your pick its your tax dollars not mine.

 

[falchard]

Windows Vista is alot more secure then the majority of operating systems including Windows 7. It has so many anti-user error systems in place that it would be more difficult to loose restricted information on them. Windows 7 uses the same kernel as Windows Vista, but is more optimized and striped. The Military would not move to a new operating system until its been tested for some time. Considering Windows 7 would have atleast a 6 month period of bugs, and another year until the first SP it would not be a wise choice to gamble the computers upgrade future on.

Also I heard many people don't like Office 2007 over Office 2003. One thing you have to remember about stimulus spending and the military is that the military has gotten very fast and effecient at spending and spreading money around. In about a month they could have taken that $1 trillion and spread it to every corner of the US with multi-year contracts.

 

[DjEaZy]

... USA have a 84 trillion of dept, but still spending? Now the BSOD haz a new meaning...

 

[Guest]

Regardless of whether or not upgrading to Vista is a good choice in light of Windows 7, I am more surprised by the fact that the US Army seems to be primarily using Windows. I would have expected them to be using a top-secret, custom build of Linux.

 

[DjEaZy]

... a country in 84 trillion of dept, but still spending? Now the BSOD haz a new meaning...

 

[grieve]

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]Windows Vista is alot more secure then the majority of operating systems including Windows 7. It has so many anti-user error systems in place that it would be more difficult to loose restricted information on them.[/citation]
Have you used windows 7?
Most if not ALL infrastructure groups restrict access to some degree for their users. I don’t give our users admin accounts and I certainly don’t rely on Windows to stop the users from doing things I (we) don’t want them to. We modify the registry and give them crippled user accounts.

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]Also I heard many people don't like Office 2007 over Office 2003.[/citation]
HAHA Office 2007 is so much better, It is not comparable.

 

[sublifer]

[citation][nom]grieve[/nom]Yes... BUT there is really little reason to upgrade to Vista, especially when you consider the Billions it will cost. XP is sufficient until 7 is tested.[/citation]
Not to mention that Win7 is pretty much Vista SP3... but it actually runs Win XP programs. Screw Vista. XP -> Win7 or XP -> Linux

 

[sublifer]

[citation][nom]zigge[/nom]Additionally, MS is cutting support for XP.[/citation]
WTF do they need MS support for? Does anyone actually call MS and pay $120 per hour/call/5 seconds/however they figure it? Screw that and screw them. Hardware vendors will continue to support XP until it shrinks to an install base of less than 20% or there abouts. I don't know where all these Vista fanatics came from, did Steve Balmer threaten all the MS staff if they didn't come over here and thumbs down the nay-sayers? I use Vista for my HTPC and it sucks, if I could find a BR player for Linux I'd be there in a second.

 

[Guest]

The Army isn't the only one upgrading to Vista. The Department of Homeland Security has mandated it and the Coast Guard falls under this. The problem is the users expect us to teach them how to use it, even though Vista has been out for a couple of years now. I know a RAS user who is still using Windows 2000 on her home computer and wonders why she's calling every week because she cannot connect! (maybe an outdated Terminal Services Client? The HelpDesk isn't there to teach users how to use programs, it's there for when legit problems occur (PST files over a network anyone?) Oh wait, that's not legit, the freakin domain admins who plan this stuff should already know that one already. Oh, and let's migrate to a new system during transfer season so we double the amount of work the HelpDesk people have to do! Over 300 tickets in the queue, 6 Helpdesk techs (two of them newbies) a response time of 30 minutes or less per the SLA. Not happening!

 

[yoda8232]

So this is how we will get hacked and eventually be destroyed...

 

[Guest]

Me see holes in OS must use chopsticks to take out all your information.

 

[dacman61]

[citation][nom]Pei-chen[/nom]It will take 2 years to validate Win 7.[/citation]

2 Years?! Try 4-5 years. I've worked contract work for the FBI, and they are slow as balls to get up with the times.

 

[doomtomb]

YOU ARE SO STUPID UPGRADING TO VISTA BY THE END OF THE YEAR WILL BE OUT OF DATE. GODDDDDDDDDD JUST UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 7 YOU TARDS.

 

[anamaniac]

I understand the point somewhat, but with the billions upon billions the American military throws towards technology, you'd think they'd all run a dedicated Unix environment or something along those lines.
They could customize it further and likely enable better protection.

I am a M$ fanboy, but Unix has it's place.

 

[matt_b]

[citation][nom]grieve[/nom] HAHA Office 2007 is so much better, It is not comparable.[/citation]
You are right, it's not comparable! It completely re-wrote the way office programs have been the past two decades by putting F-ing pictures for every task (aka "the ribbon") that takes up the top third of the screen instead of a simple text-based file/edit/view/tools drop down menu. They could have at least made this customizable similar to the classic view option in the control panel area in Windows that lets you use it the way it was the previous release.