US Agency shuns Vista, keeping XP for three more years
By Jonathan Schlaffer
The US department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is going to stick with Windows XP for another three years, however, at the same time its computers are being upgraded to support Vista.
The hardware upgrade is being managed by Electronic Data Systems and includes a two-year $68 million extension to the initial five year service plan which will handle support for nearly 7,000 desktops.
The CIO of the ATF, Greg Bailey said to ComputerWorld that the hardware upgrade is just the agency’s normal upgrade cycle and is nothing special. He continued by saying the reason Vista isn’t being deployed is that compatibility with all the existing programs is not guaranteed and while most of the computers will run Vista, some of the 7,000 may not.
While he did admit that Windows Vista did offer some additional security features over Windows XP, he said, “those are problems we have solved in other ways.” Probably meaning through the use of third party applications.
Although the ATF would like to keep Windows XP beyond the year 2010 which is when Microsoft is supposed to end support for that operating system, Bailey wants the computers, peripherals and software ready to handle Vista should a “forced” upgrade be necessary.
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