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Microsoft Vista, IE7 Banned By U.S. DOT

Posted by Zonk on from the that-is-a-serious-buzz-harsher dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to a memo being reported on by Information week, the US Department of Transportation has issued a moratorium on upgrading Microsoft products. Concerns over costs and compatability issues has lead the federal agency to prevent upgrades from XP to Vista, as well as to stop users from moving to IE 7 and Office 2007. As the article says, 'In a memo to his staff, DOT chief information officer Daniel Mintz says he has placed "an indefinite moratorium" on the upgrades as "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade."'"

9 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing really unusual about it by 2.7182 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is an agency that is very conservative. I mean, it's illegal to have curved driver side mirrors in the US for pete's sake.

    1. Re:Nothing really unusual about it by IDontAgreeWithYou · · Score: 4, Informative

      Where I work we just switched to XP from Windows 2000 less than 2 years ago. We won't switch to Vista anytime in the near future (my guess is three years at least). This isn't a story, it's standard practice. In order to upgrade, you need to do a lot of testing and updating software, especially in-house apps. If they were using Linux, they wouldn't update the kernel as soon as it was available either.

      --
      Finding other idiots on /. that agree with your opinion doesn't make it any less stupid.
    2. Re:Nothing really unusual about it by bcattwoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is how I have heard you should adjust your mirrors. While sitting in your usual position lean your head to the left until it is almost against the window. Adjust your mirror until you can just see the back corner of your car. As a car passes you while driving, it should become visible in your sideview mirror just as it leaves your rearview and be visible out of the corner of your eye as it leaves your sideview. Seated comfortably with the seat all the way back I have to crank my mirrors all the way out to the maximum but it works.

      If you want to see where your car is when backing up, just turn around and look. The back corner of your car isn't going anywhere.

    3. Re:Nothing really unusual about it by aedan · · Score: 3, Informative

      European Volvo mirrors have a faint vertical dotted line about 2 cm from the outside edge. To the outside of this line the mirror is convex and gives you a better view of the blind spot.

    4. Re:Nothing really unusual about it by UncleMidriff · · Score: 3, Informative

      I work as a contractor for the FAA, which is under the DOT, and around here, Windows XP is a brand new thing. We just switched from Windows 2000 less than a year ago, for the reasons you stated.

      I have no doubt that the FAA will switch to Vista a some point, but it will likely be around the time the next version of Windows comes out. I'm not holding out much hope for a switch to Linux then, either, as most of our in-house apps are .NET, VB 6, or even Access(!).

  2. Fixed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to any Microsoft software products."

  3. Don't worry, he's being fair. by twitter · · Score: 3, Informative

    I wish they would at least move to IE7 if they are not going to move to Firefox/Mozilla. To stay with IE6 is just unfair.

    From the fine article:

    Among the options the Transportation Department is weighing as a possible alternative or complement to Windows Vista are Novell's Suse Linux and, for a limited group of users, Apple's Macintosh hardware and software, he says.

    With an open mind like that, I'd be surprised if they were not running some kind of Netscape browser already. Give him some time and he's discover Firefox, Debian, Open Office and all sorts of great stuff.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  4. Re:Seriously, so what? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Informative

    You see, upgrading a Microsoft OS is much like making love to beautiful woman...
    Except that there are plenty of people on Slashdot that have experience upgrading a Microsoft OS.
  5. Orgs banning IE7 because of SAP Portal by Synic · · Score: 3, Informative

    SAP Portal software doesn't work with IE7 without using a recent patch and huge orgs can't patch SAP without a shitstorm of trouble, so they just ban IE7 altogether. Oddly enough Firefox works with those versions of SAP Portal (although suffering from some minor rendering bugs causing very wide pages with scrollbars).