Microsoft Vista Upgrade
Vista not Ready for Release
At this time, HKS IT Services recommends that purchasers of new computers to be used at the Kennedy School continue to order machines with Windows XP Professional. We do not recommend Microsoft Vista at this time because of numerous bugs and incompatibility issues.
One of the main issues with running MS Vista is it will not run in a Novell Netware environment, and as a result, Vista machines cannot print to HKS networked printers. Another issue is that Microsoft has postponed the release of Vista Service Pack 1 until early in 2008. The Gartner group recommends that Vista not be deployed until at least after this service pack is released. The IT department will be testing and monitoring Vista over the next several months, and you will be notified as soon as we provide full support. We anticipate that by early 2008, we should be able to fully support the Microsoft Vista operating system. We will keep you posted on our progress and will keep everyone aware of training opportunities as they arise.
IBM/Lenovo has stated that we can still order computers with Windows XP Pro until December 31, 2007. Microsoft will be supporting Windows XP Professional (our current standard and recommendation) until April 2009. That's good news because it gives the industry time to catch up with Microsoft and will give organizations time to work through any issues that may arise.
Here is what others at Harvard are saying about supporting Windows Vista:
Central Harvard University Information Systems (UIS)
http://www.uis.harvard.edu/support_services/policies.php#_Vista_Rev_1
Harvard FAS policy
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/computing/messages/20070202.html
Harvard Physics policy
http://compserv.physics.harvard.edu/vista
