Microsoft Vista a problem for Penn

Windows Vista sits on the shelf at the Computer Connection at steep student discounts. Penn is advising students not to buy the product yet.

Microsoft says that its newest operating system, Windows Vista, is visually appealing and easy to use.

Easy to use, that is, unless you're a Penn student.

Information Systems and Computing officials are cautioning students and faculty not to upgrade to Vista, warning that users with the upgrade will not be able to access AirPennNet, the University's residential wireless network.

In a notice posted on its Web site, ISC "strongly recommends" that users adopt a "wait-and-see" approach to Vista.

Also listed with this notice are seven University applications that will not work with Vista and two that are only marginally compatible.

AirPennNet's authentication software, SecureW2, as well as BEN Financials, Business Objects, E-mail Interface to Penn Directory, Office XP, older versions of Symantec AntiVirus and Symantec Ghost all will not work.

Eudora and Palm Desktop will suffer from limited functionality.

"We are working with the developer of [SecureW2] to develop a Vista-compatible version," Executive Director of Technology Support Services Mark Aseltine said.

In addition, Aseltine said ISC was warning students to stay away from the Home Basic version of Vista, citing a lack of important networking and security features.

But all these warnings haven't stopped some Penn students from installing Vista.

Engineering and Wharton sophomore Danish Munir has had Vista installed on his MacBook for three weeks now.

He's also managed to make AirPennNet work after changing some core Windows DLL files and registry settings, with the help of some Web sites.

"Someone who's computer savvy or is a computer science student could do it probably very easily," Munir said.

He added that, with a step-by-step guide, "An [Information Technology Advisor] could do it in ten minutes."

According to Aseltine, however, ISC has tried this fix on multiple computers, but it was not consistently successful and thus ITAs will not be trained to help students modify the program.

"I would be uncomfortable trying to put that out there as a standard fix," Aseltine said.

Even after a fix for SecureW2 is available, ISC will still not lift it's "wait-and-see" recommendation until all "critical incompatibilities and key bugs have been addressed," Aseltine added, which may occur by the time Microsoft's Service Pack 1 Vista update is released.

"We'll just continue to track issues that come up," Aseltine said.

SAS Computer labs here at Penn will likely be making the transition in the summer of 2008, according to Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi.

"It typically takes us at least a year after [software is released] to begin the transition," he said.

Microsoft officials did not return calls for comment.

Comments (6)

[QUOTE id="af73ec2a-b733-4b9e-88d3-334d66652f4c"]Just so everyone knows, it is VERY possible and VERY easy to use AirPennNet with Windows Vista. It just takes some following directions (which are actually put up by Penn). See the following website: http://prowiki.isc-csg.upenn.edu:16080/index.php/Connecting_to_AirPennNet_with_Windows_Vista Use the section called "Setting up connection AirPennNet Using SecureW2". The only extra thing that you need to do is enter your PennKey and password into SecureW2 and deselect "prompt for user credentials". That should work.[/QUOTE] Agreed. Setting up SecureW2 was actually easier on Vista than on XP. That still doesn't solve the problem that AirPennNet coverage is VERY spotty. Additionally, there have been updates for Symantec's software. The only real hurdle that remains is the Penn-specific software that only University staff use. There's no reason for students to wait to upgrade.

What? The Penn IT department wants people to take a "wait-and-see" approach. You mean like the "wait-and-see" approach they are taking with a new webmail system? Windows Vista has been in development for more than five years, and has been released to institutional customers for testing purposes for several months. There is no excuse for stuff not to work at this point.

There is no excuse for stuff not to work at this point. Indeed. But the problems are not Penn's fault, they are Microsoft's. Many programs, not just those written by Penn, are reported not to work properly with Vista. Penn is wise to urge caution in shifting to what by all accounts is a buggy and half-baked operating system. After all, it isn't as if anything is going to stop working for those who continue to use their current version of MS Windows, nor does Vista contain improvements that should compel most users to adopt it as soon as they can.

Just so everyone knows, it is VERY possible and VERY easy to use AirPennNet with Windows Vista. It just takes some following directions (which are actually put up by Penn). See the following website: http://prowiki.isc-csg.upenn.edu:16080/index.php/Connecting_to_AirPennNet_with_Windows_Vista Use the section called "Setting up connection AirPennNet Using SecureW2". The only extra thing that you need to do is enter your PennKey and password into SecureW2 and deselect "prompt for user credentials". That should work.

I find it interesting that so many applications and services are not compatible with a major new operating system that was in beta testing for so long. Many of the applications seem to be Internet Explorer 7 issues, not particularly problems with Vista. Since IE7 was also in testing for so long, the current situation seems completely unacceptable. Did Penn simply ignore the period of compatability testing that was available? If I remember correctly Microsoft provided beta versions of Vista and IE7 for almost a year prior to the release.

seems like there would be greater cooperation between information systems and computer connection on the vista roll out. assuming that IS couldn't have gotten an advanced copy of vista in order to make sure certain applications were compatible with vista before the software hit the shelves, why didn't IS request that computer connection delay release of vista until IS could work out the kinks?

Comments are closed for this item.