Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: News
Microsoft Vista a problem for Penn
New operating system not compatible with many U. programs
Albert Sun
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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.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 6
JK
posted 2/23/07 @ 8:30 AM EST
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). (Continued…)
BC
posted 2/23/07 @ 9:09 AM EST
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. (Continued…)
js
posted 2/23/07 @ 9:25 AM EST
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?
Steve Jobs
posted 2/23/07 @ 2:39 PM EST
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. (Continued…)
Bill Poser
posted 2/23/07 @ 4:20 PM EST
"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. (Continued…)
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