Windows Vista in NUIM

by Bart Busschots

On the front page of the first issue of the Advocate there was a small article which stated that Windows Vista would be deployed on all machines in NUIM by the end of 2007. This did not seem very likely to me so I spoke to Eberhard Albrecht, the head of User Support in the Computer Centre about Vista. Mr. Albrecht tells a very different story.


There are serious problems with rolling out Vista on the college network that need to be overcome before it becomes the default operating system on campus. Firstly, Vista has very high hardware requirements so many machines will never be upgraded to Vista because they are not physically capable of running it properly. Secondly, a lot of testing will be required to ensure Vista 'plays nice' with the campus network and services. All software used on campus will have to be tested with Vista because a lot of software has problems with the new Microsoft operating system. There are complications with the new licensing model Microsoft have introduced with Vista. Finally, staff will need training to use Vista.


Vista is currently very new and has no proven track record. Although Vista was designed to be the most secure operating system Microsoft have ever released there is no way to know if they have succeeded until Vista has been in widespread use for some time. It's common practice not to switch to a new Microsoft operating system until at least one service pack has been released fixing the teething problems which invariably surface.


At this stage it should be clear that there is a lot of work involved in moving a large organisation like NUIM over to Windows Vista. You also need to bear in mind that all this work is on top of the regular day-to-day work of the the computer centre. Mr. Albrecht expects testing of Vista to get under way this summer. From some time in 2008 users who specifically request Vista should be able to get it on new machines. Some time after that when all the problems have been ironed out Vista could become the default for all new machines purchased. The computer centre will definitely not be installing Vista on the PACRs for the next academic year (2007/8) and possibly not even the one after that (2009/9).


This may seem all seem very slow but major changes to a large network need to be taken slowly. Mr. Albrecht pointed out that NUIM are in line with other universities when it comes to Vista. At the moment no university in Ireland supports it and most, like NUIM, are also not providing Vista installation DVDs to staff. In large networked organisations changing operating system is a very big deal. It never happens fast and is always a phased process. In NUIM we currently use Windows 2000 and Windows XP. There are still a few Windows 98 machines on campus but they are no longer supported by the Computer Centre and where possible these machines are being upgraded to Windows XP. Vista is coming, but slowly, and certainly not by the end of 2007!