It will likely take years, not months, for many colleges to fully upgrade their computer systems to Vista, and Penn is no exception.
In a recent informal online survey, Gary Roberts, Alfred University's director of information-technology services, found that, of 33 colleges he polled, 28 had not yet completely upgraded to Vista, Microsoft's year-old Windows operating system. Only six out of 31 schools said they planned on switching to Vista in the next four to six months.
With the upcoming release of the first Vista service pack in March, Mark Aseltine, Penn's executive director of technology support services, expects the adoption of Vista at Penn to "increase significantly in the coming months," he wrote in an e-mail.
According to Aseltine, this service pack will address many compatibility issues with Vista, and Penn plans on fully switching to the program over the next three to four years.
Despite the open-ended nature of his survey questions, Roberts found that while most schools are not going to "retroactively install Vista," they have installed the program on new machines.
Most campuses update their computers every three to four years, and according to Roberts, installing Vista on old machines is often difficult, since the new software may not be compatible with old operating systems.
"Systems purchased several years ago may not have enough RAM or may lack other hardware components needed to run Vista effectively," Aseltine said.
SAS computer labs plan to install Vista on all new machines this summer, said Ira Winston, SAS executive director of computing and educational technology services.
Penn still has a few remaining systems that are incompatible with Vista, including Ben Financials - the University's core business system for accounting - and Office XP.
Since Vista's release on Jan. 30, 2007, computer vendors have continued to offer Windows XP in addition to Vista, and many students and universities, including Penn, have purchased a combination of XP and Vista systems based on their needs.
Currently, some Penn computing services support Vista, a decision each school or center makes on its own.
But Vista use on campus has increased over the past year, and as of last summer, all the Windows systems sold through Penn's Computer Connection back-to-school sale included Vista, Aseltine wrote.
This year's PennConnect DVD, which contains networking and anti-virus software, supports Vista - not the case when it was first released, he added.
However, some students who use Vista said Penn should not rush to install the program.
It has no "amazing features," Wharton freshman Ishaan Jain said, and the biggest difference between Vista and Windows XP was that Vista "looks cooler and has better graphics."
