IS Connection

Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 at EMU

Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, is in the process of being released in several stages that began in November 2006 and will culminate with a full public release on January 30, 2007. There are many implications to this for institutions such as EMU and significant effort will be required over a long period of time before the EMU community will begin to see Windows Vista on EMU owned computers. One of the first challenges will be to have a Novell client available for Vista computers so that when we do decide to deploy Vista for EMU owned computers they will connect efficiently to our network file and print servers. Novell has not released a Vista client and we don't expect to see one for several months - probably sometime in the summer of 2007.

The following describes what we expect for the two main user communities on campus:

STUDENT interests:

1. Students who bring computers to campus with Vista installed will be able to connect them to the network but we will not have a Novell connectivity solution (i.e. P: drive and Z: drive) available for some time. We expect to have things sorted out in this regard by August 2007.

2. Windows computers in labs will continue to run Office 2003, at least through the summer of 2007. While the supplies last, very low cost packages ($55) for Office 2003 are available to any current students at the Information Systems Helpdesk in the Campus Center (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm). Further Info Systems research and dialogue with various constituencies will be needed to determine if Office 2007 will be installed on lab computers prior to the start of classes in the fall of 2007.

3. Information Systems is usually able to offer students upgrades to their Windows operating systems at a very low price. As of January 1, 2007 we do not have any Windows update packages in stock and we do not know if, when or at what price a Windows Vista upgrade will be available from Microsoft through the student upgrades program. We think it is likely to become available sometime after July 1, 2007 but we cannot promise that it will be available by that time.

FACULTY/STAFF interests:

1. Info Systems has a lot of work to do before we consider adopting Vista as our desktop computer operating system. Don't expect to see anything in this regard any time soon. Several years may pass before we adopt Windows Vista as our standard Windows desktop operating system. Windows XP is serving us well and at this point we have no compelling reason to consider changing in the near future.

2. Beginning this past fall (2006) Info Systems began configuring computer disk images for faculty/staff Windows computers with Office 2003. There is currently a mix of Office XP and Office 2003 on employee desks and we expect to be predominently Office 2003 by the end of summer 2007. Significant research and dialogue will be required before a decision would be made regarding the adoption of Office 2007 as the standard office suite for Windows desktops. It is not likely such a decision would be made before the summer of 2008 and perhaps even later than that.