Filed under: OS
NIST says "No" to Vista
InformationWeek reports that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has banned Vista from internal computing networks. NIST tech workers will meet on the 10th of April in a session called "Windows Vista Security" to discuss their concerns about the new OS. The NIST ban follows on the heels of similar moves by the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. You've got to love the way that InformationWeek enjoys delivering the news, stating that Microsoft suffers its "latest blow". As former First Lady Nancy Reagan would say: "Just say no to Vista."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mentalsticks said 1:38PM on 3-13-2007
(Microsoft EQ Bad) NEQ (Apple EQ Good)
While I know that MS-bashing is part of the Mac subculture, I wonder what this news is doing on an Apple blog.
(of course tuaw is free to publish whatever they want. I just wonder.)
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kevin said 2:00PM on 3-13-2007
I suspect most agencies are waiting. The navy - through a contract with EDS - doesn't appear have any plans of upgrading. They're still running Win 2003.
The NMCI computers would break under Vista HW requirements. They barely run 2k3 as it is.
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Chalk Maven said 1:54PM on 3-13-2007
Stop with the MS/Vista posts already. I come here to read about Apple fer Pete's sake.
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Lee said 1:56PM on 3-13-2007
Actually, I disagree. I think that this is relevant and actually quite humorous.
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Peter Payne said 12:03PM on 3-14-2007
Actually I installed Vista on Parallels today and was impressed with it. We publish game software for Window and I was happy to see that our games worked with it. It was so good that I axed my XP Parallels install in favor of Vista.
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JCK said 2:23PM on 3-13-2007
I think it would only be relevant the NIST also said, "We're switching to OS X." ...
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Ned said 2:40PM on 3-13-2007
Re: The first commentor
You'd be surprised at the amount of non-Apple news on this so-called Apple blog. Erica is probably the worst offender. Paying each blogger per post is the worst idea ever.
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rahrens said 2:42PM on 3-13-2007
I disagree, this very relevant to the Mac world.
Microsoft, after all, is the dominant player in the desktop OS world. Every stumble they make, every "blow" they suffer, weakens their hold on the market, and is a potential gain for Apple or other desktop OS makers (are you listening, Linux developers?)
The stumbling nature of the Vista roll-out, illustrated by this moratorium by NIST, presents a perfect opportunity for Apple and others to weaken, seriously, at least in the public's perception, the inevitability of Microsoft's dominance of that market.
Weaken this perception enough, and market share will begin to shift even faster than it already has.
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Brady J. Frey said 3:07PM on 3-13-2007
How is it not relevant? The mac culture is also defined by it's competition, just like any battle. I don't understand why everyone's complaining - if it's constant talk of competition, I can agree it gets old; that doesn't mean it's not relevant to the future of Apple. In fact, I'm sure it will directly influence the future of Apple, as it always does.
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schlomo said 3:20PM on 3-13-2007
we still run Win2000/2000 Server at my office - it's the only stable version of Windows I've ever used, and the only one I'm going to be using for the forseeable future.
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Stuart said 3:39PM on 3-13-2007
The post is a little skewed. They banned Vista from the network, but only until they can review it, to look at all the security issues.
Security is #1 over there. They review and test everything heavily, and ban a lot of systems from the network (eg OSX).
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DigitalFury said 4:19PM on 3-13-2007
I fail to see in this article how the NIST is saying yes to OS X by saying no to Vista.
Looks like strait Microsoft bashing to me, which makes all Mac users look like snotty assholes.
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Derek said 4:36PM on 3-13-2007
What, exactly, does this have to do with Apple? Can we please get over the "US vs. THEM" mentality? Great, thanks.
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jasenj1 said 6:07PM on 3-13-2007
Yeah. Big deal. My all MS "big corporation" also has a "no Vista" policy. The IT department needs to test it all out, decide how to roll out, make sure no mission critical software breaks, etc., etc.
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Ed said 5:33PM on 3-13-2007
Funny that I get my Vista news from TUAW...
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Galen D. W. said 6:00PM on 3-13-2007
Ed:
Don't be silly. The only Vista news you can get from TUAW is the bad stuff. Of course they'll never write about the good stuff.
Ned:
They get paid per post? I agree; that's bulls**t.
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danbedford said 6:03PM on 3-13-2007
Seriously, why is everyone complaining? Comment #7 said it best... this is completely relevant!! I mean, what's so bad about this? If you don't care about news related to Microsoft (and you should be if you're a computer user in general), then DON'T READ IT. You're only wasting your precious time if you stop to read it. Then you wasted more time by POSTING COMMENTS ABOUT WHY YOU THINK MICROSOFT NEWS DOESN'T MATTER TO MAC USERS.
Stuart (comment #10), please cite your sources stating that OS X has also been banned by NIST. I'm searching their site to see how they ruled on OS X and haven't found anything.
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Stuart said 6:54PM on 3-13-2007
I've worked at NIST, they just have very strict regulations over what computers are aloud to connect to the network, as you'd hope for a government department.
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Catt said 8:14PM on 3-13-2007
I work for a local government agency which is an all MS shop except for one Mac that someone brought into one of the departments. The IT folks have banned Vista so far because there is no compatible Network Client for it yet.
There are also a few security concerns that they are trying to work through and the program that I use everyday has not passed the compatibility test yet either. Rest assured as soon as these things have been worked out we'll migrate sometime end of year if all goes well.
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Pete said 1:24AM on 3-15-2007
I like reading Microsoft news because I can't get enough of Vista on my macbook.
I think the slow adoption of Vista by agencies and other organizations is understandable. We've had XP for a long time, we know how it works, we know how to fix it and how to patch it. These groups don't want to fall victim to the first major Vista security threat. They'll wait it out.
I'm running AVG on my macbook and I don't poke around the bowels of the internet.
One more thing. I hope Leopard is good because I find myself holding down "option" key on more and more boot ups*.
*It is true that 1/2 of those windows BSOD before it loaded.
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