US Army equipping all Windows PCs with Vista by end of 2009

While a good number of its machines are already running the OS -- about 13 percent at this point -- the United States Army has mandated that before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, 2009 that all of its Windows-powered computers must switch from XP to Vista, presumably and hopefully with Service Pack 2. Additionally, all Office 2003 users will have to upgrade to the 2007 variant, but thankfully, someone with a little Vista experience made sure to omit standalone weapons systems from the mandate -- you know, because there's not really time to click through eight confirmation boxes when launching a time-sensitive homing missile. All jesting aside, we're flummoxed that the Army didn't just wait for Windows 7 to roll out in a few months before making this decision, but hey, what's a few more billion in upgrade costs next year, right?

[Via HotHardware]

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2009 12:08AM]

As much as I like Vista [eh, okay, maybe 'like' is pushing it], even I'm saying, "Ehhhhhh..."


Idk...

[pdonket Posted May 24th 2009 1:53AM]

I just want to say that I enjoy the minor military bashing going on during memorial day weekend, WTG gadge.

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2009 2:34PM]

My god thats scary

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2009 3:17AM]

Don't worry. It will commit suicide right after it becomes self aware..

[mrbluesky Posted May 24th 2009 3:54AM]

end of world...beginning of 2010

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2009 4:54AM]

well if it is supposedly "fixed" then we are fine until it starts to get all "Hal" on use and take over :)

[Eternal Density Posted May 24th 2009 5:19AM]

or if they upgrade to GLaDOS...

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2009 4:53AM]

China is lurking from behind a screen, smiling and grinning.

[Eternal Density Posted May 24th 2009 5:18AM]

I finally fixed the annoying bluescreens Vista was giving me by installing Win7 RC1 :D

[(Unverified) Posted May 24th 2009 5:24AM]

They obviously don't see any large scale problems with the operating system, nor do I. Windows 7...w/e I just think people with PC have a little to much Mac on their minds.

[DustoMan Posted May 24th 2009 9:12AM]

Why aren't they using Windows 7 in December? Because the Army doesn't move that fast. I work as a contractor in the Army Reserve and back when IE7 came out. We were told not to install it on computers until it could be "approved" to run on the Army system. They never really did officialy tell me we could use it to this day, but when it started to show up on new system images I went ahead and upgraded all my machines. Anyway.. we are talking about a entity that mandated Windows 2000 in 2004... You could still run Windows NT on your servers before then... talk about antiquated.

[devil Posted May 24th 2009 11:38AM]

Nice joke Engadget !!!! :)

[(Unverified) Posted May 26th 2009 3:31AM]

Why not just wait for Windows 7 like everyone else is doing?

[macdoc Posted May 27th 2009 4:56AM]

I suspect pay offs, and hookers for the Army brass somewhere in the Pentagon.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 12:47PM]

Why Windows at all?!

It's completely innapropriate for military use, the cost alone should discount it from consideration. There's an endless argument against it; and with SO MANY open source operating systems that offer so many advantages over Windows, it boggles the mind that the US Army feels that their systems all need to be MSPaint-enabled.

I can think of no windows-only features that would be useful to Army personell and certainly none that would be enough to warrant an "upgrade" to Vista.

With the amount of money on offer here, surely Microsoft could build a special military-only operating system that's built with its actual target in mind - not home users.


Using Windows in the military is like them buying uniforms from wal mart.