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Olympic Committee Chooses XP Over Vista

Posted by samzenpus on Wed Aug 15, 2007 07:53 AM
from the if-it's-not-as-broken dept.
Vinit writes "The popularity of Windows XP is still making things difficult for Vista. Now Vista has again suffered a major setback, with Lenovo (Olympic 2008' official sponsor) installing XP on it's machines to run the Olympic Games' vital PC-related tasks. Vista will only be used in internet lounges set up for athletes to use during the games."
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Ponca City, We Love You writes "When the 2008 Olympic Games kick off in Beijing next year, organizers will be using a sophisticated computer system to scan video images of city streets looking for everything from troublemakers to terrorists. The IBM system, called the Smart Surveillance System, uses analytic tools to index digital video recordings and then issue real-time alerts when certain patterns are detected. It can be used to warn security guards when someone has entered a secure area or keep track of cars coming in and out of a parking lot. The system can also search through old event data to find patterns that can be used to enable new security strategies and identify potential vulnerabilities. IBM is also developing a similar surveillance system for lower Manhattan, but has not yet begun deploying that project. "Physical security and IT security are starting to come together," says Julie Donahue, vice president of security and privacy services with IBM. "A lot of the guys I'm meeting on the IT side are just starting to get involved on the physical side.""
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  • Hmm (Score:4, Insightful)

    by okinawa_hdr (1062664) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @07:56AM (#20234735) Homepage
    At what point does an OS mature enough that it becomes "enough for general use"? Maybe XP is that mark.
    • I don't see this as a particular setback. It's just a good business decision: stable and tested over flashy and new. If they were going to go with Linux, they would probably choose etch over lenny.

      Don't worry, Vista will supplant XP over time.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        Linux, they would probably choose etch over lenny.


        Except even Etch isn't that old. Infact, as a "stable release" it is *very new*. I only upgraded a box from Woody (to etch) only... yesterday.
    • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)

      by MrMr (219533) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:10AM (#20234837)
      When it's ready for the desktop.
    • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mwvdlee (775178) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @09:54AM (#20235873) Homepage
      Vista certainly improves on a few things. Most notably (for me), is the way the GUI is handled internally. OTOH, with these nice improvements also comes a lot of other crap that I (and many others) explicitely DON'T want. As it stands, XP can be improved upon (i.e. anything that OSX, Linux, etc. currently does better than XP), but Vista isn't the answer to that. Vista would have a better chance at adoption if Microsoft's marketing department didn't have a say over what goes in technically.
  • by rolfc (842110) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @07:58AM (#20234755)
    My employer took the decision to migrate from win2k to XP, and we will roll it out this fall. Vista was proposed but we do not consider it ready for use.
  • It's Probably Just (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JamesRose (1062530) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:00AM (#20234769)
    THe specialist software that it runs not yet being rewritten for vista- I'm sure it'd work on vista, but in an international event like this you really don't want to get things misbehaving or acting just slightly differently. Of course in 4 years time vista will be standard and they'll be no question of using anything else- or possibly using the next version of Windows.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:19AM (#20234905)
      But the /. spin is that Vista is horrible and that even the Olympics isn't using it. The logical reasoning of the software they are using just not having a Vista version makes too much d@mn sense and doesn't bash MS.

      And let's put it this way to the person who posted this story, you do realize that the largest sporting committee in the world choses Windows over Linux.

      Doesn't that just make you steam, eh?
      • by dattaway (3088) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:41AM (#20235087) Homepage
        you do realize that the largest sporting committee in the world choses Windows over Linux.

        The Olympics is all about product placement and sponsorship. It is a place where the elite can toot their money horn of supremacy.

        Linux will NEVER be in the Olympics, unless it can pass the physical and drug tests. Even then, I'm sure the sponsors will find a way to disqualify it. Nothing personal, just business.
  • Indeed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jayminer (692836) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:00AM (#20234771) Homepage
    Smart choice indeed. I for myself would have chosen Windows XP over Vista, because even though my personal choice is Linux, I will not force anyone on using it, whatsoever. My new laptop (issued by the new company I work) comes with Vista, and making my life a hell. I am going to install Linux on it if it won't hurt any company policy, as all I do is to develop Java applicatons and run some office work.
  • by TripMaster Monkey (862126) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:01AM (#20234783)
    The popularity of Windows XP is still making things difficult for Vista.

    I wouldn't blame the popularity of XP as much as I would blame the god-awfulness of Vista. At our organization, there are so many problems we've identified with Vista on our enterprise that we've declared a moratorium on its rollout...probably until SP1 is released (which, considering how late Vista was to begin with, could take a while).

    In the meantime, I now get to blow Vista off all the new systems we purchase and replace it with XP. As if I didn't have enough work to keep me busy...
    • by east coast (590680) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @09:08AM (#20235325)
      As if I didn't have enough work to keep me busy...

      Apparently not. You still have time to sit around and post on Slashdot... Not that I have any room to talk, I'm just saying...
          • by timbck2 (233967) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <2kcbmit>> on Wednesday August 15 2007, @10:43AM (#20236581) Homepage
            I work for the State of New Mexico. Our Microsoft "Account Technology Specialist" had this to say about buying Vista licenses but using XP:

            OEM OS License: Only Vista Business and Vista Ultimate have downgrade rights to Windows XP. Rights to OEM versions of systems software are granted in the OEM License Terms. The OEM License Terms for most OEM versions of systems software do not grant downgrade rights. The exception is the OEM License Terms for the Windows® XP Professional operating system and the Windows Vista(TM) Business and Windows Vista Ultimate operating systems, which grant downgrade rights. See the full text of the OEM License Terms for the specific downgrade rights. End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement).


            Does he know what he's talking about? I have no idea. But I'd say he's in a better position to have the correct information than most of us, who are merely guessing.
  • by NeverVotedBush (1041088) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:01AM (#20234785)
    That is making things difficult for Vista. Vista is making things difficult for Vista.

    Just about every day there are stories of how it can't do something important, or has some kind of security flaw, or won't work with this or that hardware, or needs even more system resources to even run.

    What is making XP "popular" is that it doesn't have the problems Vista does. It is no advantage to XP. It's that Vista has so many faults. This isn't unlike the Microsoft even versions of DOS that sucked too.
  • It's funny (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:20AM (#20234907)
    Yes, funny how all those anti-Vista stories on Slashdot now portray Windows XP as a popular OS that's loved by everyone. Before Vista, it was portrayed as pretty much the most hated system on the planet.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      No, people hate XP, too. They just hate it less than they hate Vista, and given only those two options, they would rather use XP.

      Shades of gray, not black and white.

      Also, different people posting means different opinions, etc. There are over a million accounts here now.
        • by Junks Jerzey (54586) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @09:28AM (#20235571)
          I don't remember the transition from 2000 to XP being this difficult. There were a few bumps, the usual driver follies but nothing like the problems plaguing Vista. I don't remember companies going with 2000 because XP caused so many problems.

          Most individuals and smaller companies went directly from Windows 98 or ME to Windows XP.
  • by WIAKywbfatw (307557) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:26AM (#20234951) Journal
    Lenevo is choosing to go with an older, well-established OS that's tried and tested for the "mission critical" stuff rather than a newer, less tested one. So what?

    Is anybody surprised at that? Would you do things differently?

    When you have to look after everything from press accreditation to publishing results, from scheduling to putting up the correct names of competitors, and doing it all in a multitude of languages and to the tightest of schedules, what would Windows Vista bring to the party that Windows XP wouldn't?

    To use a car analogy, Windows XP has been around the block, been put through its paces, had its engine tuned and is humming nicely, whilst Windows Vista has barely had more than its tyres kicked in the dealer's forecourt. If you were taking a 5,000 mile road trip across a continent, which would you go with?

    Why anybody would be surprised at this decision, or even see it as a failing of Windows Vista, is beyond me. If you're going to go with a Microsoft OS, then common sense makes Windows XP the obvious choice.
  • by Idaho (12907) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:27AM (#20234961)
    The dutch equivalent of "the consumerist" (de consumentenbond) recently started a program where consumers can send in their Vista-related problems, which they are going to urge Microsoft to fix or ask for money back (or perhaps, to give free copies of XP instead). To quote de consumentenbond [www.nu.nl] (article in dutch, relevant part translated here):

    "A power user will be able to solve most of the problems that Vista confronts him with, however the average consumer will run into serious trouble. The [operating] system contains so many mistakes that we want to investigate this in detail."

    Furthermore, the article notes that "The consumentenbond dislikes the fact that new computers are delivered with the Vista operating system by default".

    Yup, Vista seems to be doing great...
  • Major setback (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Reckless Visionary (323969) * on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:50AM (#20235185)
    "a major setback"

    Come on, really? Complete sensationalist bullshit. Why don't we keep it up and refer to these meaningless events as "the final nail in the coffin" or ones that "spell doom" or "darken the horizon" for Vista. In case you hadn't noticed, the money's all going to the same place.
  • by 1u3hr (530656) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:55AM (#20235229)
    TFSummary links to TFA:
    http://www.pclaunches.com/software/olympic_committ ee_chooses_xp_over_vista.php [pclaunches.com]

    which just regurgitates the story from
    http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080807-vista -wireless-kept-off-core.html [networkworld.com]

    Why not link directly to the source instead of some blogger collecting Adsense? Network World has got advertising too, of course, but at least they earned it by doing the work and researching a story instead of just plagiarising it like a Picquepaille.

    And for fuck's sake "installing XP on it's machine".
    "It's" == "It is". Possessive is "Its".

  • Fool me once... (Score:4, Informative)

    by realinvalidname (529939) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @01:09PM (#20238539) Homepage

    The IOC was rather famously burned by widely-reported technological problems with IBM systems at the Atlanta games in 2006, with bugs that reported some athletes as being 7 or 8 meters tall. Near the end of the games, I recall there was a proclamation that the IOC would no longer adopt any technology that hadn't been in production for at least n years. This may simply be a case of Vista, being not even a year out of beta, not qualifying for consideration under this very conservative restraint.

    • by mixnblend (1002943) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @08:39AM (#20235075)

      Yeah, yeah, you may mod down the grammar Nazi now.
      fixed.
        • by Snocone (158524) on Wednesday August 15 2007, @10:09AM (#20236061) Homepage
          tough I'm sure some grammar super-Nazi will pull me up on this.

          Your speculative deduction is both logical and original, lacking only the minor detail of veracity. There are two common explanations for the usage you cite:

          A) It was all a big mistake (technical term, "folk etymology") by Normans. The mess which is the usage of " 's " in English arises from the genitive case of Saxon, which was kinda-sorta adopted, but not consistently. So the fellow who wrote "St. George his Channel" on that map was a Norman who, completely confused by the Saxon name of the place as the locals pronounced it in their genitive case, wrote down the nearest sense he could make of it the way he spoke the language.

          B) It was a deliberate attempt to disambiguate. Take the phrase "the King of England's forests". Grammatically, this is ambiguous, as it could mean either "the King of the forests of England" or "the forests of the King of England", and is only parseable because we know that forests and non-forests do not have separate Kings. (A good example of the kind of thing that bedevils natural language AI researchers.) This problem was more vexing in medieval times, when the name of a geographical region, "England" here, could mean either "the lands of the region of England" or "the political ruler of England", so "England's ships" for instance could mean either "the merchant marine crewed by Englishmen" or "the navy of the King of England", which could vary your meaning enormously. "England his ships", on the other hand, unambiguously means the King's navy, and was deliberately adopted for that reason. As the conflation of a region with its ruler died out as a grammatical construct, so did the need for this disambiguation, and thus the possessive case was readopted universally.

          Take your pick.