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July 10, 2008

rivals

Want to take the FAA Air Traffic Controllers Test? You gotta use XP

Posted Jul. 10, ’08, 9:59 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Apple » Rivals

Windows Vista box how toIt’s still bad news for Vista these days.

Even though this state-of-the-art OS from Redmond has been out for a year and a half, the FAA is barring people who want to take the Air Traffic Controllers exam to use it. Of course, you still can’t use OS X or Linux — you’ve got to use XP. (If you really want to you can use Windows 2000, too, apparently.)

However, beyond questions of quality of the software, there are indications that saving the Feds money may be more of an issue.


InfoWeek:

Beyond application incompatibilities, cost is another reason why businesses and government agencies are rejecting Vista. The FAA’s work statement, for instance, notes that the contractor can provide PCs with as little as 128 MB of system memory for the tests — not enough to run even the most basic edition of Vista.

Also, scope this bit, from the same article:

Faced with declining Windows sales, Microsoft is fighting back. On Tuesday, the company launched the online Windows Vista Compatibility Center — a Web site meant to show the vast array of hardware and software that will work with Vista. The site, however, was unavailable as of Thursday.


2 Comments

Anon said:

I know we're all kicking our heels waiting for MobileMe, but the InfoWeek article also says OS X is also unsuitable, so what's your point?

July 10, 2008 12:20 PM
Win98 said:

Wow, I thought FAA Air Traffic system is so antiquated it was still using Windows 95/98. Ha, ha, ha...

July 10, 2008 1:43 PM

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