OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Microsoft Vista is a "disaster" and a "nightmare," according to some credit unions, who say they are either holding their breath for Windows 7, sticking with Windows XP - or exploring the world of operating systems (OS) beyond Microsoft.
"Vista was a larger disaster than Microsoft wanted to disclose," suggested Steve Mooney, VP-information services operations at $1.9-billion Tinker FCU here. "They are now rolling out Windows 7 to replace it."
That's good news for Pacific Service CU of Walnut Creek, Calif. "We are looking at Windows 7 with eager anticipation," said Nannette Cutliff, VP/CIO at the $1.3-billion CU. "Vista was a nightmare, and we never planned a migration to that platform given all its interface and interoperability issues."
Vista is notorious among CUs for crashing and for failing to work with third-party software and peripherals. And any security enhancements that Vista promised didn't pan out, or simply weren't worth the effort and expense of upgrading, CUs told Credit Union Journal.
Windows 7 features, on the other hand, are more compelling: jump lists, device management and desktop improvements will complement the new versions of Windows applications, Cutliff continued.
Pacific Service will "ride the wave" of its current XP system until stable interfaces to Windows 7 are available, she said. Then, next year, the CU will roll out 7 as needed, in conjunction with an obligatory upgrade to Microsoft Server 2008, Office 7 and Internet Explorer 8.
South Carolina FCU in North Charleston, SC, will spend about $250,000 to switch from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2011, according to Brad Williams, CTO at the $1.4-billion CU.
"XP is very outdated, and we are all going to have to catch up soon," said Williams. "The corporate world is leery of Windows 7 based on the Vista flop, so it will take longer to adopt the new OS. None of our third parties has a roadmap that ditches XP before 2011."
Windows 7 promises to be "faster and more reliable than Vista," added Brad Wood, information systems manager at $432-million iQ CU in Vancouver, Wash.
Yet iQ — which runs on "tried and true" Windows XP 3 — has no plans to switch to 7, he said. That's despite the fact the Windows eliminated mainstream support for XP in April.
iQ would rather pay for XP support than follow the upgrade path, explained Wood. "Microsoft has decided this is their best way to make money - to constantly force new versions on us. I'd rather have to pay a subscription and have Microsoft keep working out the kinks on the current version." The CU doesn't have to worry about paying for security support, as Microsoft won't eliminate security updates until 2014.
The $45-million Natco CU of Richmond, Ind., has added two Vista machines to its XP lineup, and will continue gradually moving to Vista and then to Windows 7 as third parties are certified, said Cindy Gribben, CEO.
Natco is less than satisfied with Vista, said Gribben: "Our experience with Vista is that in order to do anything on the machine, you have to disable the security features. Since the whole point of Vista is the increased security features, we find that kind of comical."
