DeKALB | NIU students who are anxious to get their hands on Microsoft’s new Vista operating system in NIU computer labs will have to wait a while.

“There is no current plan to upgrade NIU computers to Vista,” said Walter Czerniak, associate vice president of Information Technology Services. “There is no rush to upgrade just because Microsoft wants to sell more software.”

Preliminary testing indicated that Vista did not work well with many NIU lab applications, ITS director Jim Fatz said.

Vista users in the residence halls and those using campus Internet won’t get any help if the new software presents problems.

“If you have a problem with it, we are not providing technical support,” Fatz said.

Fatz estimated a year lag before Vista systems will work with university Internet applications.

“There is no reason that motivates us to move to Vista,” Fatz said. “There is nothing that Vista can do that the current operating system cannot do and there is nothing in Vista that will make the student user experience any better.

When NIU accepts Vista, it will also have to provide training, Fatz said.

“It is desirable to keep up with new technology and we want to be on the leading edge, but not on the bleeding edge.”

Joe Babula, a freshman political science major, said he thinks a wait period for Vista should be expected.

“Who’s got Vista right now anyway?” he asked. “It’s going to take some time for ITS to learn all it can about Vista so that it can prepare for security and all the new things that go along with it. If ITS can get their act together sooner it will work sooner, but it just came out on the market. There are obviously some things they have to work with.

ITS officials said Vista should work with existing NIU hardware, but that upgrade costs would depend on a contract agreement with Microsoft.

ITS, the provost, faculty or the students can request an upgrade to NIU software, Fatz said.

“It will take a little time for everybody to be comfortable that Vista will be stable enough to support in the NIU business environment,” Fatz said.

Steve Brown, campus editor, contributed to this article.