Would-Be Air Traffic Controllers are Strictly XP and Windows 2000

Federal Aviation Administration made clear its plans to ban contractors who administer air traffic controller exam using Windows Vista, Apple OS, Linux, Unix and other operating systems. They are only allowing the use of Windows XP and Windows 2000.

In an excerpt:

The FAA has ruled out other operating systems as well. “Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating systems are acceptable for use. Microsoft Vista, Apple OS, Linux, Unix and other operating systems are not acceptable now, but may be acceptable with later versions of the test battery,” the FAA says in a draft version of a statement of work for the testing program, obtained by InformationWeek.

While it’s not surprising that the FAA plans to prohibit the use of the non-Microsoft operating systems — given that most of them are seldom used in business environments — the agency’s plan to bar Vista from the testing environment provides more evidence that organizations that in the past have marched steadily along Microsoft’s technology upgrade path are now stalled on XP and have little use for Vista.

I do not understand why FAA would want to ban contractors. They should at least have a set of guidelines and roadmap around Vista since they would be using and moving to this platform sooner than they think. Do they really want to push their exams in an operating system no longer supported?

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