Well, if you think that Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) are buggy with compatibility issues, bloated with unwanted wow, and not worth paying so much money to buy it, you’re not alone. At least one department of United States government thinks likewise. The federal Department of Transportation has banned all in-house computers to upgrade to Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system, Internet Explorer 7 and 2007 Office system, by way of an indefinite moratorium. In fact, the new policy to hold off upgrading to the new latest products have been in placed since mid January.

According to InformationWeek, the memo on the moratorium of not immediately using or upgrading to Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 and IE7 is dated January 19, 2007. The reasons cited include there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products, yet there are concerns and specific reasons not to upgrade. Among the concerns are compatibility with software applications currently in use at the DOT department, the cost of an upgrade, and DOT’s move to a new headquarters in Washington later this year.

The greater fear of DOT about Windows Vista, Office 2007 and IE7 is about the compatibility and integration issues, as lots of important software applications and utilities do not run well or cannot run on Windows Vista. DOT is also looking at possible alternative or complement to Windows Vista, in operating system such as Novell’s Suse Linux and Apple’s Macintosh hardware and software.

US government is one of the major Microsoft’s customers. Department of Transport alone has 15,000 computer users, with another 45,000 users at Federal Aviation Administration, which is also affected by the ban.

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