The Brown & White

Lehigh may switch directly from Microsoft Windows XP to the unreleased Windows 7, skipping Microsoft's current flagship product, Windows Vista, officials involved in the decision said.

Windows 7, Microsoft's follow-up to Vista, is currently in production, with a beta version slated for release to the public in late 2008.

Gale Fritsche, leader of the Computer Consulting Team for Lehigh Technology Services, said there was no compelling reason to switch to Vista.

"The two systems coexist well," he said, "there was no strong business reason to switch."

Windows Vista was released in 2007, but got mixed reviews when components of the system did not work correctly out of the box. Most of the issues have been fixed, Microsoft says, but with a new release around the corner, IT departments have reason to be cautious.

Bryan Hodgson, systems manager for the Computer Science and Engineering program, said the necessity of every upgrade was "in the eye of the beholder." He said the CSE, which has a separate licensing agreement with Microsoft, did not upgrade to Vista because it presented "complications for learning purposes that did not occur with previous versions of Windows."

No date has been set for the official release of the operating system, but in a 2007 press conference Microsoft said the project was on a "three-year timeline."

The name Windows 7, confirmed last month by Microsoft, is the seventh operating system to be released by the company.

Fritsche, who said he had been exploring an advanced release of the Beta version of Windows 7, said he wouldn't be surprised if the university upgraded directly from XP to Windows 7.

Microsoft's Web site describes 7 as "the result of working hand-in-hand with our partners and with people who use Windows in the real world every day," and that the company is "paying particular attention to the things they're telling us are important to them."

Windows 7 will offer enhanced reliability, responsiveness and faster boot and shut-down times, according to the Web site. Windows 7 will offer users new capabilities, though it does not elaborate on or confirm any of the features being rumored on message boards and Web sites..

According to windows7news.com, some of the new features that have been rumored include: "touch panning," similar to the touch screens on Mac products such as the iPhone, and the "azure cloud" software, which would "allow data and applications to exist online in the 'Cloud,' rather than locally on a PC."