Citing concerns about cost and system compatibility, the CIO of the federal Department of Transportation has put a hold on DOT upgrades to Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, Internet Explorer 7, and Office 2007.

	An agency in search of alternatives

The agency has an "indefinite moratorium" on upgrades because "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading," CIO Daniel Mintz says in a Jan. 19 staff memo obtained by InformationWeek. In addition, there are "specific reasons not to upgrade," he says, referring to compatibility with software apps, upgrade costs, and an upcoming move to a new headquarters. The ban applies to 15,000 DOT computer users who now use Windows XP Professional. The memo indicates that a similar ban is in effect at the Federal Aviation Administration, which has 45,000 desktop users.

DOT CTO Tim Schmidt said last week that the ban remains in effect and that the department is exploring other options, including Novell's SUSE Linux and, for a subset of users, Apple's Macintosh hardware and software.