Blackmoor Vituperative

In a new setback to Microsoft’s public sector business, the influential National Institute of Standards and Technology has banned the software maker’s Windows Vista operating system from its internal computing networks, according to an agency document obtained by InformationWeek.

Tech staffers at NIST, a part of the Department of Commerce charged with promulgating technology standards, are scheduled to meet on April 10 in Gaithersburg, Md., to discuss their concerns about the new operating system, which Microsoft released to consumers in January amid much fanfare and to businesses in December with lesser flair.

According to the formal agenda for the meeting, NIST technology workers will attend a session entitled “Windows Vista Security” to discuss “the current ban of this operating system on NIST networks.” NIST officials weren’t immediately available to comment.

Word of NIST’s Windows Vista ban comes a week after InformationWeek revealed that the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration have both imposed similar blackouts on the operating system, as well as on Microsoft Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7.

(from InformationWeek, Microsoft Suffers Latest Blow As NIST Bans Windows Vista)

If this keeps up, it’s going to restore my faith in the competence of government employees (which I lost when I was around 16). What’s next? Dry water? Chaste teenagers? Proof that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago by an omnipotent creature suffering from MPD?