Vista's Broken Window.

The article presents information on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system and discusses it as an option for use on schools' networked computers. The author notes Vista's improved security, search efficiency, and graphics over Windows XP, the prior version, and provides users' complaints, including that the software does not support all hardware peripherals and software and that it slows down a computer's performance speed. He recommends online evaluation tools to help determine if a school's existing equipment and software would be compatible with Vista. He also discusses the Linux open source operating system from Red Hat as an alternative.