Windows Vista, Office 2007 Planned For 30,000 U.S. Military PCsWindows Vista, Office 2007 Planned For 30,000 U.S. Military PCs

It might not be the most popular operating system with civilians, but that's not stopping the U.S. Department of Defense from embracing Windows Vista.

Military IT technicians on Friday will start the process of upgrading about 30,000 personal computers used by Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine personnel on the Korean peninsula from Windows XP to Windows Vista, according to an official military publication.

The servicemen and women also will get their hands on Microsoft Office 2007 for the first time.

The computers must be upgraded in order to remain compatible with new security features installed on the Korea LandWarNet, a computer network that links all U.S. fighting forces in the region. Computers not capable of running Vista will be upgraded to a special version of Windows XP.

The project is expected to be completed in February.

Vista can use the boost, as sales of the operating system have flatlined. Microsoft's client unit posted a revenue gain of just 2% in the most recent quarter.

The majority of businesses and government agencies have decided to bypass Vista for enterprise use, and most will upgrade their systems directly from XP to Windows 7. Many users have been put off by Vista's resource requirements and incompatibility with older software.

Microsoft has said that it expects to roll out the Windows 7 computer operating system in 2010 -- but signs indicate that the successor to Vista could be available sooner than that.

Asus CEO Jerry Shen has let slip that his company plans to offer laptops running Windows 7 as early as the second half of 2009.

"I think in the future, in the second half of next year we will put Windows 7 on Eee PCs," Shen said in an interview published recently by Laptop magazine.

In the interview, Shen said Asus, of Taiwan, will forgo Vista entirely and continue offering systems with Windows XP or Linux preinstalled until Windows 7 is available.