Air Force To Streamline Microsoft Installations

The Air Force announced that as part of its deal with Microsoft it will provide a single version of Windows and other Microsoft products for all of its computers. It will use the same standardized installation for all 525,000 computers, installing on each system the same versions of Windows, Office 2003, Exchange, and System Management Server 2003, as well as a centralized system for patching and updating all the software. The arrangement consolidates the contracts the Air Force uses, reducing them from 38 to two, and saves them $100 million.