The organisers of the 2008 Olympic Games have snubbed Windows Vista in favour of Windows XP, while wireless networking won't even play a supporting role in at the event in Beijing.

Windows XP was chosen to run on all PCs handling chores vital to the Olympic Games, and has been installed on most of the PCs delivered by Lenovo. Vista will only be used on PCs in internet lounges set up for athletes to use during the games.

The Olympic Games require mature, stable technologies, said Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo, during a briefing in Beijing. The Olympic Games aren't a place to try new technologies due to the size and importance of the event, he said. Everything must work smoothly.

"If it's not stable, it could have some problems," he said.

That's why all the Olympic Games' vital PC-related tasks, including games management systems, the results systems, commentator information systems, and the staff and scheduling systems, are all running on XP.

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