[Infowarrior] - Government agency tells schools to shun Vista

[Richard Forno]

Government agency tells schools to shun Vista

Richard Thurston ZDNet UK

Published: 10 Jan 2007 16:58 GMT

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39285414,00.htm

In a surprise criticism of Microsoft, the government's schools computer
agency, has warned that deploying Vista carries too much risk and that its
benefits are unclear.

Becta, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, said on
Wednesday that it "strongly recommends" schools do not deploy Microsoft's
next operating system within the next 12 months.

And in a further dig at Microsoft, Becta argues there are no "must-have"
features in Vista and that "technical, financial and organisational
challenges associated with early deployment currently make this [Vista] a
high-risk strategy."

Tom McMullan, a technical consultant at Becta, told ZDNet UK: "There is not
a case for schools to deploy it unless it is mission-critical stable."
Speaking at the BETT education trade show; "There are lots of incremental
improvements, but there are no must-haves that justify early deployment."

Becta was similarly dismissive of Office 2007, which is being launched
alongside Vista. Although it acknowledged that there are many new features
in Office 2007, the agency said most of these were only useful in the
private sector. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft tried to wave aside such caution.

Steve Beswick, its director of education for the UK, told ZDNet UK:
"Customers should evaluate Vista and test it and decide 'Is this good for
learning?' Rollout shouldn't be stopped if it aids learning."

Becta this month renewed its Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft for
another year. It gives schools discounts of between 20 percent and 37
percent on the vendor's software products. The agency has recently been
attacked by MPs for its policy on open source.