NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0385 UK government warns Schools Not to Upgrade to
VISTA:
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) recommends in a report
that British schools should not upgrade to Microsoft's VISTA operating system and Office 2007
productivity suite. It also supported use of the international standard ODF (Open Document
Format) for storing files, Schools might consider using VISTA if rolling out all-new infra-
structure, but should not introduce it piecemeal alongside other versions of Windows, or
upgrade older machines, said the agency, which is responsible for advising British schools
and colleges on their IT use. The cost of upgrading Britain's schools to VISTA would be 175
million UKP ($350M), around a third of which would go to Microsoft, the agency said. The
rest would go on deployment costs, testing and hardware upgrades, it said. AS for Office
2007, "there remains no compelling case for deployment," the agency said in its full report.
The agency was equally skeptical about the benefits of VISTA and Office 2007 last January,
when it published an interim report based on its evaluation of beta versions of the new
software.
(IDG News Service 11JAN08)