Britain Advises Against Vista, Office 2007 for Schools

An anonymous reader writes "The British government's educational IT authority has issued a report advising schools in the country not to upgrade their classroom or office systems to Windows Vista or Office 2007. According to this InformationWeek story, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency says costs for Vista and Office 2007 'are significant and the benefits remain unclear.' Instead, Becta is advising British schools to take a long look at Linux and open source suites like OpenOffice.org."

Comments

Re:Ow. Bad for the US economy!!!!

[jez9999]

Erm, we *do* have nuclear weapons.

Re:Ow. Bad for the US economy!!!!

[matria]

And if this is including the entire UK, you also have haggis.

Ministry of the Obvious?

[jcr]

In a related story, an agency of Her Majesty's Government advised against poking a sharp stick into one's eye.

-jcr

Re:Ministry of the Obvious?

[Linker3000]

A vulnerability has been found in MS-Stick 1.0 that may allow malicious attackers to insert a piece of their stick into the original, thus causing further damage when the stick is poked in the eye.

This so-called DDoS (Deeper Destruction of Sclera) attack can be prevented by installing Stick Service Pack 1, which adds an outer layer of additional protection to the stick thus preventing third parties from snapping the stick and re-assembling it to include their extension.

A tool is available to check your stick to see whether it has been affected by a malicious attack. The tool detects stick size changes - ask your stationery supplier for the '30cm ruler' tool.

Re:Ow. Bad for the US economy!!!!

[Marcion]

Sadly not independent weapons, America has to put in codes before we can launch them (we own the subs but the missiles are rentals from the US).

Re:Let me just be the first to say

[basic0]

And let's hope you're the last to say it. Ever. About anything.

Re:Ow. Bad for the US economy!!!!

[toadlife]

Is that like...DRM?

Re:Ow. Bad for the US economy!!!!

[Mr. Bad Example]

> Erm, we *do* have nuclear weapons.

Yes, but they're British nuclear weapons. Before you could launch them, therefore, someone would have to come out and knock on the silo door to say that the power cables were never actually connected during installation, so they need to dig up the street to connect them--but first they have to get permission from the city council, which takes three weeks, and then six weeks later after the work's finally done, your actual launch technician is a toothless yob named Nigel with an Exeter City FC tattoo, who promptly says "Well, it's a nuclear warhead, innit? More than my job's worth, pushing that button." He then re-disconnects your power cables and fucks off for another six weeks while you call the same number over and over again trying to get someone else to come out, but only reaching "Kenneth" in Mumbai.... ...sorry, this kind of turned into a rant about my Virgin Media cable TV service. Carry on.

Re:Really. M$ Blew it.

[Simon Brooke]

This is BECTA's final report, the result of a two year study. Last year, they practically begged M$ for case studies and pilot projects to prove Vista's worth. There are only two reasons M$ failed to answer BECTA's concerns:

1. VISTA and Office 2007 are not cost justified.
2. The UK school system is too small a customer for M$ to worry about.
3. M$ does not care about the study and they can push their software onto the UK school system anyway. This one is really condition #1.

No, three reasons:

1. VISTA and Office 2007 are not cost justified.
2. The UK school system is too small a customer for M$ to worry about.
3. M$ does not care about the study and they can push their software onto the UK school system anyway. This one is really condition #1.
4. and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope

Our four...no... Amongst our reasons.... I'll come in again.

Re:Ow. Bad for the US economy!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's more like WMDRM.