The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) has published its
final report(PDF) on Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. The agency is largely
sticking with its interim recommendations that schools steer clear of
Vista in existing deployments and Office 2007 altogether.
Anticipating the release of Vista in January 2007, Becta announced a
year earlier its intention to study Microsoft's flagship software
products in an attempt to provide UK schools with some guidance on
adoption. An interim report released last January cited
interoperability concerns with Office 2007 and recommended against
early deployment of Vista in the education sector. Last October, Becta
also recommended that schools eschew signing licensing agreements with Microsoft.
Vista
Becta recommends against deploying Vista in current setups, saying that
the upside of such upgrades aren't worth the cost. According to Becta,
only 22 percent of school PCs in the UK are capable of running Vista
"effectively." 66 percent of the machines fall under Microsoft's
definition of "Vista capable." The agency pegs the upgrade cost at
about £125 per machine for primary schools and £75 per machine for
secondary schools. Upgrading all of the machines in England and Wales
would cost £175 million, a third of which would be due to licensing
costs. Becta believes there's a "perceived lack of significant business
benefit" to offset deployment costs.
"We have not had sight of any evidence to support the argument that the
costs of upgrading to Vista in educational establishments would be offset
by appropriate benefits," reads the report. "The new features of Vista add some value, but... widespread upgrade of the
ICT [Information Communications Technology] estate in schools and colleges is not recommended."
Becta did say that Vista was a viable open when schools were
planning new, "institution-wide" deployments. Otherwise, schools should
avoid running Vista and older Windows OS versions side-by-side: "We
advise that... mixed Windows-based operating-system environments should
be avoided." If schools need to extend a current Windows installation,
they're advised to stick with XP.
Office 2007
In
its interim report last January, Becta called on Microsoft to come up
with a compelling business case for Office 2007. The company has not,
according to Becta, so Office 2007 upgrades are right out.
Interoperability is a major source of concern for Becta, which is
concerned that the Office Open XML file format used by Office 2007 is
not fully supported on any other product or platform. In contrast, the
ODF format used by OpenOffice.org and a handful of other products is an
approved international standards. Becta dings Office 2007 for not
"effectively" supporting ODF and for its efforts to make OOXML an
additional international standard.
"The interoperability that Microsoft makes available in Office 2007
for competitor products is less than it makes available for its own
family of products," notes the report. "We have complained to the
Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that this puts competition at risk and is
an abuse of a dominant position by Microsoft. The OFT is considering
our complaint."
Becta recommends against deploying Office 2007 unless schools have a
plan to deal with interoperability and "potential digital divide
issues." As is the case for Vista, Becta recommends that any Office
2007 deployments be done on an institution-wide basis. And Office 2K7
users should avoid using the native OOXML format, instead using earlier
Microsoft formats. Those still running older versions of Office should
install Microsoft's compatibility pack so that they can access OOXML
documents as necessary.
Microsoft was not able to offer comment on the report prior to the
publication of this story, but the recommendations can't be going over
well in Redmond. Should Microsoft's efforts to get OOXML approved as an
international standard be successful, it would remove some of Becta's
objections to Office 2007. The software giant was thwarted last September
in its efforts to have the format fast-tracked for approval; the ISO is
scheduled hold another vote on the format in late February.
While we've been generally pleased with Vista here at Ars, it's no
secret that enterprise IT has been taking a very cautious approach to
deployment. In light of that, Becta's Vista recommendations aren't that
surprising. The hardware overhead for a smooth and happy Vista
experience is indeed higher than it is for XP, and schools are not
hotbeds of bleeding-edge hardware. Hardware refreshes eventually
happen, even in schools, and once XP is no longer available (system
builders will be able to offer PCs with XP through June 2009), Vista will become the only option for institutions electing to stick with a Microsoft OS.
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