Becta (the UK’s advisory body in IT in schools) has released a report entitled

Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 – Final report with recommendations on adoption, deployment and interoperability.

In it, there are a number of interesting conclusions, including the fact that there is no real case for upgrading to Vista in the education sector.

The opening paragraph of the executive summary states:

“Becta announced in January 2006 that it would conduct a review of Microsoft’s
Vista and Office 2007 products. In announcing the review, we indicated that we
would look carefully at what advice we would give in relation to the advantages
of coherence and continuity in ICT institutional infrastructure, as opposed to,
for example, investing resources in constantly acquiring the most recent
versions of products. ”

So far, so good for Microsoft, apparently a fair and balanced piece of research conducted into how their new flagship operating system and office suite would improve education in the UK and revolutionise the way people were taught. OK, so that last claim was mine, however the sentiment still stands, MS have claimed that their Schools Agreement licensing model provides:

• Easy Compliance with licensing
• Low Administration overheads
• Current Technology
• Simple budgeting and purchasing
• Excellent value

Not so, claims Becta stating in the report that

“Becta considers it is unacceptable that a device using Linux,
and not running any Microsoft software, should attract annual payments to
Microsoft under a School Agreement licensing model. Over the lifetime of the
device such payments would adversely affect its price point and potentially
limit its uptake.”

Becta have complained to the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) about the licensing schema and also about the lack of support for the Open Document Format in Office 2007.

All in all, not a glowing report card for the boys at Redmond, even less so when you realise that the report suggests the adoption of Open-Source and free alternatives to Office (and even Windows!) such as Open Office and easy to use versions of Linux (Edubuntu is my favourite at the moment!).

Lets see if this starts the ball rolling on adoption of Open-Source solutions in the UK schools sector.