In a surprise criticism of Microsoft, the UK 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 [Vista] a high-risk strategy."
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Member since:2006-03-12
Member since:2005-10-06
Kids don't need features -they just need to learn to use computers. Any computer that has a modern GUI will do. Features can come later, at work.
I have never found any child of any age having any difficulty changing from a Windows/Mac/Linux/BSD machine to any other OS. Immediately, without training - because kids aren't scared of anything that looks slightly different. (Though teachers usually are.) This is personal experience with miscellaneous assorted kids.
Scenario: Kid comes home from school, does her/his email, downloads stuff, googles, watches online videos, types up project, etc.
"What did you do in IT at school today?"
"The usual, a pointless Powerpoint presentation - boring."
Nuff said.
Member since:2006-03-12
@biteydog I laughed more than you know.
It bothers me because I'm not sure what to think...and I'm focusing on Office because I suspect the students will do very little OS based stuff, if at all.
The choice of Linux+OpenOffice+etc etc from a cost to both the school, and access/cost to student make it a winning combination. Its an obvious choice.
Whether it is *right* to choose this when Microsoft's Monopoly is so strong, even though this reinforces this monopoly. I'm lost. I think the pricing of Office products to students is criminal...but I'm in the same dilemma. I couldn't make a choice on the whole thing.
If Linux ran across all now this generation consoles and HD was ready and common enough in the UK. I suspect that the benefits of Linux should be properly looked at..but its not the case.
Member since:2005-11-14
That's pretty close to the conclusions of Becta's own reports on Open Source software in schools:
http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=25909&page=1835
http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=25908&page=1835
http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=25907&page=1835
Member since:
2005-08-27
I can understand being cautious when installing a new OS or a new version of the OS.
No problem there, but when he says there are no major new features, he is being a total moron.
Here check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_Vista
That is a ton of major new features. Just because you are too ignorant or too lazy to look and see what features are new does not mean there are not any.