“Becta, the UK government agency responsible for technology in
the education sector has promised to do more to promote the use of
open source software within schools and colleges and has warned
educational institutions in the UK against upgrading to Windows
Vista and Microsoft Office.“Becta on Wednesday published its full report in to Vista and
Office 2007 and has stuck to its interim view that migration to the
new versions is not recommended as ‘the new features of Vista add
some value but, taking account of the deployment costs and
potential benefits, widespread upgrade of the ICT estate in schools
and colleges is not recommended.’ while ‘no widespread deployment
of Office 2007 should take place until schools and colleges are
sure that they have in place mechanisms to deal with the
interoperability and potential digital divide issues…'”