When issuing a new product, supposedly an upgrade on what existing users are dealing with, you’d hope for a better public notice from what one would assume to be a publicly trusted user. BECTA, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, than this:
The overall advice on Vista was even worse, from Microsoft’s perspective. “Early deployment is considered extremely high risk and strongly recommended against,” Becta stated. “On the basis of current understanding, the total cost of deployment is significant, the risks are high, and the benefits are far from clear.
Source: UK government agency tells schools to ignore Vista – Computer Business Review
Perhaps the Western English speaking world is coming around to the fact that Microsoft dominance does not have to be a way of life. Could there be room for OpenOffice or Linux in the future of western business computing? Will the existing hang ups with Open Source software dissolve as the choices become clearer?
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I’m getting a new computer at work this week, do I get Vista or not? What should the average user do or the webworker without an IT department do?
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Mike Thomas
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Sure, there is room for Sure, there is room for OpenOffice.org, if you have a Plan-B http://openoffice.screencast-tutorials.com/index
Check it out!
I’m a home user of I’m a home user of openoffice, and I have it as a portable app too. It would be interesting to get a company to make the change, as far as I can see, most users wouldn’t lose any productivity beyond a small amount of training required, and most business templates for word can be converted, and those that can’t are probably too complex for their own good anyway!
Thanks for you comment!