Toolkit

Story: Government agency tells schools to shun Vista

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Why assume Vista will be the way of the future?

Money spent on getting Vista into schools will be wasted, for three reasons.

1. It's not that different to XP. Anyone who can use XP is going to find the transition to Vista simple enough - and in any case, most of the skills needed are application, not OS, specific.

2. As you said, there'll be plenty of Vista around the place anyway. Encouraging kids to feel comfortable with a plurality of operating systems is probably more useful than implicitly assuming there's only one. It's more important that students get time on Mac, Linux _and_ Windows than they become dependent on any one. Transferrable skills are better.

3. Don't write off the chances of thin client/Web 2.0 becoming the dominant business IT environment well within the time frame of students already within the school system. I've been using Google Docs a _lot_ recently, and can feel just how thin the walls are between it and something with full business potential. Plenty of unknowns, of course, but I wouldn't bet millions of pounds on it not happening.

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