By silicon.com, 9 January 2006 16:30
How will Microsoft's school report turn out?
The agency in charge of school IT, Becta, has announced it is to look at the benefits - and risks - involved for schools that sign up for Microsoft's educational licensing programmes.
And far from being just another bureaucratic paper-shuffling exercise, this review could actually have big implications for the future.
The private sector has already raised concerns about Microsoft's shift to subscription-based pricing, so it's perhaps no surprise the public sector wants to get a clear idea of what it's signing up for too.
The education market is a pretty big one, so any buying policy changes here could be significant, particularly for Microsoft's rivals.
As well as this year's and next year's revenues, there is a much longer game being played here - one that could take decades to win.
In short: if kids get comfortable with the Windows operating system and Office applications, then the majority are unlikely to want to search out anything else.
But if they are exposed to other office productivity applications - or other operating systems (ones that might have cute penguin mascots, for example) - then they may be more discerning about what they want on their PCs.
So just as Microsoft is fighting the rise of Linux around the world with stripped-down versions of its operating system, it could face new generations of computer-literate kids who aren't necessarily going to need (or want) Windows on their PC when they get to work.
And that knocks down another barrier which is holding back the adoption of rival offerings.
Microsoft will certainly be hoping it gets an 'A' when the interim report is published later this year.
Comments
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1. Keith Armstrong
While the focus seems to be on the struggle for power surely the argument rests on what facilities are needed to produce worthwhile and desired results.
One advantage of trying a range of software, whether operating systems (how many of us see the power of the machines we use) or office production suites, is the recognition that there are other ways of doing things and certain facilities that are more than useful, they are vital.
Those with a longer memory remember the days of DR DOS 6 for example with some neat little tools. But where I have noticed this especially is in the realm of graphics software where different programs offer different abilities or different ways of doing things.
Often simpler methods are more useful.
My main 'beef' with Microsoft, besides the bullying way in which its software demands the user follow its procedures, is that all I want from a word processor is word processing. I want to be able to choose a default language for the spell-checker and for it to remain chosen. I do not want a cutdown desktop publishing program.
The added features in the latest releases tend to swamp the basic requirement of the program. Not to mention the user.
In learning data modelling at college I was shown Excel, for databases I was taught Access. Had it not been for the Open University course I had already completed I would have understood the working of the program but not had much of an idea about how a database held together or what to expect from it. Nothing of structure or SQL. Why? There was no need in this graphic environment. That much of the power is lost without these things is a different matter altogether.