Open Source Blog

Taking the reports one at a time, these are the stand-out findings for me (unless italics are used I am paraphrasing):

Microsoft's academic licensing programmes

- Most establishments surveyed did not believe that Microsoft's licensing agreements provide value for money.

"There was a small (but not statistically significant) balance towards those that said the licenses did not represent value for money compared to those that said they did," the report stated.

- Just 24% of secondary schools said the agreements represented value for money, compared to 46% at further education colleges, and 67% at special schools.

- Over 70% of institutions surveyed did not realise the level of buy-out costs before entering into their subscription agreements.

- Academic customers have no access to a Microsoft subscription agreement that automatically grants the right to use the software in perpetuity.

- 55% of respondents said the buy-out payment was unaffordable or only affordable with difficulty.

- For a typical secondary school the cost of buy-out for desktop products alone would be the equivalent of a new teacher's annual salary.

- School subscription pricing is based on the total number of 'eligible' computers irrespective of whether Microsoft software is installed, required or used on all the computers.

- An eligible PC is defined as any computer with a Pentium II processor or higher or Apple Macintoshes (G3 or higher) meaning that a school can find itself paying for software that it cannot run on its Apple Macs.

- Every additional PC results in a higher subscription payment and increased buy-out fee.

- Software assurance agreements include no contractual commitment to supply upgrades.

- The cheapest licensing scheme is only available to establishments with 250 or more PCs and places an undue burden on them to predict their usage.

"In a context where Microsoft itself is unable accurately forecast product releases for three years it is not very reasonable to expect educational institutions to be able to forecast demand for Microsoft products three years ahead," the report notes.

- On the subject of promoting alternatives, Becta noted that "the OSC would like to see Becta and government organisations to be proactively promoting choice by adopting open source standards" and stated that it will "discuss with key stakeholders the practical steps it could take to facilitate wider competition in choice in relation to software licensing in schools."

In this context it somewhat astonishing that Becta last week saw fit to extend its existing MoU with Microsoft.

In its advice to schools, the government agency noted that:

"institutions that are not currently utilising a Microsoft subscription licensing agreement... should consider carefully whether, in the absence of the changes Becta is recommending, they should enter into such agreements."

Meanwhile "institutions which are considering the purchase of additional Microsoft perpetual licenses, and which do not have access to Select pricing, should await the outcome of Becta's final report... before making a final decision on the purchase of additional licenses."

That final report is not due until this time next year, which means that while the agreement has been extended for a further 12 months, Becta is effectively advising any educational establishments not on Select agreements to ignore it.

Microsoft Vista and Office 2007

- Becta commissioned Oakliegh Consulting to help examine the potential advantages of upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007.

- "Oakleigh advised Becta that there were no 'must have' features in Vista. They also advised that about 60% of new functionality was either 'should have' or 'could have'. The remaining 40% of the new features were assessed as either 'wait' or of no discernible value."

- "Oakleigh did not identify any 'must have' features in Office 2007. About 40% of the identified features were considered 'should have' or 'could have'. Some 60% of the new functionality in Office 2007 was categorised by Oakleigh as 'wait' or of no value to education."

- At most 6% of current educational computers could run Vista with the Aero graphics engine turned on, while 55% of current computers could not even run Vista with Aero tuned off.

- The cost to a typical primary school of deploying Vista across its estate would be £4,000. For a secondary school, £25,000.

- The cost to a typical primary school of deploying Office 2007 across its estate would be £4,000. For a secondary school, £26,000.

- Economies of scale could result from deploying both together, however.

- Corel Wordperfect Office X3, Openoffice.org, StarOffice, Easy Office, One SE and Lotus SmartSuite offered "about 50% of the functionality of the Office 2007 suite."

- "This 50% included functionality that met or exceeded basic requirements in relation to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation development."

- "Using the default file format of Microsoft Office 2007... has the potential to exacerbate 'digital divide' issues as a result of the loss of interoperability with free-to-use products."

The message to educational establishments considering a move to Vista and/or Office 2007 is pretty clear: don't, at least not until Becta's final report on Windows Vista and Office 2007. Once again, that is due for release in 12 months.