Texas Budget Would Say Goodbye to Microsoft Vista

State agencies would need special approval to update their computers to Microsoft's Vista operating system under the terms of a proposed budget provision.

State senator Juan Hinojosa (D-McAllen) added the wording to the state budget currently under discussion in the Texas Senate. Hinojosa told the San Antonio Express-News: “We have a lot of problems with the Vista program. It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It’s not compatible with other equipment, and it’s supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program that is being used by state agencies, and it’s not.”

Hinojosa's budget rider would require state agences to get written approval from the Legislative Budget Board before buying Vista technology related to an operating system, equipment or licenses.

A Microsoft spokesperson told the paper: "Given our daily work with government agencies and longstanding technology partnership, we’re surprised that the Texas Senate Finance Committee adopted a rider which, in effect, singles out a specific corporation and product for unequal treatment. We hope as the budget continues to go through the process this language will be removed.”

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By Jeff Beckham in Other on April 2, 2009 10:21 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

TxK

What's the point? And to make DIR do it? They recommended IBM for the data center contract. I'd not trust them.

Chip Rosenthal

I'm a big open source advocate, so I'm delighted to bash Microsoft at any opportunity, but this doesn't seem like an appropriate direction.

I think it would be more appropriate to lay out the policy concern and direct DIR (the state's IT department) to provide a recommendation.

Oh, and it doesn't seem like the budget is an appropriate place for this.