Ron Schenone

Texas Bans Vista – Government Says “Hasta la vista, baby”

Posted by on Apr 3, 2009 | 6 Comments

Poor Vista. The operating system from Microsoft just can’t get any respect. Under a proposed budget provision the state of Texas would require approval from the budget committee before any purchase of Vista software was made. Microsoft was quick to respond that the proposal bans a specific company and software from competing fairly in the market place. Microsoft states the law singles out their company and is disappointing.

According to an article at the San Antonio News it states that:

The “rider” in the proposed two-year, $182.2 billion state budget — expected to be taken up Wednesday by the Texas Senate — would require state agencies to get written approval from the Legislative Budget Board before buying Vista technology related to an operating system, equipment or licenses.

Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, added the provision in committee and said it’s meant to block purchases of the technology, which has been targeted by criticism: “Don’t buy it, because it’s not worth it.”

Hinojosa, Senate Finance Committee vice chairman, said, “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.”

But is the ban against Vista due to the bad press the OS has received? Or is it a sign of the times for states to reduce their budget expenditures? What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source.

  • Jack Teagarden

    I think Vista was another attempt to (#1) Sell “new & improved & better, Rah! Rah!” software to people who feel compelled to have the latest of whatever. And (#2) To test the waters for software that closes the door on the owner’s ability to do whatever they want with whichever hardware and software they want (all the compatibility issues).

    If Vista was “sooo good’ there would not already be beta versions of Windows 7 out and about.

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  • Skylar

    I am pretty dang unbiased IMHO, and have been working with Microsoft as a Tech & User for the last decade in the private, corporate and government sectors. In saying that, I have had the *unexpected* consequences of making a lot more money in the last year and a half or so because VISTA is
    a. Buggy
    b. Unstable (due to the horrendous resource allocation it requires)
    c. Incompatibly Friendly (especially on a roll-out phase basis)

    All of those are compared to Windows XP by the way (not Mac, Linux, etc.). It is fair to compare apples to apples IMHO and Windows XP achieves far more with its weaknesses than Vista does with its supposed strengths w/ many more weaknesses!

  • Jeff

    I use vista on my desktop. I have thought about going back to XP several times due to system slump, but vista is still a great OS. It has a lot of user friendly tools that most people are too easy to look past. I have to say that its worth it if you want a new computer, but not worth an upgrade; unless of course you are using 64 bit applications.

  • Buffet

    The general consensus is, and has been, that vista is pure crap. Indicative of my stance, my brand new machine has XP on it. HOWEVER, I disagree with ‘banning’. People should be free to choose ‘pure crap’, if they’re so inclined.

  • Joe Ciskey

    Buffet,

    While yes, the free market should be encouraged, and one product not singled out for unfair treatment, the government is quite different than the private market.

    If a piece of software is buggy, unstable, and incompatible with the majority of other hardware out there, do we want our tax dollars being shelled out to buy it when there are other, better alternatives? The government is not a private individual, and they are accountable for what they do with our money (though sometimes they don’t act like it). You’ll note that they don’t ban it for the public, merely for government use.

    People should be free to choose “pure crap”, but the government should not. And that is what this bill is trying to do.