Proposed Texas Budget Would Limit Vista Use

According to My San Antonio, a “rider” in the proposed two-year Texas state budget would limit the state’s usage of Windows Vista and related equipment or licenses. All state agencies would have to get written approval from the Legislative Budget Board before implementing Vista.

Senator Juan Hinojosa proposed the rider to block purchases of Windows Vista because, “We have had 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.”

This add-on to the Texas state budget has yet to be voted on, and many feel it will be eliminated from the final version. However, it is a bold move for a senator to make IT-level purchasing decisions and attempt to create technology limitations. You have to wonder what actually motivated him to create this proposal. Is there a Texas Mac lobby?

Since its initial release in January of 2007, Vista has received quite a lot of criticism and negative press. However, since that time, Microsoft had addressed many of its initial issues and flaws, and worldwide implementation of Vista has actually dramatically increased to over 350 million users in the past year.

I can see if this Texas Senator made a recommendation like this back in 2007 when Vista was first being rolled out, but the timing of this rider seems way out of line. Based on quotes directly from the Senator, it seems like he is not very proficient when it comes to technology, and by his own admission he hasn’t even used Vista! He frames is argument around fiscal responsibility, but it seems like this provision would just create more red-tape and unnecessary hassle for Texas IT departments.

See it for yourself, from statesman.com:

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