Boycott Novell takes a look at who runs BECTA and how BECTA's judgment is made

BECTA is once again seen praising Microsoft and allowing it to abuse its monopoly.

Becta has recently shown that it is unafraid of speaking out on behalf of schools. Unhappy with the value for money schools were getting regarding software licencing they first referred Microsoft to the government’s Office of Fair Trading then sent shock waves through schools when it issued its advice not to upgrade to Windows Vista or Office 2007.

"Looking at my illustrious fancy new google analytics, I think most of the hits on this blog are people looking for how to read their email in Emacs. As I support such behavior, I have collected links to all of the relevant posts here, in chronological order. This is still exactly how I read my email on my laptop every day.

Several months ago BECTA complained about OOXML, Windows Vista, and Microsoft Office 2007. It was not an issue of cost. This came after BECTA’s long and rather disturbing love affair with Microsoft. An accomplice claiming innocence?

Those of us who were "First Day Donors" received this email. I thought it would be nice to share it with everyone.

Did you know that Email is sent in clear text over the Internet? Unless you take steps to secure it, anyone who intercepts a message can easily read it. It’s also really easy for someone to send an email that looks like it came from you. The open source solution for this problem is called GNU Privacy Guard.

Becta, the UK government agency responsible for technology in the education sector has promised to do more to promote the use of open source software within schools and colleges and has warned educational institutions in the UK against upgrading to Windows Vista and Microsoft Office.

Becta, the United Kingdom government's adviser on IT in schools, has taken Microsoft to the Office of Fair Trading over anti-competitive practices--but open source campaigners say Becta is still effectively promoting Microsoft.