Should my school upgrade to Windows 7?
Yesterday Microsoft launched the eagerly-awaited Windows 7. After the disappointment of Vista, people were keen to see whether Microsoft could redeem themselves and make an operating system that improved noticeably on XP.
In the preceding months the Microsoft marketing machine generated an exceptional amount of buzz, with Windows 7 remaining a popular trending topic on Twitter http://is.gd/4vYbR. Such was the hype before launch that Amazon posted that Windows 7 was the biggest pre-order product of all time, even beating the indomitable Harry Potter http://is.gd/4vYp0
From the sounds of things the wait was worth it, with internet reviews finding the system cleaner, faster, stronger and more usable.
So, what does this all mean for schools? We understand that rolling out a school-wide operating system upgrade is no small task, so you need to be sure that the new system will bring strong enough benefits.
Gerald Haigh, education writer and journalist interviewed six UK schools who were early adopters of Windows 7. He writes about their experiences of upgrading to the new operating system in a paper entitled Windows 7 in schools: The early experiences.
