I guarantee that's purely to fulfil the legal obligations. RM are nailed on to get the contract in that company, by design I'm sure! Most schools and councils are terrified of anything out of the ordinary when it comes to curriculum systems. The ordinary being RM's Community Connect, even the disastrous new CC4 launch has not put them off! Only a small number dare to be different and use another provider, fewer still a vanilla Windows network. Networks with other OSs? - like hen's teeth! Even if an Open Source provider were to demonstrate superiority over CC3 or 4 then that would probably not translate into a contract award because councils want managed services for new builds under BSF and other such schemes. The key to understanding these decisions and probably any local government process where large sums of money are involved is realising that political expediency and quid pro quo are to the fore if I can put it tactfully! A cynical view? Yes but then I've worked in school ICT support for the last 3+ years and the school is to be rebuilt under the latest wave of BSF! Chris. 2009/12/23 Dave R <dave(a)staffslug.org.uk&gt;

2009/12/23 Adam Egan <adam.egan(a)gmail.com&gt;: Yeah but can you imagine each of the local IT businesses finger pointing a problem at another local businesses solution? Not aware of any local businesses in Stoke that could handle/support the contract? *ducks!* (Unless I've just totally missed someone off?) Matthew

I'd love for someone to try and con them into buying 'Microsoft Windows Ubuntu' (aka just Ubuntu being tagged with MS) and see them accept it... I feel they'd be happier in the long run anyhow! add 2009/12/23 Jon Nihill <jonothon.nihill(a)gmail.com&gt;:

Yep, you think MS's practices are restrictive? RM make them look like new-age hippies! Chris. 2009/12/23 Gordon Burgess-Parker <gordon(a)gbpcomputing.co.uk&gt;