Texas senate: Remember XP!

This, I think it's fair to say, is the essence of micro-management. Sure, there are very good reasons for state agencies not to upgrade to Vista. But don't you think that's a call for the state CEO, not the state Senate? Computerworld reports that the Texas senate approved a rider to the state budger that forbids agencies from deploying Vista without the legislature's approval.

Sen. Juan Hinojosa proposed the language because "of the many reports of problems with Vista."

"We are not in any way, shape or form trying to pick on Microsoft, but the problems with this particular [operating] system are known nationwide," Hinojosa said during a Senate session debating the rider Wednesday evening (starting at 4:42 of this RealMedia video stream). "And the XP operating system is working very well."

Under the rider, state agencies must get approval of the Legislative Budget Board before purchasing Vista licenses, upgrades or new PCs that come with Vista pre-installed.

Microsoft's response was restrained.

We're surprised that the Texas Senate Finance Committee adopted a rider which, in effect, singles out a specific corporation and product for unequal treatment. We hope as the budget continues to go through the process, this language will be removed.

It seems that in Texas, controlling Vista isn't as simple as passing a note to the CEO. Agencies largely make their own IT decisions, although they frequently buy through contracts procured by the Department of Information Resources. Forty-four state agencies have already spent 6.1 million to upgrade to Vista.

What with the state under a severe budget crunch, agencies may be hard pressed to defend the cost of upgrading to Vista. And this budget may not be the only thing keeping Microsoft's statehouse lobbyists busy. In 2007, a bill to require agencies to use software compliant with open document formats went down to defeat, but it's expected to come up again this year.