BBC to ban Palm and Psion: A best of reader comments special

The story we ran earlier this week about the BBC banning all handheld devices that don't run Pocket PC2002 (http://www.silicon.com/a50809 ) has sparked a storm of angry responses from you, our readers.

Let's get the conspiracy theorists - who it seems all have to be called Malcolm - out of the way first. Perhaps there may be some truth in what they suggest, but it really wouldn't be our place to speculate. Doesn't mean you can't though...

Conspiracy theory 1:
By Malcolm Brown-Scott
"I was at the SAP User conference in Birmingham last October where the BBC was involved quite heavily. The conference was sponsored by HP. Could it be that they have a deal lined up for cheap HP Jornadas?"

Conspiracy theory 2:
By Malcolm Ripley
"It does not take a genius to work out that someone in the BBC has had a very warm handshake with someone from Microsoft."

Other readers are enraged that the BBC has taken such a sweeping stance - especially as the corporation has sided with Microsoft and cited security as its reason, despite the Seattle behemoth's less than perfect security record.

BBC's open season for hackers:
By Anon
It's jolly good of them to open it up to every hacker with half a brain by insisting that everyone uses Microsoft.

Microsoft's the worst of the lot:
By Hugh Kennedy
Microsoft has a bad history of security compromises, seemingly worse than other vendors. The close integration of the PDA with the host PC increases this danger. Palm or Symbian integration is not so tight, thus reducing the problem.

The BBC is asking for trouble:
By Andi Mould
The Beeb should take a look at where and how most virus attacks occur - most of the time it is geared at MS Outlook and with Auntie's insistence on going to an all MS solution they are asking for trouble in a big way.

They should report on their decision as to why they have not gone for a better solution with relative security merits such as the Palm operating system, for which I use and have no issues.

Another endorsement for Palm:
By CPK Smithies
There are some pretty good Palm security applications available. I suspect that security is the pretext, not the reason.

There's more to security than banning PDAs:
ByJulian Clinton
If the spokeswoman said 'The BBC has to have some kind of say if people are going to be downloading things from our computers and taking them home' then presumably BBC staff are not allowed to attach floppy disks, ZIP drives or other removable storage media to their PCs. If they are, then surely these devices are less secure than any PDA? I'm sure Microsoft's account manager for the BBC is being congratulated as we speak...

No justification for banning Palm:
By Tom Weiss
How can the BBC justify the decision to ban the most popular handheld OS from its network.

There are a tiny minority of PocketPC users worldwide and there is NO indication that PalmOS or Symbian are less secure as platforms.

Indeed given the widespread uptake of PalmOS and Symbian, it is more likely that they are more reliable and secure than PocketPC platforms.

The real security threat from PDAs is not technology, it is about people using a PDA to take confidential information out of the office and then passing it on to others. PocketPC is no more secure than PalmOS or Symbian in this respect and indeed all of these pale in comparison to the threat posed by a floppy disk or CD Writer.

Microsoft's not even best OS for the job:
By Hugh Kennedy
The OS and hardware platform for PC2002 is much more power hungry than either Palm or the Symbian. I am an IPAQ user and can see this problem (and understand that it isn't just the IPAQ) but it is a little too power hungry for use by reporters.

However, despite all the criticism, one reader concedes the BBC is just leading where others will be forced to follow.

A necessary decision:
By Anon
The BBC has simply taken the same decision that many corporates will be facing as more and more handheld devices are connected to their networks.

Most large companies have had to spend a lot of time and money bringing a mish-mash of PCs under managed control and all the BBC is trying to do is the same for handheld devices before it is too late.