A last minute clause inserted into the budget for Texas will require government officials to get written authorisation before buying Windows Vista.

The clause was added by Senator Juan Hinojosa to the two-year Texas state budget, worth some $182.2bn (£123bn), and would require any state body, with the exception of schools, to get written authorisation from the state Legislative Budget Board before buying any copies of Vista or hardware with the operating system installed.

"We have a lot of problems with the Vista program," Senator Hinojosa told the San Antonio News. "It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It's not compatible with other equipment, and it's supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program that is being used by state agencies, and it's not."