John Droz is a Macintosh-using consultant and software developer who lives in North Carolina. When he and some other members of the community learned that the local school board was planning to scrap its Macs and standardize on Windows PCs, he decided to catalog as much information as he could on why the switch would be a bad idea. It’s the kind of treasure trove that could fuel a flamewar of epic proportions. It makes for an interesting read, and is useful for ammunition for any Mac proponents that would be interested in launching their own holy war on this issue. See it all at macvspc.info.
I can just see that some pc users a veryyyyyyyyy stupid. Thet think that they know everything about performance, operating system, but they are more stupid than the people who are making windows.
If you are so happy with windows, go away from here, and stop to say stupid things bigger than you.
“User of pcs and macs”
Great post about stupidity for someone who has poor grammar and can’t spell.
It is my opinions and yes it is true if Macs were mainstream and contained important information then yes Macintosh would have a lot more viruses than what it has. As for the PowerPC architecture, yes my friend it is dead. Motorola is moving ahead and I think will mean they will quit making the PowerPC for Apple. For handheld devices you will see it continue, but for Desktop PCs its dead. How many companies actually manufacture PowerPC desktop computers? 2 Apple and Amiga, How many companies produce x86 machines? Several. IBM makes server solutions using the PowerPC but no Desktop units. Apple is cutting its own throat limiting support to the PowerPC architecture and sooner than later it will lead to their demise. Besides if Apple became the mainstream computer company and had 95% marketshare, not only would they be unable to keep up with supply and demand but the government would have a better case of monopolistic power against them than it had against Microsoft. So Apples best interest would be to maintain the Marketshare they have now.
While you make some good points about other platforms besides Apples and wintels, your statement about security and the PPC towards the end lost itself and you seem to make statements with any sort of factual basis…you’re an idiot!
Yes I do have factual basis. As stated right now who has 95% marketshare and who hase the most viruses ? And the statement about the PowerPC ? Are you saying that my numbers of who uses that architecture is wrong ? Son, I think you either need to learn how to count and grow up.
I believe I have provided enough factual basis, so you are the idiot. Go back to mommy and daddy’s computer my friend and let the pro’s get back to work.
Well, it seems to me that, after all is said and done, Windows 2k/XP, Mac OS X and Linux have all ended up at the same place.
Windows suffered terribly from the BSOD and crappy multitasking that was always a roll of the dice to do. Mac Classic had no multitasking and application crashes always brought the whole system down – and, the more bloated and top heavy the old Mac OS became, the more it would crash. And Linux…well, it has a different kind of history – a totally different history. It is one of starting out with the right kind of kernal to begin with, but OSS, has, of course, been a radical departure from what commercial software had become.
So, Windows 2k/XP and Mac OS X now have the true multitasking and protected memory – they’ve solved their biggest problems. Linux had this to begin with, but is a reletive newcomer and is of a different nature. It has to cath up in other areas.
So, all three are, technically, pretty much at the same place. Apple has processor problems, Microsoft has legal problems and Linux has its own problems, the nature of OSS being as it is. Everyone has problems.
But, wouldn’t it be horrible if we lived in some dictatorship where there was only one OS that was allowed to be used? (This is *not* a reference to Microsoft). I mean, whatever OS it was, it would be terrible. There would be no competition, lack of innovation, computing would be drudgery instead of exciting. Let us rejoice in diversity!!
Now, I notice these are most of the arguments of Mac zealots; (I couldn’t get into that site)
brandon: while pc hardware is faster, thet are more expensive in the long run because the quality of the hardware isn’t as good and you’ll end up having to replace more things that go wrong.
Yeah, right. Actually, if you buy a PC at a price where you can’t possibly find any first-hand non-stolen Macs, believe me, DON’T EXPECT STABILITY. However, I’m rather happy with the machine I’m with – everything that has changed was upgrades, not because of component failures.
Now, every Mac users I know personally had at least sent in their Mac for at least one repair. Yes, this may not be fair as there are so little Mac users I know, but then again, only a few sent in their above $1,000 non-cheap PC to the repair shop…
brandon: Microsoft is by FAR not the best OS maker at all… i think you’re on crack.
Same with Apple.
If consumers are looking for the best, nobody would be using PCs or Macs, trust me.
brandon: A lot of hacker use Macs as a matter of fact. You think that a hacker is going to use such an insecure OS???
Funny, that was only the case when Apple released OS X. Unless you are drawing conclusions from hacker hollywood movies… Meanwhile, OS X itself isn’t all that secure. It just doesn’t have the rampant amount of viruses and worms. But give Apple Microsoft’s market share and power, viola, Klez for Mac.
brandon: Mac updates are free, major revisions of the OS aren’t (same as Windows)
10.1 wasn’t free – it cost $20 or a drive to a Apple Store, while a SP can be downloaded by anyone…
brandon: Right now Macs are having a problem with Motorola (not IBM) not producing fast enough chips, but that will be corrected when IBM comes out with their new chip.
Aye, no. IBM produces faster and faster chips for markets OTHER than Apple. PPCs, after all, have been used far more in servers and routers than Macs. Motorola is being smart in not wasting money chasing after a small market (but then again, Motorola is a poorly managed piece of shit…)
Now, just say GPUL does come out by end of this year and becomes Apple’s “G5”, would be tip the scale of performance against PCs? Doubt it. If AMD is finding it hard to keep up with Intel, IBM has far less incentive to do so.
brandon: Office X or Mac has been deamed better than the Windows counterpart.
I rather say not. It may be easier to use and look far more fancy than its ugly Office XP counterpart, but I found a lot of features I rather have with Office XP. Among them is smart tags.
But on the other end, Office 2001 has been deemed better than Office 2000 by a lot of people. Office 2001 after all had been Microsoft’s best version on Mac (98 and X pretty much sucks)
Besides, to note, Office v. X is NOT the same version as Office XP. It was released some time after Office XP.
brandon: And Internet Explorer 5 for Mac was so good that Microsoft PORTED it to Windows to become Internet Explorer 5.5.
Hah! Okay, this isn’t a regular argument by Mac users, so I woudl refrain from rebutting this one. (But IIRC, the beta, and perhaps the final version of 5.5 came before 5.0 was released on the Mac).
Elver Loho: They also require noisy cooling.
1999 maybe. Unless you are buying that cheap computer from ImReallyCheap.com, most mid- and high-end PCs are actually as quiet as high-end Macs. And by next year, the trend for quieter PCs woul probably get bigger. I’m setting my eyes on a Shuttle casis plus motherboard which doesn’t require a fan.
Elver Loho: If you like software that spies on you
Funny that most of the software that actually spies on you aren’t available on the Mac..
Elver Loho: On Windows you have ctrl+alt+delete and that doesnt do shit most of the time
Well, it does a lot for a lot of people everytime.. What version were you using, BTW? Windows Me?
Elver Loho: The fan on my GPU started making weird sounds.
Funny that GPUs are almost identical with their Mac counterparts (with the exception of laptops and iMac and eMac).
Elver Loho: I’ve had the HD crash
Pretty much the same HD used in the Mac – HD crashes for every kind of platform. From high end Sun servers to low end iPods.
Elver Loho: And that is caused by Microsoft’s stranglehold on the OEMs and other non-competitive strategies.
Yes, and I can imagine everyone would say “I want to buy a super-expensive Mac that doesn’t have the software I need because Microsoft is a big evil company!”.
Besides, Mac market share would have never be in decline if they took on reforms like Palm is doing now. They subjected themselves to a handful of niches, not Microsoft.
all of you people are the biggest bunch of mis-#!*%@ ever!;save the planet off yourselves. dont’ bother writin’ me, i don’t read mail from addresses i don’t know. and again, ha ha ha hee hee hee ho ho ho…what a life? digital doo doo heads. what the fact little boys. just back the fact off. git the fact outta ma face. fact you and yo mama too.
Actually, I have .. and I’m still using Windows, so now what? Hell, I was actually more impressed with KDE than OSX. And after taking OSX for a test drive, I can’t imagine how anyone could compare it with Windows and refer to Windows as ‘clunky.’
You did try Mac OS X? For how long? I have been using it for over a year now and I have noticed that it’s much better than what is found on PCs. IMHO KDE is clunkier than Windows XP. It needs more polish, way more. I just got a call, from a friend, tonight asking why he can’t install Age of Mythodology on his XP computer. He is getting a MSI installer problem. Do you think a non-power user would be able to deal with this. How would he know how to install MSXML 4.0? Heck how would he know it’s because of the MSXML DLLs?
i don’t know what kind of degree or whatever is req’d to teach. i do work in a school system with several teachers though and observe lots of classroom behavior of students and teachers (both in and out of classroom) and many teachers want to teach, but due to kids’ (sorry, my grammar is bad, never understood how the apostrophe worked for this situation) apathy. . .but i have also seen (in the same school) groups of kids that are very strong into their learning and want to do the best they can. some classes use computers to teach, others don’t at all. i think the point is that to use computers effectively, there should not be a reason to teach basics in anywhere past the grade level introduced (i would say between 5th and 8th grades) that teaching should NOT be done, except to improve keyboarding skills. also, would be nice not to have a college class that requires a basic intro on how to use a mouse, open a file, shut down computer, etc–this occurred in both my photoshop and quarkxpress classes last semester. so, give teachers money to work, let them do their thing (state mandated testing should be thrown out the window) and use computers as an asset to enhance presentation of materials, not as the end of a means.
i checked it out and worked for me, just fyi.
Damn nice response…
Actually I agree with you about 90 percent. I still say the
teaching certifcate most American teachers have s crap. The
european idea is better. My entire point which I missed had
more to do with money. Everyone is complainig that teachers
are under paid, well pay is directly related to ability and
without a system (from all three sides) that demands good
teachers and rewards them then teachers will stay poor and
the budgets to buy hardware will stay poor. Unions may be
good for somethings but the fundamental bent of an union
is that a person of an certification level is just the
same as someone else of the same level. (More of a socialist
view on economics.) I think we need to insert more capatalism into the teaching profession to get better
teachers.
The down side is no matter what is done on the pay budget
issue the ability of schools to afford Apple Computer Inc.
products will not be there. A piece of hardware is going
to be cheaper from the PC world.
On the issue of classroom head count I would point out
the best solution is to follow along the best example
of American goverment. (see cross of gold speech) and
there should be either teacher assistants are seprate class
structures. 90 percent of class rooms have 30 kids.
8 percent have 20 kids and 2 percent have 10 kids this
way the school may maximize the use of it’s teachers will
producing an quality priduct. The parents on the other hand
need to recognize there like bio-mass unit may not be
perfect. ( and if people reading this have kids that
are over 15, guess what,… They have been having sex to)
My secondary point is on using the manufactureing line
example. It takes 12 years of education to gain the high
school diploma. The question is what is that diploma worth?
With the lack of standards. Refrence:
SAT and ACT shift median scores
CA introduces goal based education
what is it worth? Not mutch. A student should be graded
and compared against the pool of students so that you
can tell how well they are doing, yet some educators
want to judge effort even when the child says 2+2 equals 5.
Wrong is wrong, art work grade on effort, math grade
on procedure and answer, football effort.
To stay on topic This is the mac vs pc debate on side
wants to say we are better overall the other side says
here are the individual parts. The true answer is in
between. The Mac is slower, and more expensive , the pc
dosen’t have as an polished OS. The choice for schools
is two fold.
– Budget
– Training.
Since an school is training bio-mass units for the real world they should use PC’s (95 percent of the market) and the argument that the mac has the same applications works against the mac at this point because the PC is lower cost for these applications.
Okay i’m wandering bad here, good night gracy
L. Donaldson
Does anybody *really* care *THAT* much about whether someone else’s platform is worse than the one you use? If you do you need to go outside and have a play in the green room. Contrary to popular belief there *is* more to life you know….
These sorts of arguments are always unlikely to get one party saying “Oh yes I think you are right, I will abandon my current investment in platform X and jump to platform Y straight away”. I know nothing that anybody has said to me has made me move from my platform of choice, because I don’t care that another platform is faster/cheaper/more robust … because my choice of computer is more than adequate for my needs, I get free compilers, free browser, free mail client, free office suite (sorta) and no it’s not Linux (although it once was). I am sure many feel the same and like me just get frustrated that so many people get so worked up over something they have no control over – someone elses choice of computer <sigh>
Just gimme back my Amiga and I’ll stop complaining…
Are these computers going to be used by the kids, or the staff? If it’s the staff, this debate is fine and dandy. If this is the kids we’re talking about, Schools should be going with Linux.
Why do you think Microsoft “donates” millions of dollars worth of software to school systems? It’s a loss leader. PR might be part of it, but most of it is because a lot of families buy what their kids are using at schools. They assume when these kids grow, they’ll continue working with whatever they know because it’s what they’re comfortable.
You give these kids lycoris or something, get them familiar with unix commands. You really don’t have to worry about Windows or Mac anymore because ease of use for both of them is so high.
Only issue I see with this is that the teachers wouldn’t be any help because I doubt many of them are experienced with the command line either. But yeah… Linux in school.
You miss the point, the computers used in schools k-12 are used mainly to facilitate learning-as in geography, math, presentations, etc.
They are not there to teach CS or programming.So the first requirement is that they can be used by anyone.
Your point is valid in CS classes.Maybe that was what you were pointing out.
Would you prefer that Microsoft only released OS updates with new OS versions? So, instead of being able to play Age Of Empires on pretty much any version of Windows, you could only play it on XP, because XP is the only version with the required version of MSXML?
Didn’t think so. MacOS doesn’t have that problem (much) because it’s so new. Even then, they’re still screwing it up. Have you seen hoops you’ve got to jump through to make a program that’ll work on 10.1 and 10.2? Worse still is that some of the important backwards compatability technologies (like weak refs) were only introduced in 10.2, and even then not fully.
Believe me, if Apple carries on the way they are, in 3 or 4 years either
1) Their customers are going to be pretty pissed off because every time Apple release an OS update, all the apps suddenly require it
2) Their customers are going to be pretty pissed off because updates are charged for, so not everybody upgrades, so to reach the maximum market size apps never use the new features in the latest MacOS versions.
3) Their customers are going to be pretty pissed off because application authors start shipping custom installer apps like on Windows which will drop in or upgrade the needed frameworks, so 10.4 users end up with the code that an app written for 10.5 needs to run. Then of course you are getting very close to Windows style DLL Hell and you’re SOL.
ok first of all, lets think for a second
1. pc’s are cheaper, but you get more lifetime out of a mac, they just last longer its called using good parts not just crap off the floor. Its all about how the processor works mhz doesnt mean as much as it used to.
2. that is just an opinion, my opinion is that windows crashes too much, i can run my machine for 3 weeks straight or more without crash.
3. WTF ever.
4 there are about 10000 apps for the mac so by that you are saying that there are a gajillion apps for windows.
5. that is the beauty of the mac, it is secure, i can remember about 3 security updates this far, but i have heard about 10 for win. windows is so holy it is ridiculus.
6. yes mac updates are free there have been many updates to system software. only when there is some major improvement are they not free.
7. we will see about that go ppc 970.
Yes, capitalism does work when applied to schools in the USA.
The school systems in suburbia that support their schools with taxes and bond referendums have better schools. Why? They pay for the better facilities and more importantly they pay the kinds of wages that attract the best teachers.
I could go on a useless litany about how the problems of the tenure systems and such are drastically overstated but that is silly. I agree that bad teachers should be weeded out and good teachers should be rewarded. However, this is usually just a smoke screen for people that do not want to pay teachers for what they are worth. After all, with the current system, only the very best and dedicated teachers and the very worst slack worthless teachers survive. I got out of the teaching biz because not because I did not enjoy teaching I just realized I lived in a capitalist society and to provide myself and my family with the kind of life we wanted. I had to make more money to do this. Otherwise, I could not move to the nice Norther Virginia neighborhood where the school systems are some of the best in the nation.
On class head count I almost agree with you. I think of the university example where people follow a course that starts broad with larger classrooms and ends up with more focused content in smaller headcount classroom environments. This may be the best solution for the issue.
What is a high school diploma worth? Not much you say. I tend to agree but for different reasons. People want to look so many times backwards but we need to turn ourselves around for ideas. Our current system was devised to turn out well-behaved factory workers that are use to the idea of a regimented work day dominated by bells and whistles and jumping through useless hoops near the end of the 19th century. Bad model for today. The ideas for today’s schools like your pro-pc arguement has to be focused on helping children become ready for life after school in today’s society not the factory society of a different age.
No, shifting standards do not help this effort. However, a set of government mandated national standards is not the solution. A set of agreed standards by a full board of independent educators unfetterred by politics would be much more helpful with set not shifting standards. I would also disagree that students should be compared individually against a pool of other students. They should be compared against the set standard and judged on an individual basis.
I still say on the PC vs. Mac debate that the judgement of the systems to be used in schools should be made on what the school systems need and not what 95% of the world necessarily use. I agree that many of the debatable issues that use to make the Mac a no-brainer have gone away. However, in a capitalist setting, I do not simply choose to use a PC because 95% of the world use it. We make judgement based on the needs associated to the tasks at hand. The idea of a homogenous system environment is dead. For some tasks, a PC is the best tool. For others, the Sun box in the backroom is the best system to get the job done and in other cases, a Mac or other system is best.
If you want to continue the discussion, please email me offline.
brandon: Mac updates are free, major revisions of the OS aren’t (same as Windows)
rajan r: 10.1 wasn’t free – it cost $20 or a drive to a Apple Store, while a SP can be downloaded by anyone…
10.0 (full) was $129, up to 10.0.4 was free. 10.1 was $20, again up to 10.1.5 for free and 10.2 full was $129. Total = $278
Windows 5.0 full (win 2000) is $274, 5.1 upgrade (xp pro) is $199, total = $473.
Even if you go hunting around for oem versions windows still comes out around $250. Big deal.
Everyone argues the MHz issue. The bottom line here is, do schools need THE fastest computers on the market? Not for MS Office which is likely what 90% of the use would be for. That and internet access.
Now look at the cost. Yes, Apple hardware generally costs more than Wintel. But, Apples software is cheaper. And better. It all depends on where you want to spend the money.
Apples software may be better compared to Windows 98, but windows XP is far more superior to Mac OS X. PCs are cheaper to maintain and are faster and more robust than the Mac will ever hope to be. All you Mac zealots obviously have never tried Windows XP and those that say XP sucks are just idiots who never actually used the operating System, just wasting your time in here comparing your G4 to a 25 mhz 386. Get over it dudes
MACS SUCK
In the future, Apple won’t support anything other than Apple software. Isn’t it clear why Apple is buying so many software companies?
Maybe they’ll add a few key apps from Adobe, Macromedia, and Quark. But that will be it. And once Apple has cloned the popular apps from these companies, they can ditch them.
For the future, I cannot see Apple even wanting there to be third party software for the Mac.
And that will lead to the demise of Apple and finally kill them off, and if not eventually if need be will lead to an Anti-Trust case against Apple Computer, think you friggin moron before you type.
Huh, private, just what are you thinking? What anti-trust case? Against a company with 1-2% market share? By the time a case was put together and got to court, Apple might be below 1% global market share. The judge would probably refer the case to a psychologist.
Every day Apple comes out with more software that used to be supplied by their ISV’s. I think you’ve been smoking the Apple pipe for far too long. The police helicopters above your house are not looking for the lost Apple marketshare.
Apple ain’t making any friends in the ISV community these days.
Sorry but just have to join the flame war.
Let me start by saying that I have used Intel-based systems for over 12 years. I have used Macs for 20 years. I have used Unix systems (Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, Linux) for about 15 years.
Firstly security is misnomer. Its like saying “because I lock my car and turn the alarm on, no one will be table to steal it” Fact is, these will only deter most novices from stealing your car. The same goes with security. Apple Mac’s are more secure mainly because they aren’t (and haven’t become) a target for hackers. Microsoft has done nothing to improve their public image and thus have only increased the number of people attempting to crack, and flood their OS with viruses. Secondly, Mac OS X borrows the same security features (and lack of) from BSD Unix. BSD has been rated one of the more security Unices out there.
Note that since my Mac has been running OS X (2 years) I’ve had less than 5 “security updates” and only about 10 OS updates.
Since running XP on another system (1 year), I’ve had an update at least every other week regarding some security patch/issue.
Now about performance. I went from a 500 Mhz Mac system to a 1.2 Ghz (with an upgrade card), and the performance increase was incredible! Now this is all with OS X. The 500 Mhz performance was acceptible in most cases (and not a crawling dragging snail either), but the 1.2 Ghz is more than what I need for a while. At my office I use a 930 Mhz Pentium III Dell Optiplex and it’s performance is fine also (under Windows 2000 Pro). I used a friends Pentium IV 2 Ghz PC running Windows 2000 Pro also and I didn’t notice 1 iota of performance improvement. In a nutshell – its all what one percieves as a benefit.
BTW – I also do use Photoshop and some other pretty hefty software applications.
The MIS Management argument (tech people want Wintel machines in place so there is justification for needing tech people) is pretty much one of my arguments against all the “good enough” geek tech babble about how “lamers” and other badly insulted normal people can’t use and shouldn’t be given computers…
I’m so tired of hearing people trash Macs that obviously have little or no recent experience with them. And going in to the Apple store and playing w/the demo models doesn’t equal experience. Looking for REAL FACTS in the Mac vs. PC debate? Check out
http://www.webmastermac.com/macintosh/whymac/xvsxp/
Actually, 10.1 was available on FREE CD’s pretty much everywhere.
As a student who has been tossed around in a sea of macs and pcs throughout my school years I think I am somewhat qualified to make a few comments here. I know what I have to say will make *all* of you angry but so what?
I think of the 3 major OS options are different levels of the same thing.
Linux- linux is the cheapest. Sure, cant argue with that. You simply *can’t* beat the price. But just because it is the cheapest doesn’t make it the best. Linux machines are very difficult to set up, I don’t care what you say, any OS where you have to compile applications before you can run them is simply not ready for the elementary school environment. They have made headway, but they don’t approach the simplicity of what Microsoft and apple have developed. They just aren’t there yet. They may be someday, but until then linux will remain an archaic but cheap solution. Geo metros are undoubtly very cheap cars and yes they will get you to the same place, but it will not be with the same comfort and ease that something that is more expensive will offer. Likewise, it is free to walk/swim to Hawaii and you will get there eventually, but it is not the easiest way to do it. Spending a little money will make things a lot easier
Mac- at the same time, spending the most money doesn’t neccesairly help either. Many mac owners walk around with a chip on their shoulder that their more expensive machine is somehow more reliable and higher quality than the cheaper dell. I implore you to open them up and look at them side by side. They both will contain the same HDD made by western digital or Maxtor, they will both have ATI video cards, they will both have RAM made by micron or PNY they both with have IDE/scsi cables made by foxconn, they both will have Hitachi CD-ROMs. Sure there are differences, there have to be, they have different cpu, buses etc. but the vast majority of the components are the same in both boxes, you just pay more to get them in the mac. This inevitably leads to mac owners saying that there machine is better made. This is just a lie, you are fooling yourself trying to justify the higher purchase price of the machine. Of course there is some aesthetic differences, but differences in a plastic box hardly justify paying higher prices. I suppose apple could have some kind of conspiracy going with ATI and Maxtor where they supply apple with quality parts and give broken crap to dell, but I doubt it….
Windows- they are, and always have been a compromise platform. They sacrifice some system stability so that many old programs and hardware can still run. They fight a constant battle with security, but it is because they are viciously targeted by people out to prove something, who knows what. For some reason people seem to forget that if people were not so cruel and stupid and tried to be constructive and not destructive, bugs wouldn’t matter because no one would try to exploit them.. maybe we should teach our kids to be peaceful non-destructive, non-hacking people instead of worrying so much about TCO and BSODs and that kind of crap.
A few more misc points- I am assuming that most of you have not been in a school recently because you would know how abused computers are in schools. I remember there constantly were computers that were “down” because someone had spilled Gatorade or Snapple into the case. I don’t care what kind of computer it is, nothing is invincible to snapple. Likewise there was not a single machine that was not covered in ball point pen grafitti. Say what you want about the “beauty” of macs, but those matte white imac cases are perfect drawing easels for students. The charcoal black cases of dells tend to make it a little longer in the war against the bic pens.
You may have noticed that I have taken a fast, practical approach in this whole debate. This is the approach that needs to be taken. It is people like all of you that make our government so damn inefficient. No one can make a decision quickly and without appeasing all of the interest groups. Windows has the largest user base out there, thus there are more support techs with experience (MCSE and the like) and to be honest, it is most likely what the kids are using at home and will be most comfortable using even with its problems.
Another point- I wish people would stop saying PC when they mean to say windows-based computer. PC, in case you were too lazy to figure out, means “personal computer.” A mac is every bit as much of a PC as a windows computer. You look pretty stupid when you say “macs are better than PCs” what, macs are better than *personal computers*?
also I would like to say that all computers crash. No matter what. I don’t care how much money you spent on it or what the logo says on the front, it will crash. That is because a human made it and human machines are faliable. If you get a catsup packet with your French fries that wont open, as tends to happens sometimes, do you denounce mcdonalds or burger king as being a POS who cant make a decent catsup packet? I hope not. Likewise, when a machine messes up, just deal with it. They *all* screw up. People have to learn how to deal with problems rather than just start blaming the poor engineer who made it.
finally, I can not believe how critical you are about Microsoft or apple borrowing stuff from Xerox or IBM. Don’t you realize that is what we call progress? You take the idea of another person and you put what you think are improvements on it. Does that mean that Watson and Crick were just lying, cheating bastards when they used the ideas of others when they figured out the structure of DNA? No. Is Stephen Hawking just a hack because he bases his ideas off stuff Einstein said? No. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we call evolution. It is how progress is made. If we all didn’t copy off the ideas of others we would still be wiping our butts with our hands because nobody would have thought to use a leaf.
So please, stop whining and moaning about why this or that isn’t good and get some work done. That’s what I do. In my college here I have to use a machine running win98 to do my statistics work because that is what they have the program running on. Its not perfect, but it works. And that’s what matters, that work gets done. Results are what counts, not the process. Likewise when I go to print my microbiology notes I have to deal with some kind of print pooling program running mac OS 7. it sucks, who cares. My pages print. Our lives are full of compromise; we don’t always get what we want. The secret it to do as much as you can with the available resources. In the case of this school district in question, they should figure out a solution that will allow them to buy the most computers that will run the most programs that they have. Guess what OS fits the bill?
Windows.
And I don’t think he’s a dumb bell either…but to add some things he missed.
Macs or PC’s can do the work of education, there is software and hardware for both. So what is the defining question?
SUPPORT, pure and simple.
regardless of what you buy in hardware out front, the ongoing day-to-day costs far outstrip purchase costs. This means schools can’t just buy based on the purchase price of hardware.
That gets down to what is cheaper, Macs of PC’s. Every study ever done has placed Macs far cheaper to support than PC’s. Macs tend to be more well behaved, far,far les prone to virii, and the tools available to server admins with Apple’s servers were designed with education in mind, not adapted to education as all of Windows has been.
In recent times schools have been seduced into the Windows camp largely by Dell, underselling Apple with cheap hardware. Have any of you looked at the depth of the Apple Ed offerings vs Dell? It’s not even a foot race when you consider how Apple supports education.
As for servers, Macs have been designed to be set up and admined by teachers, since historically schools could not afford IS staff. Windows OTOH, NEEDS a trained admin, MSCE for Windows or CNA/CNE if they use Novell, and some other geek if they have ventured into Linux land.
What may come home to roost in education is the cost of support of Wintel. As states are cutting education budgets, technology will be cut and the higher cost of support will cause problems for those who championed the move to the “cheaper/better PC” in education. Then, those schools will be locked into Wintel for the moment and either forced to pay the support costs of have compromised systems.
Apple is losing marketshare every day.
It’s NOT because Apple makes a superior product. Apple has a very high quality product offering.
Apple is losing share because Apple makes computers that COST TOO DAMN MUCH for people to afford them.
Not everyone in the world has infinite money.
The Mac Attitude is the scorn of the poor and middle class who cannot afford to buy a Mac. And it is a sick attitude that reflects the elitism and arrogance of Apple and Apple owners.
Yes, Apple is losing marketshare, but that largely is occuring for one reason.
The PC market is growing faster due to the downward price pressure by dell.
Mr. consumder buys a computer not on quality but on three things
Price
Perceived processor speed
Games