This edition’s education article focuses on the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, which may be the largest deployment of laptops in the world. Two elements that make this an extraordinary deployment is the fact that the laptops have been distributed to 7th and 8th grade students and that they are iBook laptops running OS X. Read it here.
From Linux to OS X
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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“A review of Jaguar OS X” will be more appropriate
Not bad, but cost comparisons?
Is it easier for them to get cheap leftover iBooks or to get cheap leftover x86 based laptops?
It had nothing to do with Maine. The first paragraph refers to what? I don’t know?
The second paragraph reminds me how troubling being an Open Source fanatic can be–he says his inexperience with Macs and PR depts (I presume he had to deal with postscript RIPs, lots of fonts, and standard GD issues) means Macs have a higher TCO… Arguable but his logic is flawed — it’s his own lack of skills.
Third — he goes on to describe year and a half old technology. Pre-Jaguar OS X. Crappy ports of OS software…
That’s it.
But to answer your question the Maine program has been a huge success and has been used as a model at a number of education conferences over the alst two years. THIS IS HORRENDOUSLY OUT OF DATE INFO. But they were brand new iBooks, not cheap leftovers. (Who wants to hand crappy old notebooks to kids; they kill ’em fast enough as it is.)They were purchased at educational discounts. An, yes, cost was a factor– a deciding factor in favor of Apple.
” Due to the specialist skills needed to manage Apple technology I found that the cost of ownership of the creative department was much higher than for the Windows-based systems.”
I’ve worked in many heterogeneous PC/MAC environments and have NEVER found this to be the case. This phrase is also suspicious because he never elaborates on what “specialist skills” drive the cost up.
Apple’s costs really are not that high in the realm of laptops and high-end desktops. It’s the low-end and to some degree mid-range desktops that are cheaper from Dell or whoever (when comparably equiped). Go see for yourself — try to configure a Dell laptop similar to an iBook and I think you’ll find the iBook quite competitive. Add to that education and/or volume discounts and Apple has some pretty sweet deals. Plus the kids can learn about Unix-based OSes. They have the rest of their lives to learn about Windows.
What a condecending way to end an otherwise decent article: “I think even the die hard Linux fanatics would find a place in their hearts for this platform.”
Who are these die hard Linux fanatics? I have never met them. I meet kind folks on the newsgroups all the time. The LUG meetings that I have gone to have also been attended by some of the kindest people I have ever met. People willing to give of their time and knowledge. Why is it that in order to promote their pet projects/platform they need to offend others?
Maybe a little off topic but let me ask: Who think could be better to spend these money to improve math and science skills?
Really!! I mean, how many programmers do you know that are very BAD in math (together with economists, administrators and even engineers)? In mine experience most of them. Just give something not trivial to be made.
Not trying to be original: is better to give solid education on few things than try to teach almost nothing of everything.
I think this fellow was refering to the article in the education section.
http://newsviews.info/education08.html
I dont see anything wrong with die hard linux fanatic. Perhaps english isnt you’re first language, that I could understand. try http://www.dictionary.com if anything confuses you about everyday english. i find it to be quite useful.
Perhaps English isn’t my mother tongue, and perhaps, just perhaps, you cannot write proper English in your first language. Rather than comment extensively on your language skills, I’ll just reprint them for our collective enjoyment:
“I dont see anything wrong with die hard linux fanatic. Perhaps english isnt you’re first language, that I could understand. try http://www.dictionary.com if anything confuses you about everyday english. i find it to be quite useful.”
This forum is getting weirder
From Tech review to English lesson ?
Get a grip people
Sorry it turned into that. When he said the author was being condescending I thought the comment was unsubstantiated and replied in that respect. Obviously it has stretched on for too long now so we can drop the subject. On another note, I did think the author’s opinion was just and was worth the time of reading it.