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Are Colleges Helping to Maintain the Microsoft Monopoly?
lexus99 asks: "Recently, while attending college and wanting to take tests in order to avoid taking basic computer courses, I have signed up for a few SAM (Skills Assessment Manager) tests. What really surprised me is that these tests are entirely based upon Microsoft products (Windows XP and Office XP). Note that this course is -required- before taking any any of the more advanced courses. Is this not a clear cut case of U.S. Colleges forcing its students to exclusively use Microsoft's software? Does Microsoft pay for this 'privledge', or do the schools get some type of M$ discounts? I don't believe that I will have any problem passing these tests, as I frequently use M$ software in my workplace, but I cannot help but feel insulted that I have to take them in order to take more advanced UNIX courses." This issue is a lot more complex than it sounds. Many colleges fall into Microsoft's software because they do get decent volume discounts and Microsoft provides them with decent service, so why change what works? However, with the new licensing schemes that Microsoft is beginning to push, maybe we'll see some change in this area in the near future. Have any of you seen evidence of Microsoft worming it's way into your college courses?
In my 400 level 'intro to graphics' the professor REQUIRED that we use MS Products for developement.
Several weeks later after ~50% of the class wouldn't be quiet about it, he said he'd allow any language, but no others were supported by the TA.
The following semester he continued to allow any tools/language, but only 'supported' M$.
At UTD where I currently am attending, and the same with all UT system schools (including, but not limited to Tyler, El Paso, Austin, etc.) its $6 a copy for Win98SE, Win2k or WinXP Pro.
$6
I know this is not the popular opinion here, but for $6, I can have me a Legal copy of any of the preceeding OSes. I hate to say it, because I think that Micro$oft (ooo.. look at me, I'm cool becuase I used $ in stead of an 's.' I'm a clever boy) has too much sway and control over computing these days, but this is simply good business. Continuing to keep people using your products is not a sign of a monopoly, its a sign of a competitive business. All smart companies that desire to remain companies will do this.
I went out and got all three and then some other MS software because its dirt cheap, it does what I want and its what the world uses. Eventually, I will have a server running, using Linux, but not for my desktop.
But then again, I'm probably just a troll sell out or something. I can kiss my kharma good bye for this one can't because I have original ideas can't I?
I recently signed up for a bunch of smaller classes at a newer and smaller Swedish college. They are 100% M$ and only give "support" for "WS_FTP" and such things.
The labs are all equipped with WIN-DOS, with a rare exception for the film editing classes, where classy Mac computers are used (and the executives also use TiBooks on WiFi).
The teacher (not a professor) in the graphics class is praising his M$ certification, but I wish he could get a more relevant Adobe certification instead. He doesn't even use Adobe, but has opted for Corel instead. In the real world, where I have been for a while before returning to school, the combination WIN-DOS + Corel PhotoPaint does not exist. The labs don't have Photoshop or Illustrator, so it's gotta be a money issue.
The web classes have a similar approach. They teach outdated 1996ish table-based and pixel-based HTML for Exploiter and Netscape 4.x, and don't give a fuck about standards and more legitimate web techniques. The WIN-DOS labs have Internet Exploiter 5 and Netscape Communicator 4.79. Mozilla is not known, and they really don't care about the Mozilla-based Netscape 7.
Now, at larger and more traditional educational institutions, Sun boxen and Macs are used to a much higher degree. When the web was born circa 1993, the sysadmins at a technical educational facility quickly installed NCSA Mosaic and set up a web server. This is more in line what I would expect from educational institutions, being ahead and being more advanced than what they require at a small company office...
Fortunately, they still do have a more Unix and Mac oriented view at those larger and traditional facilities, but I fear that they too will be swamped into the black M$ hole one of these days.
frawaradaR anahaha islaginaR!
That's ludicrous.
for $6, I can have me a Legal copy of any of the preceeding OSes...is not a sign of a monopoly, its a sign of a competitive business
This is called predatory pricing (unless you really think that total costs in producing and shipping that product to you were under $6) is is not only illegal but one of the top warning signs for a monopoly.
May we never see th
I have to agree.
GCC is a much better tool than Visual Studio for most people.
You could drop $100-$2000 on your development system for a product that's limited to few languages, doesn't support C anymore, and can't run anywhere but Windows, and has a UI that keeps changing, rendering old skills obsolete.
You could also get a software package that's freely downloadable, supports lots of languages (and keeps getting more), and runs on just about every software package known to mankind.
The choice seems pretty straightforward to me.
May we never see th
I consult for a law firm and this is a big problem. Interns come in straight from undergrad and bitch and cry because they don't have Word. Despite the glaring security holes and lesser functionality for lawyers, they are considering deploying Word on their workstations alongside Wordperfect just to stay compatible with their clients and to pacify these interns.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
When knowledge of Powerpoint is "REQUIRED", it most certainly emplants an early familiality of that program instead of more capable products such as MacroMedia's [macromedia.com] "Director," for example. It is a fact that most people continue to use the same software they learned in school, further fueling the M$ monolopy.
Director a replacement for Powerpoint? Horseshit. Director is $1200 and geared towards things like Shockwave apps, not basic slide presentations. They're completely different products.
Recently Gnome suddenly started refusing to start up. Have you tried Enlightenment? You can install it (like anything else) in your home directory, without root access, by conifurging it with something like --prefix=/home/dozer/enlightenment and adding the executable to your .xinitrc or .xsession file.
Luckily with Linux you have an alternative to using mem-heavy UI's like KDE and GNOME, while still getting the benefits from having their libraries installed. (You can still run programs that require Gnome, without running the Gnome environment).
As a side note, you probably could have used Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill the X server and edit those files on the console rather than using a M$ machine to do it ;)
No decent text editor. gedit stinks.
Download NEdit. You get syntax highlighting, line numbers, and a whole bunch of other nifty stuff without feeling "bloated" while using it. It even comes precompiled for most platforms ;)
Motif apps. Mathematica and Matlab are big, slow ...
The rest of the world agrees. Write a letter to Wolfram. =P
No word processor. ...Can't copy and paste pictures.
Sounds like it's time to take an hour and learn LaTeX. Afterwords, you'll never want to use a word processor or paste pictures again. Additionally, your term papers and reports will be written faster and look more professional. An added benefit comes when you consider that most science journals would require you to submit a paper in LaTeX, so it's better to learn *now* than *later* after you've written your 100+ page thesis in M$ Word and have to transfer all of it.
-=[You cannot consistently judge this statement to be true.]=-