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Jaguar Free for K-12 Teachers
Hugh writes "It seems Apple is giving away for free its newest revision of Mac OS X, version 10.2 (Jaguar), to every K-12 teacher in the U.S."
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This should have been done long ago.
MS gave hardware to schools to sway them to go M$ Apple should be giving gear away as an investment into the end users too.
comment directly in my journal
Are they just giving away the upgrade or the entire package? If it's the whole OS that's a pretty good deal... heck I'm betting it will sway a lot of people who are thinking of buying a new PC into buying a Mac.
How long till we see the switch ads saying "I got my Mac OS for free... Apple is so nice and 1337"
I got WinXP, Frontpage, OfficeXP, and Visual Studio from MS for being a college student, why didn't we hear about this?
It's great to see that Apple is still promoting their role in the educational market - that's where I started off with Macs. Learning with them at school, especially with their first experiences with computers, can really help people decide which OS to use in the future. Take Maine, for example, where every 7th and 8th grader gets an iBook. A lot of the concerns about that program have come regarding the teachers' and parents' concern with having to learn the new hardware and software. Glad to see Apple is giving teachers a chance to stay on the front lines of the OS.
No, This is like Microsoft giving away Windows XP to use on your Windows 98 machine.
I know many teachers who have old iMacs and couldn't justify paying the price for Jaguar. Now they can.
So are they trying to get better grades or something? The "Apple for the teacher" thing was out of style years ago.
Brings whole new meaning to giving the teacher an apple.
I'll take one.
What? You doubt that I am a teacher? Well, come here and I'll teach you a lesson or two.
The best part of the giveaway is that Apple is finally handing out some training software (for what it's worth -- totally sight unseen) for OS X. Having just dealt with transferring my mother and several friends from the old Mac OS to OS X, I can safely say that some training and support will be _VERY_ welcome.
The teachers still need to buy the hardware from Apple to run this though right? Can you get a new Apple computer without the OS installed? If not, then this kinda doesn't help new users much
Although I would be extremely frustrated in your situation, I don't think that Apple has "ripped you off again." Presumably you thought the upgrade was worth it, otherwise you wouldn't have bought it. I fail to understand how giving other people freebies "fucks you over." Unless those other people are competing with you. Which, unless you have some unusual circumstances, they are not.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
Linux has been doing this since its inception.
I always love these descriptions. Define "teacher." I work at a residential high school as a resident counselor. True, the name "teacher" is not in my title. However, my job description (as written by the state of Illinois) involves teaching students.
Border's refuses to give me a discount on books (even when purchased for programs with students) because they claim (at least my local Border's) that the discount only applies to people that work in a classroom.
I work with very technology-aware students (I work at a the Illinois Math and Science Academy) and, as a big geek, I am often discussing tech issues and comparing computers with students.
(An upcoming program I am putting together will discuss recent copyright debates that are ongoing, for example).
I think that Apple would want nothing more than for me to have a copy of Jaguar to show off to the students.
And Apple might very well send me a copy of Jaguar, who knows...
Of course, being the good little geek, I pre-purchased an educational-discounted copy and got it before it was available retail. That was $75 out of my pocket that I am guessing Apple is not going to reimburse.
I have to wonder how many teachers have already purchased Jaguar.
I might take them up on the offer and give one of the copies to a student.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
Yes, Apple may have an agenda but the bottom line is schools are getting free shwag. It's always good to see and I wish more companies would follow suit both in and outside the tech industry. It's also good to see that kids will get more of an opportunity to be exposed to more than just Windows.
The bigger problem is having school districts reponsibly spend the extra money they will save.
There is a magic concept at work here: CONTEXT
What makes an action by MS reprehensible or not, is not the actual sequence of events, but the context in which they occur. This is in fact, the determining factor about anti-trust law. A legitimate form of promotion by one entity becomes a prohibited leverage of dominance in the market by a monopoly player.
MS has been determined - in unquestionable legal language - to be a Monopoly player.
Now, make your crack - is MS the Shoe, Top Hat or the Scottie Dog...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This isn't the worst of it.
Occasionally, I substitute teach, so I don't think I'm qualified for Apple's give-away, so.
But, from what I've seen, the worse of this advertising stuff is the Channel 1 network.
In exchange for free TVs in every room (and the cable infrastructior [sp] along with it), the school agrees to broadcast this news program into the school rooms.
The actual content of the Channnel one network is supposedly news, but it's biased, heavily, but I suppose that it's hard to keep bias out of news. I mean, just by choosing which stories to cover you've got bias.
CNN's Anderson Cooper and MTV's Serena Alschule (however you spell it) got their start at channel one. It also allowed for a lot of schools to have the means to make their own news shows, some of which were basically some kid reading in monotone the events of the day and the sports scores, along with the cheesy Video Toaster graphics.
But they (Channel 1) pay for it by showing about 4 segments of 4 ads in about 15 minutes to a very specific and very captive audience.
But I remember this stuff back when I was in school. I remember that they had thousands of ads that students were forced to watch, mostly involving OXY cleansers and Pepsi.
Vaguely depressing, because they had the demographic they wanted and the kids had to watch, sometimes there were quizzes based on the content of the show. (Of course, depending how the student cared about his/her grade.)
There's your advertising in schools for you.
At least my school had a pepsi and a coke machine, for choice, you know. They turned them off before first hour started, though my experiences show that the availability has little effect on the students themselves in the classroom. It's more likely the location and the towns' economic situation.
To try and push this into vaguely on topic-ness, I haven't seen an Apple (other than a few Apple IIs [even still]) in a school I've taught at or attended since my college's graphic design lab.
Dan
Apple once owned the edu market but nowadays it actually has to compete. Now, a teacher with a lab full of os9/osx.1 computers from a year ago wont be able to get budget moey to buy the jaguar upgrades. So apple is offering free jaguar to keep them happy. Jaguar is what osx.0 _should_ have been. Don't assume its just a bugfix upgrade.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
With Jaguar, Apple's never made a distinction between an upgrade and an OS purchase. Everyone who has a machine that can run Jaguar already has a version of the Mac OS, so what's the difference between calling it an upgrade or not?
Kevin Fox
I did this for my mom about 10 minutes after Apple made the announcement. I felt authorized, given that I'm her sysadmin.
h ers/i ndex2.html
/.?
Go to:
http://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteac
fill in the zip code of the school of your favorite teacher, and then enter their name and email. OSX will be sent to them. Takes 90 seconds.
P.S. This was announced days ago. What took it so long to make
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Oh yes Channel 1, thanks for the flashback ;)
Yea that was a VERY bias news cast now that I think about it. Good thing I have a strong will.
*Grabs a Pepsi*
*DrugCheese rants*
isn't giving away a product for below the price you'd normally charge (except in special circumstances) market dumping, and as such illegal?
IANAL either, but no, giving something away is not illegal in general, although it can be under specific circumstances. Donations to schools are, I believe, generally covered under "charity", and far from being illegal, probably even qualify for a tax write-off.
From what I recall, it wasn't the integration of IE with Windows that landed Microsoft in court originally, it was their practice of giving it away for free in order to get an advantage over Netscape.
MS was violating the terms of their earlier consent decree, where they had agreed not to try to put potential competitors out of business by bundling new stuff with the OS. Remember, the rules are different for a monopoly, and even more different for a monopoly that repeatedly violates anti-trust laws.
I'm no fan of Apple, I wouldn't switch on a bet, and if you gave me a Mac, I'd wipe off that OS/X junk and install Debian in a heartbeat, but Apple is clearly doing nothing wrong here.
Apple is giving away Jaguars?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
...Bentley is offering all K-12 teachers free 19" 5-spoke split-rim titanium bolted alloy wheels with and Pirelli P-Zero tires with the purchase of any Bentley Arnage T!
That computer would cost me over $3000. Looking over at Dell's website, a similary configured PC, which a better video card, and a 2 Ghz P4 instead of the 2x1Ghz G4's, would run me about half that.
Some specifics that jump out at me: Apple wants $400 for 512MB of PC2700 memory. Dell wants $200. I can get the appropriate module from crucial for $170, so Apple's markup is well over 100%.
The LCD is similar; apple's 17" LCD display runs $1000. Dell will charge me $500. I can get a nice samsung model for about $590 online.
I really, REALLY like what I've seen of OS X, but I won't pay 100% premiums on hardware just to be able to run it.
The eMacs offer Firewire, USB, ethernet, a 17" flat screen monitor, nice speakers, a compact form factor, and they are very durable. Sure if you buy some no-name, do-it-yourself pc you can get a computer cheaper, but these prices are pretty good for a pre-built, quality machine. On top of all of this you get MacOS X, tons of great free software such as iTunes and iMovie, and the ability to run almost any software written for Linux or other Unix-like operating systems. Not a bad deal at all.
Sapere aude!
Apple has an interesting pricing system. From the page you linked, we learn that it costs $799 with 128MB, $874 with 256MB and $1024 with 512MB, and for $40 you can "get twice the RAM".
shows, some of which were basically some kid reading in monotone the events of the day and the sports scores, along with the cheesy Video Toaster graphics.
I still had fun doing it you insensitive clod!
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
I guess they don't. Better write a lengthy post on Slashdot about them.
Seems to me that the only time that such action on Microsoft's part really brought about a major outcry was when they offered to do such as penalty/in settlement for what the government and many /.'ers deemed monopolistic practices. Now that is a completely different situation than the one that is currently at hand with Apple.
Apple is not offering to give away their software and a bunch of hardware because they've had charges of unfair trade practices leveled against them. Apple is clearly trying to win the hearts, minds and screens of teachers, and thus students, but how is that different from anything that any marketing ploy ever does?
So in a way, you are right, there is a similar motivation between what Microsoft offered to do and what Apple is doing but the reason that your point doesn't stand up, in my opinion, is that the context of their actions is different. Apple is doing it simply as a marketing scheme, Microsoft did it as an attempt to get away without any stronger penalty for the charges brought against them. Therefore, in light of the dramatically dfferent contexts of the two cases, it seems to me that the differential reaction by the /. masses is completely understandable and justified.
-tcp
"You must be a K-12 teacher currently employed in a public, private, or charter school to qualify for participation in this program. This offer is limited to eligible K-12 teachers and is not available to resellers, institutions, home schools, non- teacher K-12 school employees, preservice/student teachers, or higher education faculty (including college of education faculty)."
I'm really quite surprised at this snub. Apple has always had a very positive history of supporting homeschoolers, even offering institutional discounts to HS'ers. Until now, I suppose.
Thanks for nothing, Apple.
If you can't figure out why easy-to-use, effective and free movie and image editing software isn't good for education you're totally pathetic. There are numerous stories at the Apple site, testimonials from ACTUAL teachers detailing how Macs are making a difference in their schools...so STFU.
You ask why the applications should matter to you when you don't use any peripherals? Maybe they don't. But to rant about email servers and forget that students can pick up a hell of a lot from the tools given to them is just lame.
Can any teacher get this upgrade or must they actually own a Mac? Becuase think about it this way, a school employs 80 teachers and most likely doesn't have 80 Macs but doesn't want to buy 30 copies for their lab. If all 80 teachers get a copy then the School now has 80 liscenses of Jaguar. Upgrading the lab is no longer a problem.
I'm a high school computer science teacher teaching PASCAL, C++ and Java - using Linux of course. I'd *like* to switch (or at least DEMO) for the kids to see that Unix is now underlying a retail desktop OS. But I've got a room full of Intel PC's. And every Mac you can buy now comes with Jaguar on it already. So I guess I'm wondering, "Whats the Point, Apple?"
That's twice as good in most categories compared to the Imac (right down the number of mouse buttons).
[Insert standard "Mhz Myth" argument here]
[Insert standard "One Button Like God Intended" rant here]
Also, you forgot to factor in the labor involved in building and troubleshooting the computer. Most teachers would have to hire somebody to do this. Since this is a one-off build (I know if you're making dozens of the same computer you can do it faster, since you only need to troubleshoot once), assume four hours at $25/hour to build and troubleshoot. Since most teachers add Windows XP Home for $186.99, and Office XP Standard for $416.99, and you're looking at a total of $1,508.96 for your system.
Anyway, you're missing my point. My point is not that low end Macs are a better deal than low end PCs (they probably aren't). My point is that there are low end Macs which are affordable on a teacher's salary.
A legparnasom tele van angolnaval.
apple needs to do something about the hardware. it is just too expensive as far as schools are concerned. it is an example of being pennywise and pound foolish, but my district sees a dell for say $600 and an imac for say $850, and they'll choose the dell every time. plus, most district people, like mine (ARGHHHHH!!!) can't even spell unix.
i bought an ibook a couple of weeks ago. it has 10.2. i love it. but the problem is more hardware than software. a few years ago, schools began moving toward PC's, and os x is just not going to work.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Apple's doing this because there are a lot of iMacs out there that can run OSX 10.2 but were bought before hand. Anyone playing with previous versions of OSX were likely told by their tech specialist (usually media center/Librarian with yet another job to do for the same money) to pass on OSX until Apple got it more usable. Even with copies of 10.2 floating around schools (I do warranty repair at several county's schools) they're not about to go and risk thousands of $$$ for a version of OSX that might not be up to snuff. Hence, the give away.
Apple's not hoping to push hardware sales with this; any new Macs will come with 10.2 on it. They just want people to get away from OS9.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Actually, the lowest priced Mac for non-educators is the 15 inch monitor iMac G3 for $799 at Apple's online store. However, I used to work in education, and the discounts available to me were more in line of $50 off a roughly $2000 machine. I can see them selling the eMac with more of a discount though, since that line was initially targeted only to the education market.
I'm not sure that you all are understanding this correctly.
Apple is giving away OSX to TEACHERS, not schools. There is quite a big difference here; the teachers get a copy of it, and can do whatever the heck they want to with it.
This does NOT mean that Apple is giving OSX to schools for the use in classrooms, labs, etc. Microsoft's products for K-12 teachers/students are licensed so that they are for (educational) use by the teacher or student, but not the school, as sepearate (more expensive) versions exist for schools. The copy of the software belongs to the teacher, and unless it's being installed on a computer which is property of the teacher, it's a copyright violation (and rightfully so - the school is essentially "stealing" the software from the teacher). I'm sure apple has a similar clause in their agreement. Still, I think it's a great offer.
Besides, isn't product placement one of the most effective forms of advertising?
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I'm a high school senior right now. Being a geek, I help out a lot with our school's highly overworked IT people. I've seen a large resistance throughout the district to change over to OS X. These people don't like change. Change requires retraining teachers and changing infrastructure. Its a great effort just to teach most teachers how to check their email. Now when we change to OS X, a lot of things are going to be done differently. Apple has probably seen this resistance in action. Apple has shown they want to completely get rid of classic as soon as possible. To smooth this transistion it makes sense for them to give it away along with training materials. It will also help cash strapped districts create a homogenous OS enviroment. OS X runs a little slow on older g3s, but it runs it fast enough for most educational purposes. This is a sound business and PR move for apple in my opinion.
It seems that apple has always had a strong connection with schools until I started working at a college. Apple barely offers any deals to colleges. Even if you go for a student discount (and spend about an hour filling out the forms) you'll only get about $50 off a new macintosh (too bad they don't tell you that BEFORE you fill out the forms).
How is apple supposed to expect support from the developer community or the student community when no one is being trained on using macs in school (other then graphics design people)?
The only people I know who know anything about macs are the graphic design people who will probably never own a mac because they will be supplied one from their employer.
Apple should really try and get the techies into macs at school. For example, a local college here offers a 3 year "Computer Systems Technician" Diploma and not once do any of their students touch a macintosh.
Graphic designers won't be developing software for your macs Apple.. clue in.
You are quoting prices on an grotesquely underpowered, outdated machine on which OS-X crawls. It doesn't have any way to write to removable media, so how is the teacher supposed to back up her data? "Sorry class, but I lost all of your grades in my spreadsheet because my hard drive died. I had no backup because for $800, my iMac didn't even come with a floppy drive, much less a CD-R/W."
Now compare that price to a modern, low-end machine from, say, Compaq:
Presario 6300US Minitower
128MB RAM
Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Celeron Processor 1.4GHz
48X CD-Rom Drive
40GB Hard Drive
Floppy drive (3..5")
Keyboard
Mouse (with more than one button and a wheel)
CompUSA Price: $400 after rebate
Samsung SyncMaster 750s 17-inch monitor: $140 after rebate
Altec Lansing 220 2.0 Amplified Speaker System: $30
Grand total: $570
And that price is just what the general public can get by walking into CompUSA today. A little shopping or an educators' discount would have turned up an even better price. For $250 less than the outdated "classic" iMac, the teacher gets a much faster machine (a 1.7ghz Celeron will spank a 600mhz G3 according to any respected, independent benchmark such as Spec), a larger monitor, a floppy drive, and more bundled software. In addition, she gets a machine that is much more expandable should she ever wish to put in a better video card, CD-R/W drive, DVD drive, etc.
So please stop with the Apple fanboy routine. The iMac line is grossly overpriced -- especially for most teachers' modest incomes.
The real reason that Macs tend to remain in institutions for 4+ years is due to the fact that MacOS machines stay functional for a long a** time ;). Mac developers typically support older Apple hardware for quite a while since the hardware/software that they are developing for is incredibly specific. Moreover, Apple has a smaller market share it really makes sense to support as many macs as you possibly can... even 4 year old G3s.
... and work incredibly well at that.
;)
I find it somewhat funny that I can walk into something such as a music studio and still find a ton of old Mac Classics sitting next to dual G4's. When your dealing with multimedia tasks such as midi Mac classics still just "work"
People rarely want to keep a Wintel box around for more then 3 years. You get desire to migrate a lot sooner. (and by "migrate" I mean "huck that slow, difficult, outdated POS out the window")
I used to work in a campus IT dept, and I fail to comprehend why anyone in their right mind would want to spend thousands of dollars on Wintel computer labs. I guess people simply like to purchase what they know. Mac labs last longer (especially in multimedia labs), they are more secure, they have the same damn productivity software, they require a much smaller IT dept, software licenses are not a royal pain in the butt, kids can comprehend how to use the desktop workspace faster, teachers can admin class networks and netboot machines with virtually no training, etc etc etc. I'm also fairly sure Apple gives institutions a fairly nice price break when they buy in bulk.
I'm all about white box PCs if your going to stick linux on them and set up as word processing machines or library terminals. That's a smart low maintenance move. But for the love of god, keep those things out of the media labs
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"