A College Without Microsoft?

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Posted by Cliff on Wednesday March 12, 2003 @08:50AM from the boiling-it-down-to-the-bottom-line dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "My grandfather is the president of a well-known undergraduate-only college of about 7,000 students. He tells me that an alumnus has agreed to donate $2.4 million initially (and up to $800,000 each succeeding year for 10 years) to the school for computer equipment and staff if the school agrees not to renew any contract and to buy no products or services (either directly or through an intermediary like Gateway) from Microsoft. I'm told that this isn't the enormous amount of money that it sounds like and that a change-over to non-Microsoft products would be costly. I think it'd be great for college students to use computers apart from Microsoft, but I'm told that the board will look at the decision in terms of cost, not for benefit to the students. Does the Slashdot community have any points that I can give my grandfather to present to the Board next month?"

14 of 942 comments (clear)

question == troll by sudotcsh · 2003-03-12 09:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Can't you see this Ask Slashdot is a total troll? The situation is as follows.

Geek #1: I'll bet you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS that you can't post an Ask Slashdot question that will get regular Slashdot constituents to propose a non-Linux solution.
Geek #2: One hundred dollars, eh? JUST WATCH ME.

And so we have today's Ask Slashdot.

'Tis true.
Re:tell them... by TCaptain · 2003-03-12 09:16 · Score: 2, Funny

Would this be the same interviewer who specified he wanted someone with 10 years of java programming experience back in 1998?

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"I'm not a procrastinator, I'm temporally challenged"
Windows coding by rsborg · 2003-03-12 09:38 · Score: 3, Funny

Windows programming for me is very hard because I spend 80% of my time buried in MSDN instead of coding.
Hell, I went to a mostly M$ endowed CS program (at the time), and when I have to code against the win32api, or MFC, I spend about that amount of time in the books too.

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Re:You'd be doing your students a disservice by mz001b · 2003-03-12 09:47 · Score: 2, Funny

Um, just because MS is the dominant system at the moment doesn't mean it will be in 5, 10, 20 years time. If we followed that logic we'd all still be programming for IBM/360's in Cobol & Fortran
Umm... I still program in Fortran. No really I do. It's ok though, I'm a scientist.
Re:Cost over Students? by nil_null · 2003-03-12 10:06 · Score: 5, Funny

A little anecdote:
Microsoft donated a lab full of computers (with Windows NT installed) to my university for an operating systems class. They erased off NT from all those computers and replaced it with FreeBSD. Microsoft wanted the computers back, but it was too late. What, did they think they were going to teach an operating systems class using Windows NT??
Re:NMSU by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-12 10:14 · Score: 1, Funny

The fellow would be better off spending the $2.4 million on developing methods of teaching students how MS and *nix are related to each other, how BOTH are used in the real world, and familiarizing students with both.

But then how would he get on Slashdot?
Re:Cost over Students? by zootread · 2003-03-12 10:20 · Score: 5, Funny

This will not boost enrollment. This will drive students away. Believe it or not, MS products are not reviled outside of subgroups of the IT/Geek community. I know this will be hard for Slashdotters to grasp.

Believe it or not, in a university setting as well as the industry many of us are employed in, MS products are looked down upon. I know this will be hard for MS apologists to grasp.

Remember, CS/CEN/EE professors at universities and people who are looking to hire you, are the IT/Geek community. We teach your classes, we write the software you run. We provide you with jobs. We keep your servers running. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.

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Zoot!
Re:why to use Linux of Windows by xScruffx · 2003-03-12 10:29 · Score: 2, Funny

(The -only- reason the prof I report to has the root password is in case I call in dead, and even in that case, it's in a sealed envelope, and he doesn't know what it is without cracking it).
When should we expect to see the distributed.net Envelope Cracking Client?

xScruffx
What's this guys email address... by aztektum · 2003-03-12 10:54 · Score: 2, Funny

It just so happens I'm planning on setting up a non-MS campus of my own called "University of Me". I'm looking for donations to help out.

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:: aztek ::
No sig for you!!
Re:Cost over Students? by rirugrat · 2003-03-12 11:31 · Score: 5, Funny

And how is this different than when I was in college and presented with rows and rows of PS/2s? Looking for a Macintosh? Not a single one to be found.
What college did you go to? I thought every college had a Mac lab?!
Chris
Rows of PS/2s... by telstar · 2003-03-12 11:59 · Score: 3, Funny
"And how is this different than when I was in college and presented with rows and rows of PS/2s?"
- I know ... I mean, come on ... couldn't they at least throw in an XBOX here and there?
Re:Cost over Students? by Megane · 2003-03-12 12:52 · Score: 4, Funny

I thought every college had a Mac lab?!
They sure do, buried on the third floor of the arts building.

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Re:You'd be doing your students a disservice by wfrp01 · 2003-03-12 13:21 · Score: 4, Funny

OTOH, MIT is an 'institute'. So instead of saying 'when I was in college', you say 'when I was institutionalized'.

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--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Re:another 'liberal' pro-choice contradiction by Peer · 2003-03-12 21:55 · Score: 5, Funny

It took my incredibly non-techie mother something like 30 minutes to realise she wasn't using Windows.

Do you have a blue desktop picture that says; "Page fault in kernel32.dll"?