Mac OS X replacing Linux at Tokyo University

TekkaDon writes "At least 1,150 desktop and server PCs running Linux will be replaced with Mac OS X computers at the University of Tokyo next year, as reported by Asahi (Japanese), and echoed by MacRumors.com. 'Ease of maintenance and software installation were cited among the reasons for the switch.' I wonder if Keitaro and Naru will get iMacs at Hinata as well."

Comments

re: ease of install

[computerme]

A well run Linux system with OS maintenance using RPM, debian's APT or Gentoo's ports is going to be a lot cleaner system in 12 months than an OSX machine.

Really?

How easy is to install Photoshop via RPM?
Office via Gentoo?
Final Cut or any iApp via curl?

Let me guess, Gimp would solve my first question... cough..cough...
not. Did anyone ever think that part of the reason why they switched is because of the lack of quality commerical software on linux?

Japanese language support

[b1t r0t]

The support under OS X is excellent, and it even breaks away from creaky old ShiftJIS. I'm not sure how hard it is to get Japanese language support running on Linux, and it probably is distro dependent too. (I heard Turbo Linux was a favorite in Japan back in its 4.0 days.)

But on the Mac, it's built-in and working by default. On all Macs running OS X, not just ones running the special localized version of the OS, which used to trail U.S. releases by six months or more back in the System 7 days.

Any chance that's got something to do with the switch? Meanwhile, I'm looking long-term to replace my last Linux box with OS X. Right now the main obstacle is to get the equivalent of IP Masquerading working with a proper DHCP server that lets me configure fixed IP assignments, instead of the one built into "Internet Sharing".