Software Monoculture in Schools?

The World Is Not Microsoft asks: "I've been worried by changes my school has made over the past year or so to the general computer setup we have. The school is a City Technology College, and as a result of this there are an abundance of computers around the building which everyone is free to use. When I first started there (almost six years ago now) there were approximately even numbers of Windows and Mac machines. As happens over time these machines got out of date and had to be replaced, and the school has spent a lot of money buying replacements. What I'm bothered about is that when they did this they completely eliminated the Mac population, and by the time school starts again in September the only machines we will have will either be Windows 98 or Windows 2000. What's the situation like in other schools? Is everyone else completely locked into Microsoft like we are?" "There have been security problems with these systems in the past (mostly IE toolbars which requested content from sites which were blocked by the content filters, which caused problems for everyone), and with all the recent IE security problems I'm surprised that the people in charge aren't considering alternative systems (I know Linux would be too much to ask, but rolling out some OS X machines would be good). In addition to this, those who actually study ICT are required to use MS Office for spreadsheet and database tasks; no OpenOffice allowed."

Comments

Macs in schools

[thefultonhow]

I work in the Computer Services department at a private school from which I graduated this June. As we speak, we are looking at ways to phase out our remaining Macs. When I started nearly four years ago, we were buying new Macs like crazy -- for multimedia and art in the upper school and for all purposes in the lower school. Now we're phasing them out. We took delivery of Dells to replace the Macs in our multimedia lab this spring, and we're getting a delivery of twelve new Dells with 17" flat panels tomorrow afternoon to replace the Macs in upper school art. In two year's time, the only Macs on campus will be ones in the lower school classrooms that we will have rigged up to run Citrix and connect to a Windows server.

Why are we doing this? There are several reasons.

1. Administration. Macs don't play well with PC networks, even with OS X on them. As we are implelmenting things like Active Directory, hard-drive-based backup of network storage, web caching and filtering, and the like, we're having to jump through hoops to get our Macs to work with these new systems. Instead of hiring three Mac specialists to maintain the machines, it's cheaper to move to an all-PC environment.

2. Administration again. We've implemented RIS of all PC machines that can PXE boot, which is most of the ones on campus. If a machine is acting funky, we just PXE boot and walk away, and two hours later, all of the OS components and applications are restored to their original state -- the hard drive has been wiped clean and redone. Macs just can't do this. Every time a Mac is acting funky, we need to spend several hours of our valuable IT time redoing it and reinstalling apps. We can't afford that.

3. Cost. Macs cost a lot. The machines that are getting delivered tomorrow are Dell Dimension 4600s with 2.8 GHz processors, 512 MB of dual-channel RAM, 80 GB hard drives, and 17" Dell UltraSharp flat panels. We got them for $800 a pop. You just can't compare a $900 eMac to that kind of value.

4. Upgrade cycle. This ties in with cost. We buy most of our PCs from Dell Refurb. We generally get them for about $400, upgrade them for another $100, and we have cheap, capbable machines. That means we can upgrade twice as often as if we buy $1000 Macs, and that translates to better experiences for students.

5. Compatibility. It's true -- there are more applications for PC and those that are cross-platform often run better on a PC. Even my die-hard Mac friends admit this. That means that if we buy PCs, we get an assurance that they will meet our needs. Also, our student-coded ColdFusion-based website barely runs on Macs -- so it's a no-brainer. PCs for all.

Re:What goes around comes around

[l0ungeb0y]

" Now that clones cost $600-$800 for a full fledged machine, and Apple still thinks it needs those margins. "

Wow you don't say.

Apple has nothing like that. Nope, not at all. Nope, 599.00 will not buy a 1GHz PowerPC G4 256MB DDR333 SDRAM 40GB Ultra ATA drive with 17" CRT display and stereo speakers built in.

And no... 300.00 more wont get you a 1.25GHz PowerPC G4
256MB DDR333 SDRAM / 80GB Ultra ATA drive with SuperDrive.

Well, you may have gone to school, but that doesn't mean you've got a clue. I'd get back to manning that deep fat fryer before your 17yr old manager finds you playing on the computer.

Re:Mostly MS and Unix

[GregAllen]

I went to a science and engineering school, which explains the lack of Macs.

Science and engineering was traditionally one of the Mac's strong markets. When I was an EE undergrad (87-91), there were far more Macs than PCs in the labs, and some software development classes were done only on Macs. I got to learn Unix, too. As other posters have mentioned, free PC donations from Dell and Intel (with the requirement to run Windows) quickly replaced anything else. It's hard to compete with FREE. Now the fresh grads are all Windows users, and surprised there's anything else.

When Mathworks cancelled MATLAB for the Mac, there was enough outcry that they eventually brought it back. Wolfram had enough sense to keep Mathematica on the Mac all along. There are plenty of people in science, engineering, research, and higher education that are still using Macs. I think MacOS X has begun a Mac resurgence with lots of geeks. It's nice to have Unix and productivity apps on the same box. LOTS of OSS programs just run on MacOS X.

there really are not a lot of Macs in use compared to Windows machines

And that means what, exactly? Linux Insider has definitive proof that scientists should use Macs. :) Are you a lemming, or a scientist? :)

Re:Nobody uses Macs

[Master of Transhuman]

It entirely depends on the courses being taught.

If the school teaches UNIX courses, you need Linux machines for people to work on.

If the school teaches multimedia courses, you need (well, need may be too strong - make it preferable) to have Macs - because that's what multimedia firms use.

If your school is crap and only teaches courses which are irrelevant to the local business community, you'll run Windows only because they're cheap.

City College of San Francisco offers UNIX and multimedia certificates as well as Windows-oriented certificates and therefore has Macs and Linux machines (and more Windows machines, of course, since more courses are Windows oriented or general.)