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 As happens over time these machines got out of date and had to be replaced, and the school has spent a lot of money buying replacements.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

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? :)