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 As happens over time these machines got out of date and had to be replaced, and the school has spent a lot of money buying replacements.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

More monocultures

[forii]

While you're at it, why not also suggest that they have their typing classes teach Dvorak? And stop using English, instead have half of the classes taught in Mandarin Chinese! Their maps are North-centric too, why not a little diversity there, as well? The metric system is fine too, but there are some important places that customarily use Imperial units, so there's another place to diversify! Good Luck!

Some serious questions!

[callipygian-showsyst]

Does it bother you that

• Your school gets its chalk from a single vendor?
• The same company has been supplying football uniforms to your school and has a virtual monopoly?
• Only one vendor is allowed to visit campus to sell senior portraits?
• All the desks in your school come from a single supplier?

  If none of these bother you, ask yourself why it bothers you who supplies the PCs and software to your school? If you answer the question truthfully, you'll discover that you have a zelous hidden agenda.

Nobody uses Macs

[KalvinB]

At the college of Education at ASU they have a Mac classroom in the computer lab that students are free to use whenever there isn't a class going on. There used to be a number of macs in the main lab as well. But practically nobody used them unless the rest of the PCs were already taken.

So now, when they bought brand new systems, they replaced the Macs in the main lab.

Anyone thinking it's some kind of MS conspiracy isn't in touch with what's really going on.

That's nice that somebody phoned Slashdot and asked where the Macs went but they would have gotten the answer just as easily by asking the people who made the decision to buy more PCs and not Macs.

The answer: 99.9% of the student body doesn't use Macs. And those that use Macs can just as easily use PCs.

99.9% of the student body doesn't absolutely need Linux either. A school isn't going to dedicate a $1000+ system to just a few students who might show up once in awhile to make use of the system.

A Windows machine is useful to 100% of the student body. A Linux or Mac machine isn't useful to anywhere near that number of students. That's just the way it is.

Ben