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US University Dumps Windows to go All Mac
MacKeyser passed us a link to a MacWorld article about a University doing things a little differently. Instead of sticking with their inefficient mix of Apple and PC systems, the college is doing a 'total technology refresh', and adopting an all-Mac policy on the campus. Previously, a class at Wilkes University would be outfitted with something like 20 Macs and 20 PCs, to allow for individual preferences in software and OS use. With Boot Camp students at the Pennsylvania liberal arts college will be able to switch between Windows and OSX, choosing which applications and OS to use at any given time. "[Scott Byers, vice president for finance and the head of campus IT said] 'We think it will save $150,000 directly, in buying fewer units - even though the Macs cost more per unit than PCs.' The school, which enrolls about 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, will reduce its inventory from nearly 1,700 computers to around 1,450 after the change over. Other costs savings, however, will be harder to measure. 'By standardizing, the IT department should be more productive,' Byers said."
... diversity good.
Even it it's a 'non-evil' monoculture.
The price of a store-bought copy of windows is several times the royalty paid for an oem windows install. So it's a net win for microsoft
Um, unless they just use the XP licenses they already have?
Anyway, MS licensing works differently if you're a 2000+ seat university compared to some lone windows fanboy running vista ultimate.... I don't think this is going to be a gain for MS at all.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
I've said it before, I've said it again; I bought my first Mac(book) recently, and the thing that pushed me over the edge to do so was the fact I knew I could fall back to Windows when I needed to, or completely stay in Windows if the OS X experience wasn't a good one. But like most people who try it, that "security blanket" of Boot Camp is more of an insurance policy, or peace of mind (or gaming option), rather than something they end up using in real life. I have my MS Office and OpenOffice, Opera/Firefox/Safari, and even IE under Crossover Office or Parallels. (I tend to use Parallels for IE testing purposes of my websites).
:)
The only reason I reboot to windows now, is for the odd game; and even that's rare with me. Windows seems so much peppier, too, when I do go to it; since I only go there occasionally, the system doesn't get bogged down with addons, startup items, spyware, etc.. (The old reinstall-windows-every-six-months can be extended greatly, if you only use Windows occasionally.)
I think for a multimedia course that needs to teach students both Mac and PC skills, it makes all the more sense; both OS's on one machine: of course it's an overall savings, and somewhat of a no-brainer.
Yes, Mac hardware is single-vendor (unless you do the hackbook thing, not viable for a commercial enterprise); but in my experience, it's well designed, solid, stable, fast hardware. My only lament is that I'm a big fan of sub-nootbooks, like Librettos, and Apple has no such option currently. But I can live without that, for all the other benefits that OS X brings.
Yes, I'm a recent fan, and I am a boy, so fling away with your "fanboy" insults. Meanwhile, I'm productive and enjoying the experience immensely
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
often longer. every fw imac, cube, power mac and ibook we ever owned is running tiger and doing better than previous OS versons - every non-fw g3+ is running 10.3.9 and doing very well.
installation? ard.
planning? has to be done anyway.
etc? macs have less etc.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I don't know. Speaking from a perspective of a graphics pro that's used both platforms, the Mac just "feels" more natural to me. No, I can't put that in a quantitative explanation. I've gone from Mac to PC back to Mac and yes, Photoshop performs on both, but as I said, it just "feels" better to me on the Mac. I've tried to understand why this is, but I really can't put my finger on it.
But honestly, it all comes down to personal preference. I know in the pre-press shops I've worked at, the PC has tried to make inroads, but there are a few things that just keep it back. Font handling is one....though most shops are going to an all PDF workflow, so that mitigates some of these problems.
But like this article, the great thing about the Intel Macs is, you can run either OS X or Windows....or even Linux, if you want. I would say that the extra you pay for the Mac is actually made up for this ability right there. It's very versatile now.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
No, it IS versatile, you just have to use it on their Hardware. Their OS, their hardware. Don't like it? Don't buy it. No one is forcing anyone. But the perk of buying THEIR hardware is the option to run all 3 OS's if you want...that's versatility. Albeit you're paying more for the hardware for that versatility, but to some it's worth it.
Apple opening up OS X to run on any hardware isn't going to be happening anytime soon and I think that people should just get over it. If it happens it happens. I'm not holding my breath for it.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Your comments do not make you sound intelligent. Here's a quote; maybe you have heard it before.
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware. --Alan Kay
A lot of people would agree with that.
Until it can be run on non-dongle-ridden hardware, it is not versatile.
The claim is that the hardware is versatile. Your comment does not apply.
In fact, depending on how Jobs' current 'selling sugar water to the kids' (iPod/iTunes) initiative goes
I'm not even quite sure what this means. Why does everyone fight against iTunes and the iPod? If you don't like it, don't use it. No one is forcing you.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
It depends on what desktop market you are talking about. If you are doing serious digital video production your choices are Mac with Final Cut Pro, or Avid. The Mac offers 90% of Avids capability at less than a 1/3rd the price. That sort of lead isn't going away anytime soon.
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
Well, art does have a well known liberal bias.
So does Slashdot.
Has anyone noticed that they aren't dumping Windows at all? They just want to use Bootcamp to cut down on total hardware costs and standardize on a single hardware platform. All they are actually dumping is beige-box PC hardware. They still plan to run Windows and Windows apps just like they did before.
You're just used to it.
Windows is constantly telling you when things succeed -- like it wants to be congratulated on doing what it's supposed to do. "New hardware detected! You've attached a camera! I found a driver! Do you want me to open the pictures or copy them or sing a song? The camera is now connected and working!" There are balloon tips popping up in the taskbar and notification area periodically, letting you know that whatever you're doing is not important, because Windows just found a new wireless network! Hey, Windows just updated your time thanks to daylight Savings! Thought you should know! hey, you have unused icons on your desktop!! Do you want me to help you clean them up? Icons are hard! Stop what you're doing and pay attention to me!
The assumption in the Windows OS interface is that things are going to fail -- that at any moment the computer could simply explode and kill everyone in the room, and if things go well it should get a pizza party like the winner of the Special Olympics.
On the Mac, it is assumed things will succeed. If you plug in a new piece of hardware, it just shows up ready to use.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.