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Microsoft Losing Big To Apple On Campus

destinyland writes "Apple is closing in on Microsoft's share of operating systems among the computers of incoming freshmen at the University of Virginia, confirming earlier reports of an ongoing trend. A yearly survey shows that among 3,156 freshman who own computers, Microsoft's share is just 56% (down 6%), with Apple's share rising to 43% (up 6%), continuing a six-year pattern. In 2004, it was Microsoft 89% vs. 8% for Apple. 'It seems likely that the Mac-using students will outnumber their Windows cousins this school year,' notes one technology blog, citing a new study showing that 70 percent of college freshman are choosing the Mac. Other interesting data from the Virginia study: In 1997, 26% of incoming freshmen said they didn't own a computer, a number which has now dropped to 0. Laptops now comprise 99% of the computer population. And Linux use has dropped from a high of 2.5% in 2004 to a rounding error this year."

3 of 764 comments (clear)

  1. linus best of breed, gets 0 play? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    no marketing. figures skewed to exclude entire internet os. it's not hard to see why fuddles is being abandoned. it might be as mr. stallman says (not an exact quote); people are too lazy/busy to bother to learn anything new, even if it's better for them/everybody in the long term.

    meanwhile (at least time enough to reflect); creators to repair planet/atmosphere. population? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04, @06:21AM (#33135678)
    save for the rescue of several billion innocents, everything else will be 'different'. see you there?

    meanwhile (hard to know how long); the corepirate nazi illuminati is always hunting that patch of red on almost everyones' neck. if they cannot find yours (greed, fear ego etc...) then you can go starve. that's their (slippery/slimy) 'platform' now. see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder

    never a better time to consult with/trust in our creators. the lights are coming up rapidly all over now. see you there?

    greed, fear & ego (in any order) are unprecedented evile's primary weapons. those, along with deception & coercion, helps most of us remain (unwittingly?) dependent on its' life0cidal hired goons' agenda. most of our dwindling resources are being squandered on the 'wars', & continuation of the billionerrors stock markup FraUD/pyramid schemes. nobody ever mentions the real long term costs of those debacles in both life & any notion of prosperity for us, or our children. not to mention the abuse of the consciences of those of us who still have one, & the terminal damage to our atmosphere (see also: manufactured 'weather', hot etc...). see you on the other side of it? the lights are coming up all over now. the fairytail is winding down now. let your conscience be your guide. you can be more helpful than you might have imagined. we now have some choices. meanwhile; don't forget to get a little more oxygen on your brain, & look up in the sky from time to time, starting early in the day. there's lots going on up there.

    "The current rate of extinction is around 10 to 100 times the usual background level, and has been elevated above the background level since the Pleistocene. The current extinction rate is more rapid than in any other extinction event in earth history, and 50% of species could be extinct by the end of this century. While the role of humans is unclear in the longer-term extinction pattern, it is clear that factors such as deforestation, habitat destruction, hunting, the introduction of non-native species, pollution and climate change have reduced biodiversity profoundly.' (wiki)

    "I think the bottom line is, what kind of a world do you want to leave for your children," Andrew Smith, a professor in the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, said in a telephone interview. "How impoverished we would be if we lost 25 percent of the world's mammals," said Smith, one of more than 100 co-authors of the report. "Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," added Julia Marton-Lefevre, IUCN director general. "We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."--

    "The wealth of the universe is for me. Every thing is explicable and practical for me .... I am defeated all the time; yet to victory I am born." --emerson

    no need to confuse 'religion' with being a spiritual being. our soul purpose here is to care for one another. failing that, we're simply passing through (excess baggage) being distracted/consumed by the guaranteed to fail illusionary trappings of man'kind'. & recently (about 10,000 years ago) it was determined that hoarding & excess by a few, resulted in negative consequences for all.

    consult with/trust in your creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/s

  2. Re:LINUX rounds numbers fine by commodore64_love · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    FYI: Macs are PCs by definition.

    Only if you want to insult it.

    PC == shorthard for IBM PC or IBM PC compatible(s). To say something like Atari 800 PC or Commodore Amiga PC or Apple Macintosh PC would have got you heavily flamed in the 1980s and 90s online forums. It was an insult against the users of these machines and the machines themselves. Today? Not so much but I'd still advise against it.

    Macintosh is a home computer.
    Not an IBM POS... I mean PC.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  3. Re:The Apple Way of Life (tm) by Nyeerrmm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    If you want to run a unix-ish OS on something that wasn't written for the particular hardware configuration, might I suggest you try Linux. Personally I love Ubuntu. I use it on my desktop and server, and stick with OSX on my laptop because hardware integration is particularly more important there and I've had issues in the past (although I understand it has gotten much better).

    I'm not sure I see the issue with OS X, at least compared with windows.