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New Zealand Chooses Google Chromebooks Over Microsoft Windows 10 For Education (betanews.com)
Google announced this week that it has signed an agreement with New Zealand's Ministry of Education to provide all state and state integrated schools in the country with Chrome Education licenses. The three-year agreement goes into effect on November 1 next month. From a report: "Starting on November 1, as part of an agreement with Google and the New Zealand Ministry of Education, all state and state-integrated schools across New Zealand will be able to start claiming Ministry-funded Chrome Education licenses to manage new and existing unmanaged Chromebooks. The Chrome Education license was developed to make device management in schools a breeze, so that teachers and students can focus on what's most important -- teaching and learning. Equipped with the Chrome Education license, schools can utilize essential education features to better support the many ways Chromebooks are used in the classroom," says Suan Ye, Head of Google for Education, Australia and New Zealand.
I have to say, it's a perfect device for most people. It "just works", and they don't have to have a degree in comp-sci to manage the thing.
We all used to wonder what was going to bring down the Windows monopoly. It's Linux... in the form of Chromebooks.
Yeah yeah someone ALWAYS points out that they can't use one because of UberCadSuperSimulationPublisherLatheController 44.0, but those people are a minuscule minority. They'll keep using Windows for a while yet, but the average person will use a phone for mobile computing, and a Chromebook or work-alike for home use when they want a larger screen. Most people's needs are perfectly met by a device like these.
Chromebooks are what's starting to drive the "year of Linux on the desktop". Not Gnome, not Cinnamon, but ChromeOS. The market hasn't totally flipped yet. It will, and when it happens, Windows is going to fade. Already Chromebooks are approaching 70% of all school purchases in the USA (flew past 60% in early 2018), and people are turning to them for home use too. When that generation of kids gets to be adults, they'll keep using ChromeOS.
I did the training for CMC (Chrome Management Console) for a non school related project and I can see why schools are adopting it.
CMC is WAY easier for IT admins to use over active directory.
You can control exactly what version of chrome devices use, when they update, what wifi networks they can connect to, what apps are allowed, where devices are (on a map even!), high security built in and its cheap. Its as close to nirvana that overworked school IT pros can get.
AD will still win on corporate networks, but MS have lost the education space and the mobile/cell phone space. Unfortunately their office/Win10 grip will hold firm in the corporate space for the foreseeable future.
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You sing praise of Chromebook as if Google is a saint. Just because something has a Linux kernel doesn't mean it deserves to be celebrated. What good is that kernel if it is hidden under layers of nonstandard UI, or tied to cloud services designed to spy on you and monetize your personal data? It's not like the end user of a Chromebook is any better off than on Windows, just more gimped, while giving more of their data to one company.
Microsoft has too much expertise in proprietary tools and user support to say they are going away merely over a single district's choice.
It's not a single district's choice. It's already MOST districts. As in well more than half.
The difference today is that Apples were expensive, and Chromebooks come in affordable ranges for the average working Joe. Also Chromebooks are way easier to manage than Macs, and waaaaaaaay easier than Windows. That's the nail in Microsoft's coffin. (Mac has not enough desktop market share to have a coffin to drive a nail into).
As the NZ school year finishes up in late November/early December, why not save 2+ months of licensing by waiting for the new school yea run February?
The reason why you'd want to go with Windows is that that's probably what most of them will need to use when they enter the workforce. ChromeOS may make a fine teaching tool, but it's not giving them any marketable skills, unless "I'm a wizard at using Google search and updating my Facebook page" is a job skill.
In fact it's not even certain that it's a good teaching tool, there have been plenty of studies showing that introducing laptops to the classroom has anything from little to no effect on performance, through to a net loss in the worst case (they're busy updating their Facebook pages, not learning). So perhaps the choice of Chromebooks is because if you want to follow a fad, you can at least take the cheaper option.
What is this garbage?
Hell, even the Surface hardware feels uninspired these days
Why is some lame Microsoft-hating blog being linked to instead of the original source?
https://www.blog.google/outrea...
Nothing in the statement from Google says this is an exclusive switch to only Chromebooks. This is just the government saying that they'll pay for special education licenses to manage Chromebooks for schools that want it. Probably because schools have been buying Chromebooks because they're the cheapest option, and now the school systems are having issues managing them. Obviously the government wouldn't be blowing money on these management tools if they weren't having issues with the Chromebooks that needed to be addressed. What I want to know is if the schools already bought Chromebooks, and Google has tools the manage them en masse, why is Google *charging* schools to use this tool? Google already has made money off the Chromebooks - they've already been purchased. This expenditure doesn't directly help the students. It's not buying more hardware, or more educational software. It's just to try and keep the Chromebooks running right. You'd think Google, with their billions, would provide these tools for free to any educational organization that wants it.
But this has to be spun as an anti-Microsoft move by New Zealand.
Better known as 318230.
As someone who works in NZ schools this is totally sensationalist. Windows 10 and intune management liscences have been paid for under the same kind of deal for years. It is good they are now doing the same thing for chrome os. There are a lot of chromebooks in use but there is also a lot of Windows and Mac too. The article and writeup are very bias as per usual.
The reason why you'd want to go with Windows is that that's probably what most of them will need to use when they enter the workforce.
No one gets fired for buying IBM., so maybe they should be teaching the kids OS/2.
google education licenses in schools, does not allow google to use any user personal information (or any information associated with a Google Account).
basically edu licenses for both Microsoft and Google are free its the hardware etc that costs, microsoft had pretty much lost this one and even DELL know it... I repeat DELL sell chromebooks thats how much chromebooks are working in edu.
personally the quicker we can kill Active Directory and have proper security the better
Yeah, I found it weird New Zealand would choose Google given their strong attachment to personal privacy.
As a born and bred New Zealander, I have no idea where you get that idea from.
The average Kiwi knows absolutely nothing about computers, and the people who made this decision will be no different. They want it to "Just Work".
As with any sale this size though, it's usually about the kickbacks
There won't be any kickbacks. Check out the corruption perceptions index. We are either 1st or 2nd in the world for corruption.
This may be because of the many schools who demanded parents buy iPads. The pushback was pretty strong, and I know several people who told their kid's school to get stuffed when told they would have to buy one.
"I have to say, it's a perfect device for most people. It "just works", and they don't have to have a degree in comp-sci to manage the thing."
Yeah, just do all your computing, shopping, and interacting with the world using a device built by an advertising company that wants to monetize you. What could possibly be undesirable about that.
"Yeah yeah someone ALWAYS points out that they can't use one because of UberCadSuperSimulationPublisherLatheController 44.0, but those people are a minuscule minority"
No they aren't. They want to work on a powerpoint or spreadhsheet using exactly the same software they use at work. They run a small business and need some accounting software. They bought a logitech harmony universal remote and want to program it, they want to play some random steam game.
"When that generation of kids gets to be adults, they'll keep using ChromeOS."
For a while it was all ipads ipads ipads, every student gets an ipad, and schools couldn't buy enough ipads, and then the schools discovered they weren't really all that great for education after all. And now home users are finding between their smartphone and their laptop the tablet isn't that useful there either, and the next great thing is now becoming a niche -- still useful and definitely has a place but we didn't get rid of all our computers for them in the end.
Chromebooks are the new tablets which were the new netbooks... maybe they'll take hold... or maybe they'll be ultimately found to be too limiting too. The jury's still out. For me... as lousy as windows 10 is... chromeOs is not an improvement.
Not quite true.
A chromebook is a full computer. Just one that has 15 years behind the times performance, at a fantastically low price point, in a very portable package.
Nearly every variety of chromebook in the wild is capable of having its firmware extended to support booting true linux. Many are capable of booting windows after the extension as well. (It does not need to wholly replace the chromebook's proprietary firmware. The firmware has a region that is reserved for legacy booting, which is frequently unpopulated. The extension just puts the missing functionality in where it was designed to go.)
I am posting this from a liberated chromebook at this very moment in fact. Other than the weak CPU and GPU, the often crippled RAM compliment, and the notoriously small internal storage, it is perfectly functional for general purpose computing. The shitty internal storage can be supplemented with a spacious SD card that has been properly formatted, and careful use of zram and tmpfs in heavily written to areas.
Liberated chromebooks neatly occupy the niche that netbooks did a decade ago.
Chromebooks are JUST netbooks with a fancy bios, running a proprietary linux.
Nearly EVERY model of chromebook can be completely liberated from Google's hungry clutches. For no added cost above the hardware itself.
A fun activity that this supposed IT teacher could do?
"OK class-- Today, first thing, we are liberating our chromebooks. After that, we will discuss the script used to accomplish this noble goal in detail, and what it does. Tomorrow, we will install a proper operating system."
See also, MrChromebox.tech
What will happen once with greater enablement in their children, the people realize the privacy implications of their decision?
Are you unaware that the latest Windows is also a privacy shit show? I'm sure even an Apple device is reporting *something* back to Cupertino. The only option to not be spied on these days is to install GNU/Linux or similar. That said, having privacy from some megacorp isn't a primary or even secondary need for "education devices"
The requirements are probably more like:
Cheap so it doesn't really matter if a kid fucks it up. Some idiot in this thread listed "cheap" as a drawback, yet it's a primary need for these devices. Cheap also leads to weaker hardware; guess which OS will suffer the most on weak hardware (Clue: it's not one of the *nix derivatives)
Needs to be locked down so a kid won't fuck the OS up and require IT support (even locking down the OS requires IT support if you're on Windows)
Automagically uploading to a server so a virus can't eat the homework, while still allowing offline work that will automagically upload later on when it has a network connection
Collaborative work: Google docs has been collaborative for years, so no mailing around different versions of a doc. The group just edits the doc locally and sees everyone else's update in real time. I'm sure MS Office would have copied this feature by now but honestly who gives a fuck about the product that did it second
And to the people claiming that these kids will be disadvantaged when they join the work force, you've got it backwards. The megacorps try and get people to use their products as kids so that they turn into adults who expect/use the same products in their work place. For example, the university I attended had free licenses of Office, Visual Studio Pro, Visio etc provided by MS to the IT students, as a means of locking us into their way of doing things (If you've already got Visual Studio then you're at least going to try writing your code in C# and your teachers know that they can expect you to produce and submit your work using the provided tools
A lot of office suite skills are transferable, and I would bet good money that someone who trained on Google Sheets and Google Docs can be re-trained on Office 365 suite pretty quickly—much more quickly than someone who literally only did what you said (using Google search and social media).
Privacy implications compared to what?
Cloud is the only practical option, as the funding isn't there for anything else, and they are all as bad as each other. That cancels out in the comparison.
Maintenance wise Chromebooks win hands down. Logically it is the only choice they could make.
The kids who are capable will have another computer anyway.
First, it's a school laptop so the expectation of privacy is probably minimal to start with.
Secondly, Google doesn't monteize personal data without permission (e.g. asking to use your photos on Google maps, opt-in on personalized advertising), and has special educational accounts for children that are even more restricted. Remember that you normally can't even get a Google account to use a Chromebook unless you are of legal age to agree to it in your jurisdiction.
By the way, if you have evidence that Google is using personal data it does not have explicit opt-in permission to use then I'd love to see it. I will file the GDPR complaint personally, all you need to do is show me the proof I need.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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