It's unnerving that you choose to use the words "broken" and "laptop" in the same sentence. Broken laptops are why so many IT folks won't abide laptops of any maker's.
Our company - a school district - operated (till last year - budget cuts got it, while the IT folks are still working) a PC triage shop, where we took in donated computers, and refurbed them for the kids. Of thousands of laptops and desktops, most of the time, the Apples were working. The PCs were not.
Our SOP for computer intake was, "If it's a PC under (this month's min) mHz, take it apart and shelve the good parts."
We saved the drives, cases and power supplies, bought modern mobos and Athlons, and knocked out very fast machines. It cost less than buying new PCs, and they were as reliable. The district wouldn't let us run Linux on them - or we could have used them unmodded.
Our SOP for Macs was, "Give it OS (best it will run), some RAM and a big HD, and there's three schools waiting for it."
Our Macs never came back with "issues," either. Joints in drive slots, milk down the cooling vents, but never errors, issues or uncertainties. If a teacher had a problem, we talked him/her through it. The Mac performed.
I stripped and stacked a hundred Mac power supplies once, for the future, and never had to use one... this could go on. Cringely is right, but there's more to cost of ownership than any one issue. Distractions take time. Time is money. And Macs are built like brick sh*thouses, and function like there's unlimited tomorrows. And function. And...
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It's unnerving that you choose to use the words "broken" and "laptop" in the same sentence. Broken laptops are why so many IT folks won't abide laptops of any maker's.
Our company - a school district - operated (till last year - budget cuts got it, while the IT folks are still working) a PC triage shop, where we took in donated computers, and refurbed them for the kids. Of thousands of laptops and desktops, most of the time, the Apples were working. The PCs were not.
Our SOP for computer intake was, "If it's a PC under (this month's min) mHz, take it apart and shelve the good parts."
We saved the drives, cases and power supplies, bought modern mobos and Athlons, and knocked out very fast machines. It cost less than buying new PCs, and they were as reliable. The district wouldn't let us run Linux on them - or we could have used them unmodded.
Our SOP for Macs was, "Give it OS (best it will run), some RAM and a big HD, and there's three schools waiting for it."
Our Macs never came back with "issues," either. Joints in drive slots, milk down the cooling vents, but never errors, issues or uncertainties. If a teacher had a problem, we talked him/her through it. The Mac performed.
I stripped and stacked a hundred Mac power supplies once, for the future, and never had to use one... this could go on. Cringely is right, but there's more to cost of ownership than any one issue. Distractions take time. Time is money. And Macs are built like brick sh*thouses, and function like there's unlimited tomorrows. And function. And...