This should make the Macheads scream with glee. Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., instituted a university-wide switch from Windows PCs to Apple's new Intel-based Macintoshes. Over the next three years, the college will become an "all-Mac" campus, giving faculty and students access to iLife and Mac OS applications (as well as Windows applications through the Intel-based systems).
The university said it expects to replenish its 1,700-computer network with Macs over the next three years. The switch is expected to cost $1.4 million, college officials said.
Here's the funniest quote, from Tim Gilmour, the college president: "Experience with the most advanced computers available today will provide our students with an edge when they enter today's job market with increasingly demanding technological expertise."
Umm, yeah, if they want to become graphic artists, computer animators or digital movie makers. [OK, that was a cheap shot].
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Cheap Shot
You forgot architects, lawyers, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, programmers..........
I admitted it was a cheap shot...
Maybe I should have mentioned that Mac people don't have a sense of humor, either... oh wait, that would get me in trouble too.
Good for the college for going all Macs, now the Apple hype machine just needs to convince about 90% of the rest of the world (don't hold me to that number).
They don't really need to
They don't really need to convince anyone -- if the cost of developing new applications for Mac OS keeps going down (Apple Keynote cost way less to develop than MSFT PowerPoint) and the percentage of buyers who will pay a price premium for a smoother user experience stays the same, then Apple's profits keep going up with the same market share. They're sustainable as the "BMW" of computer platforms, and you might even be able to make the case that their price premium is going to be higher in the long run at low market share levels.
The standard response
Actually, the standard response to that cheap shot from Mac Zealots is this:
Students are better off using Macs because Mac OS of today looks like what Windows will be in the future.
Ha! That comment is
Ha! That comment is hilarious! That was totally written by the Wilkes Univ. PR Director.
Real Professional
You'd expect a bit more of a professional touch in an article from a PChead site like Network World. Cheesy, real cheesy.
Real Professional
Tiresome cliche?
Keith Shaw, actually, funny
Keith Shaw, actually, funny or not the plain truth is that if Mac OS X, Linux and Windows had a 33% market share each, Windows would fade away for good in a few years.
Today you can do with a Mac many more things than with a PC-Windows. To start with, the Mac is the only Universal computer capable or running at native top speed any OS out there (Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Solaris, NetWare, etc).
But most importantly, it is a pleasure to use. And you feel that you control the machine and not the other way round. No viruses. No spyware. No any malware. Intuitive. Easy. Awesome. Just the opposite to the awkward, anti-intuitive and painful Windows.
not really "all-Mac"
The majority of students, staff and faculty at Wilkes University, including the president, are, and will continue to be, Windows users. It's just that, when on campus, they now use Apple hardware. All of the new boxes (minis, mostly) in classrooms, labs and public offices run XP Professional by default, but the minority of Mac users can restart them in OS X. This is a good solution for locations, like colleges, where platform standardization is resisted by significant numbers of Mac users.
Yeah, like you're not the typical PC user eh.
Seriously, do you have any proof? You don't think that after students use Macs everyday in class that they are going to want a mac for their own personal use? Wake up.