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Thread ID: 106571	2010-01-14 03:24:00	Why are alot of schools going towards Macs?	xyz823 (13649)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
848636	2010-01-14 05:25:00	'cos they dont know any better! Ken	kenj (9738)
848637	2010-01-14 05:26:00	I spoke to an old friend who looks after the IT systems at local high school, and they've increased the number of Macs in the last few years - primarily due to demand from teachers who happen to use Macs at home. Apple gives schools significant discounts on their hardware (apparently bringing their machines in line with what an Intel/AMD box with Windows would cost), which makes it a lot easier for teachers to justify getting Macs for their classroom rather than PCs. From Apple's point of view, it's a great marketing tactic - suck kids into using Apple products early, so they'll buy them when they're older (a bit like what Microsoft has been doing for decades).	somebody (208)
848638	2010-01-14 05:38:00	I was on the Board at a primary school for a number of years and was always giving the Principal stick (good-naturedly) for using Macs. :) They prefer them because, as "somebody" explained above, Apple supply schools at a much discounted price. They also need less technical knowhow to use than a PC (which suits many older teachers) and require less ongoing maintenance (from a patch and antivirus/firewall point of view). And since the software needs for schools are fairly static, there is less need to upgrade so often just so they can run the latest and greatest offering from whoever... That said, I am a PC-boy, through and through. However, I learned about computers using a Mac back in the day - but would not go back. The skills kids pick up at school using Macs can easily be transferred to using PCs when they leave school. Besides, most kids would be using PCs at home anyway, since many families can't afford Apples....	johcar (6283)
848639	2010-01-14 05:38:00	I spoke to an old friend who looks after the IT systems at local high school, and they've increased the number of Macs in the last few years - primarily due to demand from teachers who happen to use Macs at home. Apple gives schools significant discounts on their hardware (apparently bringing their machines in line with what an Intel/AMD box with Windows would cost), which makes it a lot easier for teachers to justify getting Macs for their classroom rather than PCs. From Apple's point of view, it's a great marketing tactic - suck kids into using Apple products early, so they'll buy them when they're older (a bit like what Microsoft has been doing for decades). Yes, Victoria University used to have mainly macs for this reason, because they got excellent deals. Dell have also been giving educational institutions good deals too. I don't know how servicing costs differ?	robbyp (2751)
848640	2010-01-14 05:41:00	I spoke to an old friend who looks after the IT systems at local high school, and they've increased the number of Macs in the last few years - primarily due to demand from teachers who happen to use Macs at home. Apple gives schools significant discounts on their hardware (apparently bringing their machines in line with what an Intel/AMD box with Windows would cost), which makes it a lot easier for teachers to justify getting Macs for their classroom rather than PCs. From Apple's point of view, it's a great marketing tactic - suck kids into using Apple products early, so they'll buy them when they're older (a bit like what Microsoft has been doing for decades). Thats sounds about right, little bro and sis are in love with macs atm.	xyz823 (13649)
848641	2010-01-14 05:46:00	Yes, Victoria University used to have mainly macs for this reason, because they got excellent deals. Dell have also been giving educational institutions good deals too. I don't know how servicing costs differ? From what I have heard, there's a consortium of tertiary institutes which includes several universities who place an order for tens of thousands of PCs and laptops from Dell every year (on a 3-year lease). By grouping their orders together, they are able to get significant discounts. For primary/secondary schools, the Ministry of Education negotiated a number of bulk licensing deals with companies like Microsoft a number of years ago, which means the software is in effect "free" - as far as the school is concerned - since the Ministry pays for it directly. They should really look at doing something similar for hardware - i.e. have the MinEdu negotiates with a "preferred supplier" which allows schools to get PCs at heavily discounted prices; however with the option to buy from elsewhere if the school board decides is appropriate.	somebody (208)
848642	2010-01-14 05:53:00	From what I have heard, there's a consortium of tertiary institutes which includes several universities who place an order for tens of thousands of PCs and laptops from Dell every year (on a 3-year lease). By grouping their orders together, they are able to get significant discounts. For primary/secondary schools, the Ministry of Education negotiated a number of bulk licensing deals with companies like Microsoft a number of years ago, which means the software is in effect "free" - as far as the school is concerned - since the Ministry pays for it directly. They should really look at doing something similar for hardware - i.e. have the MinEdu negotiates with a "preferred supplier" which allows schools to get PCs at heavily discounted prices; however with the option to buy from elsewhere if the school board decides is appropriate. I guess the good things about macs, is that you can also run windows on them and dual boot them, so they could get the best of both worlds. You can't do that legally with PCs, as Apple forbit you installing OSX on computers other than apple macs. The advantage of OSX for some people is that macs are used extensively for print and design in many workplaces.	robbyp (2751)
848643	2010-01-14 07:50:00	Had some work colleagues, manager consultants and they had PC laptops, then got a Mac and really liked it, they said it was more intuitive. Cannot say as I've not used a Mac. I noticed that the graphics areas use Mac too. At uni, Dell is super popular esp with commerce and in the library terminals and library (main) computer rooms, but Mac are pretty popular too esp in graphics, music, some places also had a Mac in lecture rooms and various computer labs in the science and arts faculty. PC was limited to commerce. A few teachers would take their own PC laptop and hook the network cable in the lecture room ... If you had to open a word or powerpoint document, the Mac was fine for that too ... this was like 10yrs ago :D	Nomad (952)
848644	2010-01-14 17:49:00	They may be used in Print / Design places, but PCWorld uses (Or used at least while I was working there) almost all PC's ... IIRC they had just one old single mac in the corner that nobody used. Most "Print / Design" stuff is done on Adobe products which are able to be run under Windows too :) InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop etc are usually the weapons of choice! From what I've seen, it's rarely the IT Support crews choice at school XYZ. Usually it's the teachers who influence the budget, and the vocal females who say "oooh pretty, I want I want" and because many of them don't have them at home, it's easier to get work to buy them for you to play on. From there, once you've got a few, the thought pattern seems to go something like: "Hey we don't really NEED to keep buying Macs, we didn't really make a mistake but don't want to be seen to go back on something that we begged for so we'll just keep buying them". From there, the IT guy has enough on his hands making do of some crappy old hardware for the rest of the school that hasn't been upgraded and is still running 25-students at a time on something retarded like a 2.8Ghz P4 w/4GB RAM. He's got enough to worry about and to be honest doesn't really want to be in his job anyways so flies under the radar where possible. That or the IT Guy is outsourced and doesn't get a say in the matter. That's been my experience in 3 schools anyway.	Chilling_Silence (9)
848645	2010-01-14 23:03:00	At Auckland university there are quite a few macs......all running Windows. If they don't run other OSs than I haven't seen them. I think a whole department uses macs, actually, or half of it.	qazwsxokmijn (102)
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