school switches back to OS9...

[garzy]

the visual arts department at my school decided to try OSX, but due to problems with printers and scanning equipment they reinstalled 9 for use until the end of the semester when they will try to work out bugs. it sucks, but at least they tried. most of the education market has failed to even attempt using OSX

[GigaWire]

We installed OS X.2 on 12 Macs in our digital media lab. The only problem was with a Canon film scanner, for which there are no drivers on X yet. Other than that, everything has been downright charming.

[Doctor Q]

Last summer, I helped set up a new computer classroom with Mac OS X 10.1 and Mac OS X 10.1 Server. We had a lot of growing pains getting everything running, mostly because we wanted to put home directories on the server so we didn't need assigned seats and so we had only a single machine to backup. We had to wait for drivers from manufacturers, but we eventually got all problems solved and the classroom has been in use every school day this school year. We have yet to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.2, which would let us try netbooting. We'll probably upgrade after school gets out in June so we have plenty of time to experiment.

So don't give up hope!

[WinterMute]

We are converting all the macs in our Music Tech dept to OSX this summer, had to wait for ProTools and Logic to make it over.

I've been running OSX on the Ti Book for six months, and most of our Digital Arts labs are OSX (300+G4 towers). Just bought 4 x-servers and I think ordered an x-raid or 2 for the video boys.

I've found OSX to be more useful by far in education, interfacing with PC networks and data projectors alone has been much easier.

Had to buy a new scanner though:(

OSX is the best audio operating system there is.

[shadowfax]

my school's art dept. has about 10 OS X powermacs with the 17 inch LCDs... i don't know HOW they got the $ for them, or what they use them for, but they are REALLY nice for our school, which is mostly on Dells with crappy FORTRES software on them to cut performance and usability by 500%.

seriously, that software mede the P4 1.8 GHz boxes run slower than my P3 933. anyways.

our journalism room is on OS 9 powermacs running like pagemaker 6 and photoshop 6. They have big 20 inch trinitron monitors. i think the place has maybe 2 new OS X powermacs, but no one seems to appreciate them, by and large. our journalism department is composed almost entirely of PC users (at home), and the newspaaper sucks like nothing else.

[howard]

my school is all on os 9 but i think they just this semester bought a lab full of 15inch imacs and i think they are able to boot in os 10 as well as nine. hopefully over the summer they'll do a full switch

[daniel77]

Originally posted by totalr0xx0r
the visual arts department at my school decided to try OSX, but due to problems with printers and scanning equipment they reinstalled 9 for use until the end of the semester when they will try to work out bugs. it sucks, but at least they tried. most of the education market has failed to even attempt using OSX

my library's whole imac, powermac setup use 0S X, course those are on the 600mhz DV iMacs, and I think 867 G4's, course you have to be a senior to use the G4, load o BS :rolleyes:

[G4scott]

My school uses dells :mad:

But my iBook is the only computer that runs OS X in my school... It rocks. I can plug into the network, and access my user folder on the NT server faster than the tech guys can with the pee-cee's. I love it.

[janey]

even with the ten for teachers (http://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteachers/) program that apple's doing none of my teachers are ANYWHERE near willing to use Jaguar or anything above OS 9 for that matter.
It's driving me nuts. The fact that as a teacher you're getting a free copy of a wonderful operating system is not a good enough reason to upgrade?! A lot of people can't even AFFORD an upgrade to 10.2 or they want a serious discount off of their purchase.
This is insane! My former history teacher even uninstalled OS X on his (now old) snow iBook because he didn't want to use it.
And to see something like OS 9 running on a whole bunch of wonderful MDD Power Macs makes it seem like a complete waste of money.

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
my school's art dept. has about 10 OS X powermacs with the 17 inch LCDs... i don't know HOW they got the $ for them, or what they use them for, but they are REALLY nice for our school, which is mostly on Dells with crappy FORTRES software on them to cut performance and usability by 500%.

seriously, that software mede the P4 1.8 GHz boxes run slower than my P3 933. anyways.

our journalism room is on OS 9 powermacs running like pagemaker 6 and photoshop 6. They have big 20 inch trinitron monitors. i think the place has maybe 2 new OS X powermacs, but no one seems to appreciate them, by and large. our journalism department is composed almost entirely of PC users (at home), and the newspaaper sucks like nothing else.

Yea Fortres really sucks. Of coarse I found the first way around my schools current version and shut down their servers for like 8 days. :rolleyes: I didn't do it! :cool:

Anyway my school is so stupid the run all of there new 15" iMac systems on Os 9.

They All have Os X on them, but they places all of these locked features that I haven't found a way to bypass yet. :(

My school is a real Bitch about that. :mad:

Bah. I can't even use the killer Os X.

[FelixDerKater]

Here at the university, we have a mix of X and 9.

At the biggest lab where they do online math courses, there are about 700 G4 towers running OS 9. They were waiting on Matlab and Real Player for OS X (for online recorded lectures), and we all know how long that took to get here. Both of those applications are now available. Whether they will migrate to OS X over the summer or not, I'm not sure. They may just wait until they buy new Macs that come with X installed.

As far as public access computers, there is a mix of G4 Cubes running OS 9, LCD iMacs running X, and DeLL PCs running XP.

[ibookin']

At the high school I work for, we have a mix of Macs running X.2, Macs running 9, and PCs. In the classrooms, we have iMac 500s running 9.2. In our labs, we have iMac DV 400s and PowerMac 733s and 800s (with 17" LCD Studio Displays :D ). We are in the process of converting our labs to OS X, and have installed it on most of the iMacs and all of the PowerMacs. As you can see, our hardware is perfectly capable of running OS X (all machines have >=192MB ram), but we are having trouble making the transition to OS X because there is no simple upgrade route to Office v.X. It's simply too expensive to upgrade to the new Office.

But our Mac servers run OS X.2 Server.

[Doctor Q]

The middle school where I volunteer just got a Federal grant for new computer equipment. The first planning meeting is the end of this coming week. There may be a major PC-vs.-Mac battle involved. In the past, we have decided to go with Macs for the computer classroom but let each teacher pick his or her favorite platform for his or her own classroom. As a result, we have a mixture throughout the school, about 80% Mac and 20% Intel.

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
The middle school where I volunteer just got a Federal grant for new computer equipment. The first planning meeting is the end of this coming week. There may be a major PC-vs.-Mac battle involved. In the past, we have decided to go with Macs for the computer classroom but let each teacher pick his or her favorite platform for his or her own classroom. As a result, we have a mixture throughout the school, about 80% Mac and 20% Intel.

Oh no. time to get that Mac Vs. Pc info site handy!
Quickly! (http://www.macvspc.info/)

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
The middle school where I volunteer just got a Federal grant for new computer equipment. The first planning meeting is the end of this coming week. There may be a major PC-vs.-Mac battle involved. In the past, we have decided to go with Macs for the computer classroom but let each teacher pick his or her favorite platform for his or her own classroom. As a result, we have a mixture throughout the school, about 80% Mac and 20% Intel.

I think that's really cool that you let them choose in that district. i wish we had some macs :(. too bad you're about to have another war, though.

[flyfish29]

Originally posted by übergeek
The fact that as a teacher you're getting a free copy of a wonderful operating system is not a good enough reason to upgrade?! A lot of people can't even AFFORD an upgrade to 10.2 or they want a serious discount off of their purchase.
This is insane! My former history teacher even uninstalled OS X on his (now old) snow iBook because he didn't want to use it.


I am a teacher and am not running OS X yet as I can't afford the upgrade of hardware (not to mention software) that I would have to do to run it at any sort of normal speed. I have an older iMac that would run it, but not very quickly. When we are willing to pay teachers what they are worth in this world then maybe they will be able to afford to buy the latest everything.

Something to think about: I would get a $9,000 raise if I went to work for McDonalds as an Assistant Manager mind you not to mention much better benefits (and NO, I AM NOT talking about a uniform or even free food here.)

Something else to think about: Why do we pay people more money to take care of our computers than to take care of our children?!?!

Hoping to get iMac 17" this summer though!

[Billicus]

Originally posted by ibookin'@mwny
At the high school I work for, we have a mix of Macs running X.2, Macs running 9, and PCs. In the classrooms, we have iMac 500s running 9.2. In our labs, we have iMac DV 400s and PowerMac 733s and 800s (with 17" LCD Studio Displays :D ). We are in the process of converting our labs to OS X, and have installed it on most of the iMacs and all of the PowerMacs. As you can see, our hardware is perfectly capable of running OS X (all machines have >=192MB ram), but we are having trouble making the transition to OS X because there is no simple upgrade route to Office v.X. It's simply too expensive to upgrade to the new Office.

But our Mac servers run OS X.2 Server.

At least you have Macs that can run OS 9. At my high school, the computer lab is full of old PowerMacs running a mix of 7.6.1 and 8.5. It really blows. I just heard we're equipping the lab with new eMacs though. The computer teacher is pretty enamored to OS 9 though. Hopefully she'll realize new Macs should be utilized to their fullest, aka OS X!

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by flyfish29
I am a teacher and am not running OS X yet as I can't afford the upgrade of hardware (not to mention software) that I would have to do to run it at any sort of normal speed. I have an older iMac that would run it, but not very quickly. When we are willing to pay teachers what they are worth in this world then maybe they will be able to afford to buy the latest everything.

Something to think about: I would get a $9,000 raise if I went to work for McDonalds as an Assistant Manager mind you not to mention much better benefits (and NO, I AM NOT talking about a uniform or even free food here.)

Something else to think about: Why do we pay people more money to take care of our computers than to take care of our children?!?!

Hoping to get iMac 17" this summer though!
you get paid less because we are in a society that commits the hypocrisy of demanding an education of its people and refusing to value those who provide it.

the cool thing about you is, you take the crap, you help the people who refuse to help you back. i commend that.
good luck on your iMac 17" :)

[Doctor Q]

I'm a Mac bigot at home but I try to speak fairly about the Mac/PC tradeoffs when we have discussions at school.

Our school has more Macs than PCs because they make sense for us. I try to give teachers and parents fair assessments when we purchase one platform or the other.

In the long run, I find Macs easier to set up, easier to train a beginner (teacher or student) to use, and easier to maintain through O.S. upgrades. All-in-one models (from Performas through iMacs and eMacs) suit schools - the less components and cables the better. Apple promotes and packages software that suits schools. Apple provides online resources for teachers to plan and share lessons.

Does this make Macs a shoo-in? No. PC hardware is usually a less expensive initial purchase. There are more total software titles, even though there are plenty of quality Mac titles.

People don't often mention this, but at a small school, a lot depends on having school staff or volunteers familiar with the platform you choose. There are typically more students, parents, and teachers who are familiar with PCs. If I hadn't been there as a volunteer, they probably would not have leaned so heavily toward Macs at this school.

And having the best equipment and software doesn't matter at all unless the teachers know what to do with it. That's why a teacher who is already familiar with Windows or Windows-specific programs is often better off with a PC.

Having a mixture of platforms is also a tradeoff, compared with mandating a single platform. It is more work to maintain a mixture of computers on campus. But I think students should use both Mac OS and Windows. If they can use Unix too, so much the better. I disagree with those who say "Students should use Windows because they will need it in their jobs." I argue that any O.S. being used in middle school today won't be used in business when these students enter the job market. They need variety and the ability to learn something new, not job training on Windows XP.

[Billicus]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
I'm a Mac bigot at home but I try to speak fairly about the Mac/PC tradeoffs when we have discussions at school.

Our school has more Macs than PCs because they make sense for us. I try to give teachers and parents fair assessments when we purchase one platform or the other.

In the long run, I find Macs easier to set up, easier to train a beginner (teacher or student) to use, and easier to maintain through O.S. upgrades. All-in-one models (from Performas through iMacs and eMacs) suit schools - the less components and cables the better. Apple promotes and packages software that suits schools. Apple provides online resources for teachers to plan and share lessons.

Does this make Macs a shoo-in? No. PC hardware is usually a less expensive initial purchase. There are more total software titles, even though there are plenty of quality Mac titles.

People don't often mention this, but at a small school, a lot depends on having school staff or volunteers familiar with the platform you choose. There are typically more students, parents, and teachers who are familiar with PCs. If I hadn't been there as a volunteer, they probably would not have leaned so heavily toward Macs at this school.

And having the best equipment and software doesn't matter at all unless the teachers know what to do with it. That's why a teacher who is already familiar with Windows or Windows-specific programs is often better off with a PC.

Having a mixture of platforms is also a tradeoff, compared with mandating a single platform. It is more work to maintain a mixture of computers on campus. But I think students should use both Mac OS and Windows. If they can use Unix too, so much the better. I disagree with those who say "Students should use Windows because they will need it in their jobs." I argue that any O.S. being used in middle school today won't be used in business when these students enter the job market. They need variety and the ability to learn something new, not job training on Windows XP.

I agree completely. While I enjoy a good PC Bashing, the reality of the matter is: They are both good, and are both useful in some matters. The fact is, is that Macs are generally easier to learn/run/maintain, so that is why my school has leaned this way. We recently have had an influx of PC's from a company called REACT in the area that gives old, donated PC's away to schools for free. Our school is getting new PC's for the bussiness lab, and they are using the saying "We need to train the kids on Windows, because that is what they will be using in the work place." That just doesn't fly with me. While our school is predominantly Macs, I think that we are starting to learn towards PC's. The lesser initial purchasing price may sound inticing, but I find that in the long run, PC's end up costing more money - repairs, reformats, new equipment, etc., and more of the computer technician's time. One other thing - of all the Macs and PC's in the school, guess which ones have viruses and which ones don't.:D

[janey]

Originally posted by ibookin'@mwny
...but we are having trouble making the transition to OS X because there is no simple upgrade route to Office v.X. It's simply too expensive to upgrade to the new Office.

But our Mac servers run OS X.2 Server.
You know that there's something called OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) right? It's FREE. It's almost like Microsoft Office. And who says you *need* office in the first place?!
Nice...10.2 Server!! We don't even have a functioning network at our school (damn PC's!).

Originally posted by flyfish29

I am a teacher and am not running OS X yet as I can't afford the upgrade of hardware (not to mention software) that I would have to do to run it at any sort of normal speed. I have an older iMac that would run it, but not very quickly. When we are willing to pay teachers what they are worth in this world then maybe they will be able to afford to buy the latest everything.
Some of my teachers do not deserve to be paid. :rolleyes: Apple has great discounts for educaation customers perhaps you can get a decent computer at a discount.
And I loved MacAddict's little article about ten for teachers: Remember when a shiny red apple was an apt scholastic gift? Ironically, it's Apple who is raising the bar by giving teachers a free copy of Jaguar.

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by übergeek

Some of my teachers do not deserve to be paid. :rolleyes:

über, you're right. many teachers, and people for that matter, don't deserve to get paid.

many people don't even deserve to live, yet they do. and many that die deserve to live. can you give that life to them? then don't be so fast to pass out judgment as to who deserves to die.

--Gandalf from LOTR.

i am just saying, i think that's a really obnoxious reply to a guy that for all you know gives up the better part of his life to help kids who make immature, thoughtless remarks like that one, only to be compensated with less than a mcdonald's manager who sacrifices much less than a teacher does. don't be so fast to judge people (not that you really blatantly were judging, but that was one of the meanest things i can think of to say to a teacher)

we all make mistakes, and some of us (these teachers you talk of, perhaps) habitually do so. but whenever think you're pure enough to make a comment like that to an elder and educator who's done nothing but show kindness to you, you know you need to think nicer, or at least harder. let me also say that i make no claims to perfection in the area of respecting those above me, or people in general at all; i am learning like the rest of us. just passing a little tidbit of wisdom i got from tolkien, and other wise men and women in my short 18 years.

[janey]

Dude shadowfax i didn't really mean it. Its just that some of my teachers, are well, not very nice (positively spitting with anger towards me i bet) and I'm very very sorry to those *NICE* teachers out there that were hurt in some way by my thoughtless comment.
However, there's only been ONE SINGLE TEACHER in my even shorter life who has shown kindness to me.

[Doctor Q]

A few days ago I mentioned in this thread that the middle school where I volunteer got a federal grant and I expected the PC-vs.-Mac question to come up. Well, last night was the first planning meeting and the first question that came up was "which platform?".

Our answer for now is to give teachers what they can best use, which means a mixed platform environment. For teachers with no preference (there really are such people, which always surprises me), we'll probably recommend Macs for the reasons I mentioned before.

You are not supposed to "look a gift horse in the mouth", but I pointed out that all of the funding is for hardware, so the school will get brand new multimedia PCs or Macs with nothing but the operating system and whatever software comes with it. It will be up to the school to raise its own money for any other software. I think this is very shortsighted planning by the school district. As it turns out, this will favor Macs because of iLife and other included software.

[WinterMute]

I wonder if Apple could find it in their hearts to extend the free Jaguar offer to Uni lecturers as well as teachers?

That would be nice...

Really nice...

Oh yes;)

[beatle888]

Originally posted by totalr0xx0r
the visual arts department at my school decided to try OSX, but due to problems with printers and scanning equipment they reinstalled 9 for use until the end of the semester when they will try to work out bugs. it sucks, but at least they tried. most of the education market has failed to even attempt using OSX


thats strange, we moved to X but left a couple
systems in 9 for scanning stations and such.

but they decided to move all the systems back
to 9? hehehe ok.


.

[beatle888]

Originally posted by flyfish29

Something to think about: I would get a $9,000 raise if I went to work for McDonalds as an Assistant Manager mind you not to mention much better benefits (and NO, I AM NOT talking about a uniform or even free food here.)

thats messed up. i hope things change for
you in your current field...but i dont think
they will any time soon...which sucks. maybe
major tax breaks for teachers? like....teachers
are exempt from having to pay taxes....that
would be cool.

[Clark C]

Yea, that pisses me off. At the University of Minnesota we have a huge computer lab in the main library. 45% are Dell, 45% are Mac and 10% are Linux. All the macs run on OS 9. You have around 30 flat screen Powermac runing 9. It's in insult. Then the new computer lab in the student union got brand new power macs, and they also run OS 9. Using them they've frozen on me twice! These things are ambassadors of the Mac. They can't be running 2 year old crap on it. No wonder every person I run into thinks mac sucks.

[guitargeek]

My school's library is still on 486's! :eek:

They also completely outfitted the WHOLE SCHOOL with new 1.8 Ghz Dell's, which drives me nuts because the computers they replaced were 933 Mhz P3's. They weren't THAT old!

And yet they tell us not to print anything because the paper costs too much money :rolleyes:

The graphics design department has a few G4 machines, though.

[Roger1]

I wonder if Apple could find it in their hearts to extend the free Jaguar offer to Uni lecturers as well as teachers?

That would be nice...

Really nice...



How about extending it to the computer support technicians that work for school districts? What's the point in giving it to teachers, if the techs don't have it?

BTW Our local school district doesn't use X too much, because all of our software is 9 based, and the money just not there for new software.

Now, sometime next year, the main software our teachers use will be out for X. I think then we will be switching.

[ibookin']

Originally posted by Roger1
How about extending it to the computer support technicians that work for school districts? What's the point in giving it to teachers, if the techs don't have it?


Hell Yeah! I want a free copy of Jag.


Originally posted by Roger1
BTW Our local school district doesn't use X too much, because all of our software is 9 based, and the money just not there for new software.


Same deal with us :(

[DakotaGuy]

K-12 education has almost went all to PC in my state and I imagine the same is happening all over the country. We dumped all of our Macs for Gateway Celerons. They are junk! It is what the parents and the board of education wants however. I have always been the supporter of Apple in the schools and I have 1 of the 2 "modern" Macs in the K-12 complex. We are running OSX 10.2 on them, networking with all the PC's is awesome. Our tech coordinator is looking at an XServe for the building however. M$ is killing us by charging so much to keep the Windows server up.

Some of the teachers especially the younger ones like myself went to bat for Macs when it came time to update the labs, but the community said NO! They wanted the kids to learn on computers they will actually use someday in life. Sad and especially all the money we put into this new Gateway mobile lab, it is all junk, flimsy laptops that are falling apart after 6 months. I tried to show the administration how much better the iBook was for a mobile lab for elementary students, but I guess in the end it is hard to love something so much that is so unpopular with the public.

[Billicus]

Originally posted by Abercrombieboy
K-12 education has almost went all to PC in my state and I imagine the same is happening all over the country. We dumped all of our Macs for Gateway Celerons. They are junk! It is what the parents and the board of education wants however. I have always been the supporter of Apple in the schools and I have 1 of the 2 "modern" Macs in the K-12 complex. We are running OSX 10.2 on them, networking with all the PC's is awesome. Our tech coordinator is looking at an XServe for the building however. M$ is killing us by charging so much to keep the Windows server up.

Some of the teachers especially the younger ones like myself went to bat for Macs when it came time to update the labs, but the community said NO! They wanted the kids to learn on computers they will actually use someday in life. Sad and especially all the money we put into this new Gateway mobile lab, it is all junk, flimsy laptops that are falling apart after 6 months. I tried to show the administration how much better the iBook was for a mobile lab for elementary students, but I guess in the end it is hard to love something so much that is so unpopular with the public.

Our school is mostly Macs, but we jumped on the bandwagon and got some free PC's when a local company upgraded to newer PC's. About using Pc's, becuase they'll use them in the real world, that just doesn't fly. Any Operating system and computer they use now, no matter what it be (preferably Macs and OS X) will be outdated by the time they hit the workforce. Therefore, they won't be using what they were trained on in High School anyway, so why shouldn't it be Macs?

[beatle888]

thats silly though, anyone who can use a mac,
can also use a pc, the basic concept is the same.
thanks to windows doing such a good job at
ripping the mac os off. the kids would easily
be able to operate a windows machine...oh
never mind...the misinformed masses always
have the say in things. i wonder how the world
would be if we actually strived for the best,
instead following the common crowed...damn
we ARE sheep. oh well.

[guitargeek]

They wanted the kids to learn on computers they will actually use someday in life

That's too bad, since if you really learn how to use a computers, you can figure out the minor differences between operating systems. And, hopefully, Windows won't dominate the OS scene forever. But some people are just too blind... *sigh*

[yzedf]

Originally posted by Abercrombieboy
Some of the teachers especially the younger ones like myself went to bat for Macs when it came time to update the labs, but the community said NO! They wanted the kids to learn on computers they will actually use someday in life.

What? What are you running, win98? For K-12? That will be ancient for all but the seniors within the next year.

It's not the OS that is important. It is the idea of using a computer as a tool.

--

If you want a cheap file server, setup something free (ie BSD or GNU/Linux server on that PC hardware you already have...)

[ibookin']

Originally posted by yzedf
What? What are you running, win98? For K-12? That will be ancient for all but the seniors within the next year.

It's not the OS that is important. It is the idea of using a computer as a tool.

I totally agree. Computers should be thought of as tools for learning and productivity (and gaming, web fun, etc. but I don't think that's pertinent). It doesn't matter what OS you teach 4th graders to use because by the time they get intojobs or college it will be a relic.

[Rower_CPU]

Regarding the earlier Fortres comments...

I run CleanSlate on our lab PCs which does a nice job of letting the little wanna-be L337 h4X0r5 think they're doing something but then wipes the machines back to my image on restart.

It does tend to slow things down somewhat, but I'm willing to make that trade off to not have to deal with fixing them every two days because some punk decided he wants to put his face on the desktop (true story). I'm pretty sure other lab managers feel the same way.

Have a little consideration for what the techs have to deal with.:)

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Regarding the earlier Fortres comments...

I run CleanSlate on our lab PCs which does a nice job of letting the little wanna-be L337 h4X0r5 think they're doing something but then wipes the machines back to my image on restart.

It does tend to slow things down somewhat, but I'm willing to make that trade off to not have to deal with fixing them every two days because some punk decided he wants to put his face on the desktop (true story). I'm pretty sure other lab managers feel the same way.

Have a little consideration for what the techs have to deal with.:)

that's cool. i like the idea of a fresh image after a restart. i don't try to hack FORTRES. it seems pointless... break into the school computer, why? to have my name/pic on one? to steal sensitive data? it seems pathetic to me, too. i just resent that it has to turn the computers into mush. i could practically compile faster on paper than on a P4 with FORTRES--at least, the ones i have used.

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
that's cool. i like the idea of a fresh image after a restart. i don't try to hack FORTRES. it seems pointless... break into the school computer, why? to have my name/pic on one? to steal sensitive data? it seems pathetic to me, too. i just resent that it has to turn the computers into mush. i could practically compile faster on paper than on a P4 with FORTRES--at least, the ones i have used.

Our Dells are only 1GHz P3s, but I only run CleanSlate, not all the other Fortres stuff which probably causes the slowdowns you all are seeing.

I think people try to mess with the machines because they're:
a) bored
b) anti-social
c) think they're L337 and proving something

Anyway, just my opinion...

[Weirdwolf]

I remember when I was in Middle and High School, Macs were still pretty new. Heck, I learned about computers originally on Apple IIe's. :p When I got into college, however, most everything was Windows 3.1, etc, and eventually 95 came out. I hadn't owned a computer of my own since an old Commodore 64 way back when. I needed a computer for schoolwork, and up and bought a Performa 6116CD. I fell in love with the Macintosh all over again, despite harsh criticism from friends, coworkers, and classmates at college. Later, I got an early model iMac 333Mhz, with the tray loading CD ROM. I didn't have that long until I started desiring to do more with my Mac than just surf the internet and do artwork. Within a year, I took the plunge and maxed out the credit card with my current machine, an iMac 600Mhz. That maxed out credit card is still being paid on, but it's been worth every penny. Soon it'll all be paid off, and when that's done 17" er SuperDrive, here I come! ;)

I've used Windows from time to time, quite frankly, it sucks. It's ugly and unintuitive. I've converted a few friends and coworkers recently to the Mac OS and have become somewhat of a stopgap for them, when they need to know how to do something on their Mac that they knew how to do on a PC. Macs have become a beloved and integrated part of my life, something I don't forsee ever changing. And all because my roots at school just happened to be in the right place. ;)

I can still hear Mrs. Emerson now: "Kids, stop bending the floppy disks!" Oh, those were the days! :)

[janey]

awww i got into this very long discussion with the computer teachers at school (via e-mail) and they're saying the reason why they're not getting new Macs to replace all the beginning to get outdated Dells and iMacs are because they think it's not worth it.
All of the teachers who had Macs in the beginning now have PC's, the teachers who have PC's get even more and all the iMacs are being dumped in the trash :(
Makes me angry. And it's not like we can write a petition or anything...there are only 4 mac users in school (out of 2400+).
I only wish Macs could be more affordable. After our school can get some we can perhaps hire some better teachers (or get the students to...would be interesting) and we can have better computer-related electives (the only ones we have so far are beginning programming with basic and an intro to computers [okay kids today i'm gonna teach you how to use the keyboard]).
:mad: I WANT A PC-FREE SCHOOL!

[Billicus]

Originally posted by übergeek
awww i got into this very long discussion with the computer teachers at school (via e-mail) and they're saying the reason why they're not getting new Macs to replace all the beginning to get outdated Dells and iMacs are because they think it's not worth it.
All of the teachers who had Macs in the beginning now have PC's, the teachers who have PC's get even more and all the iMacs are being dumped in the trash :(
Makes me angry. And it's not like we can write a petition or anything...there are only 4 mac users in school (out of 2400+).
I only wish Macs could be more affordable. After our school can get some we can perhaps hire some better teachers (or get the students to...would be interesting) and we can have better computer-related electives (the only ones we have so far are beginning programming with basic and an intro to computers [okay kids today i'm gonna teach you how to use the keyboard]).
:mad: I WANT A PC-FREE SCHOOL!

What kind of iMacs are you dumping? We're using Macs a lot loder than iMacs at our school. We could sure sure use some iMacs, no matter what the speed. What ever speed we could use them. Maybe we could work something out?

[Roger1]

Sad and especially all the money we put into this new Gateway mobile lab, it is all junk, flimsy laptops that are falling apart after 6 months. I tried to show the administration how much better the iBook was for a mobile lab for elementary students, but I guess in the end it is hard to love something so much that is so unpopular with the public.

That's sad. We have 3 mobile labs in my district. 1 of new ibooks, 2 made up of used clamshells. We have had to replace 1 keyboard, fix a couple of sprung keys, and send 1 clamshell in for repair. This is all the hardware issues we've had in running these

2 labs of clamshells, running 1.5 school years
1 labs of new ibooks, about 1 full school year.

Granted, we have the occasional software glitch, but that is it.

This is out of a total of 43 machines.

As for using Windows "because that's the industry standard" or whatever, is total b.s. If kids can learn on a Mac, or p.c, then they are capable of learning other o.s's. To switch from one to another is not that difficult. Even if they used Mac's all through high school, they can go buy a book on Win 2000, or what ever for about $20.00, and be brought up to speed on the latest version of Windows (at least that's what I did, when I upgraded from 3.1 to Win95 a few years back). Another thing: A "typical" person who uses a p.c. in the work environment usually does only 2 or three things with their machine.
1. use office, email, surf web
2. us some type of p.c only software (fuelmaster, etc)
3. print.
So for the most part the type of O.S used doesn't matter (except for #2). If you want to get picky about the O.S. get picky and choose one that will suit your needs, not because it's an "industry standard", or because "everyone uses it". Get what you need, and use that.


P.S These labs are used on a daily basis, and the teachers and students love them! Why? It takes less time for the teacher to grab the lab on the way in to school in the morning, and keep it in his/her class all day. Otherwise they have to walk to the media center and use those machines, provided they are not in use by another class. BTW, our school is rather large, being 3 floors. If the teacher is on the third floor, and have to walk the class to the media center on the first floor, that is valuable time wasted just walking around.

edit: P.S

[Sweetfeld28]

I wonder how many College's and University's Graphic Design Labs are using X?

I work at a local community college as a tech, and one of our head graphic design teachers doesn't want X. She thinks that we will have more problems in the labs than we do now because X uses Truetype(i think), while 9 uses PostScript for printing. Is this true?

Also, didn't the CEO (or whoever) of Adobe say they weren't going to produce programs for OS 9 anymore. I think he said that at one of the Expos.

I'm sure this why my school just placed a PO for 40 DP G4's, and the Flat panel 17's for the Digital Media Labs. I do think that the biggest reason for people not changing over to X is: they are affraid of change.:D