71% of College Students Prefer Macs Over PCs According to Jamf Survey

[cardfan]

Heh. Do you like windows or would you prefer a more expensive alternative. It’s natural to want something you perceive as better or something else because the grass must be greener from the cheap windows laptop you have right?

It’s like those iPhone users who switch to Android and switch back. It’s more about being bored with what they have and have little idea what macOS is other than it must be better.

 

[beanbaguk]

Always fascinating to watch form a European perspective.

The only workplaces with Macs I've seen so far in Germany are in the creative field, mostly design and music.

Other than that it's Windows only.

You've not worked in many places then?

As a fellow European and one that works in the technology sector in two blue-chip companies, and some of the biggest companies in my industry, Macs are prevalent for developers and designers.

We also have our fair share of PC's but they sit in more commercial roles and BI.

(FYI, I work in the UK, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, amongst many and also in Asian markets too)....

Post written on my company laptop which happens to be a MacBook Pro.

 

[philosoraptor1]

Looks like a bunch of sites just got tricked by Jamf into doing marketing for them.

Sloppy.

Yep, these Jamf jackasses started spamming me about two months ago.

 

[curtvaughan]

Here's the link to the survey but it reads more like Jamf marketing material on why you should introduce Macs to your workplace so you can use their management software. Most industries are predominantly Windows PC and the remaining 29% of students are probably CSEE types that need specialized professional engineering software that only run on Windows.

https://resources.jamf.com/document...ent-device-choice-in-the-modern-workplace.pdf

Thanks for sharing the article sans the need for credentials. On actually reading it, it does look a bit like a marketing infomercial for using Macs in the workplace. The statistics aren't false, but are incomplete. Students will generally use the computers that can do the work they need and with which they are most familiar, either by exposure or actual use. I agree with you that PC usage is more prevalent with students in S.T.E.M. curricula (science, technology, engineering, math). As to what businesses and corporations use, the bottom line tends to be at the root of that decision. That encompasses not only the costs of the machines and software support, but the confidence that the investments made will be viable for the foreseeable future. If Apple was really serious about offering an enterprise alternative to the PC, they wouldn't have discontinued the Xserve server hardware in 2010. It was shortly after that time that serious development of the Mac Pro was drastically cut. Ironically, Apple suggested that Xserve users migrate their server needs to Mac Pros and Mac Minis. If you ran a business needing server level data processing support and were stung like that after investing in Xserve racks, would you continue to buy into that kind of enterprise support? Most likely not - you'd go to either Unix or Wintel / Linux as a backend, and likely choose similar products for the desktop.

BTW, here is what I would call a more complete survey in regard to where S.T.E.M. students end up after graduation. Not much is addressed as to what computers most of the listed occupations employ.

https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/s...ctoriesofSTEMgraduatesFINALREPORT20180801.pdf
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Maybe - unfortunately, the creative industry is only a very tiny speck of dust in today’s total business world. While it may be nice to work in that area, 99.9% of all people do not.

The irony of that fact is that Apple support for the creative industry has flagged of late - no new Mac Pro and a so-so recent upgrade to the Mac Mini. The iPad is still useful for many artists/musicians as a front end.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

This may come as a shock but the niches you point out (gaming and Twitch celebrity ) are the actual minority. Your first points are far more common. So, just a heads up for you there …

I bought my daughter a MBP13 her freshman year of high school … she just finished her sopohmore year of *college* and hers is still going strong. I just ask her yesterday when she came home about it and 2 of her friends are on their second **college** PC.

My wife got the same model 2 months after my daughter and after 6 years she has written 3 novels on in in addition to working daily in written-content creation. Other than 4 or 5 of her keycaps are worn white it also still purrs along.

And I am still doing web development on my early 2013 15 MBP … even after I built a $3.5K Threadripper workstation. I used that for 6 months and came back to the MacOS for productivity/reliability alone. Even though the PC is technically faster it was not in actuality

The intrinsic values of a Mac and the macOS get lost in niche-oriented arguments.

There is likely no PC built in 2013 that is as capable today. Value is a tricky virtue but I do not personally have any doubt which is superior when all factors are addressed.

Unfortunately not even Macs are built like they were in 2013.

And my "anecdata" can be just as good as yours. My wife hates Mac (unlike me). I built her a PC six years ago and it is still going strong. I had my in-laws buy a Dell XPS 15" in 2012 and that is still going strong. So..............

 

[boss.king]

"73% of students prefer a luxury sports car but have a cheap banger ***"

It's a bit of a daft survey. The fact is Apple MacBook's are luxury products and students generally cannot afford them. There is also a fashionable "trend" to own a MacBook so there are students that will throw themselves into debt to have a MacBook.

PC's are not at all low-end and a many PC's may even outperform a Mac, but image is everything when you're a student trying to find a way to express yourself.

*** 87% of people will believe anything with a percentage attached to it.

I wouldn’t say Macs are a luxury computer, they’re just a more premium option. There are dozens of other premium laptops at the same or higher price points and of similar quality.

 

[Spontida]

The (sad) fact, however, is that said college students will end up using Microsoft’s OS as soon as they start working after college. Colleges have, in my opinion, an obligation to educate the youth on the tools they’ll later actually need.

That said: working on Windows remains torture

Not in CS classes! 95% of everyone in my classes use Macs. It's pretty crazy.

 

[jonblatho]

Jamf want this data because they want companies/schools to buy macs instead of PCs.

If you think this survey will influence a university’s purchasing decisions—for their own hardware—I have some really bad news. Most if not all universities with deployments worth caring about have both Mac labs and Windows labs, with a sporadic Linux lab or two. Those purchasing decisions aren’t influenced primarily by student wants; they’re influenced primarily by student needs. If a student wants a Mac, they can go buy their own, possibly by going into a little more debt than they’re already in. A university deciding whether to spend potentially tens of thousands of dollars extra on purchasing Macs versus PCs just isn’t going to care about this survey.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

Macs are good if you like A/V crap. If you like workflows for productivity and creativity. But other than that they are expensive toys with a shiny logo. As a rising Twitch streamer/celebrity a Mac is useless. PC is so much better and cheaper. I can emulate games and achieve 120 FPS in RE2. Mac can barely play BioShock 1.

But your PC can’t create software for literally every major platform. With one Mac a software developer can create and deploy applications for macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Internet of Things, etc.

I have better things to do with my time than play games.
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The (sad) fact, however, is that said college students will end up using Microsoft’s OS as soon as they start working after college. Colleges have, in my opinion, an obligation to educate the youth on the tools they’ll later actually need.

Thanks to .NET Core and Docker, a .NET developer’s choice of operating system is becoming irrelevant. You can develop Microsoft / .NET solutions on a Mac just fine now. Need SQL Server? No worries. There’s a Docker image for that.

Oh you want to make mobile apps with C#? Here try Xamarin. Etc. etc.

 

[BvizioN]

They are students, it could be they inherited a Mac from a family member, or their parents bought it for them. It isn’t unknown for parents to buy a surprise gift that isn’t the preferred option of the recipient.

I get that, but still, Macs have a high resell value (I always sell them before buying a new one) They could sell it and with what they get, they could still get a pretty good PC, maybe without even having to add any extra money.

 

[TomOSeven]

Alternative headline:

71% of college students still have the 2015 Mac models and don't yet realise how ****** the later generations are.

 

[TallManNY]

If Apple would get with the program regarding high-end GPUs, then I'd have no reason to have a PC at all.

Well eventually that Mac Pro tower is coming out. Apple won't screw up the thermal issue again. So it should take a beast of a GPU. Though the price is going to be beastly as well.
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Heh. Do you like windows or would you prefer a more expensive alternative. It’s natural to want something you perceive as better or something else because the grass must be greener from the cheap windows laptop you have right?

It’s like those iPhone users who switch to Android and switch back. It’s more about being bored with what they have and have little idea what macOS is other than it must be better.

Macs are common. If they don't already use one, they've used their friend's many times. Or the Macs on campus.

I've noticed this for years. In my social circle, I can think of only one person in the last twenty years who has bought themselves a PC (and that was about ten years ago). The result is that everyone I know uses a Mac at home and usually has to adjust to a substandard PC at work. That was my situation until I went independent and started working from home. Now it is just me and my Mac mini.

 

[Dephtones]

Lots of triggered folks in here worried about what other people like. Never understood and never will understand why people have to judge other people’s preferences. <insert that “shhh let people enjoy things “ cartoon>

 

[curtvaughan]

Not in CS classes! 95% of everyone in my classes use Macs. It's pretty crazy.

I'd have to do more investigations of the CS school here at U.T. Austin. I suspect that most of the Macs used are of 2015 vintage or earlier - the Mac laptops most students use these days still have the lit up Apple logo and multiple USB ports, SD card readers, and HDMI ports. These students need ports, not only for CS courses, but for S.T.E.M. courses they take. At the graduate level there is increasing need to have a Unix/Linux client to work with. Much of the higher level CS and other scientific/engineering research involves working with high performance workstations and computers, which at least at University of Texas facilities, often involves working with various Linux/Unix systems backended at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). Of roughly 12 (I think) different systems, the Stamped 2 is their latest and greatest. It is Linux based. Here's a link to it with specs:

https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/user-guides/stampede2

If I was a CS or other technically oriented student working with stuff like this, I'd want either a Unix or a Linux based laptop/desktop client for simpler and more transparent access through a shell like bash. You can get that with a Mac (it's BSD Unix, easily apparent upon launching Terminal) or a PC running Linux. If you want a variety of ports sans dongles to use with your machine, you'll need either a Linux PC or an older Mac. Windows has recently introduced a virtual Linux kernel, of which I know little at this time. Incidentally, here's the kind of Mac laptop you can still get (2015 MBP) at places like Amazon. I'd seriously consider buying something like this, even though it's a 4 year old model. It just has all the ports I still like to have, and with MacOS / BSD as a system:

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-2-5GHz-MGXC2LL-Refurbished/dp/B0784J8FXM?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4
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Well eventually that Mac Pro tower is coming out. Apple won't screw up the thermal issue again. So it should take a beast of a GPU. Though the price is going to be beastly as well.
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Macs are common. If they don't already use one, they've used their friend's many times. Or the Macs on campus.

I've noticed this for years. In my social circle, I can think of only one person in the last twenty years who has bought themselves a PC (and that was about ten years ago). The result is that everyone I know uses a Mac at home and usually has to adjust to a substandard PC at work. That was my situation until I went independent and started working from home. Now it is just me and my Mac mini.

Which Macs are still common in your social circle? The newer models, or 2015 and earlier? There's a very large difference, except that they still run MacOS/OSX/BSD. If you go back 5, 10, or 20 years to substantiate the reasons to buy a Mac, that's just historical anecdote. Those older MBP's can't be compared to the newer ones for functionality. It is also not really relevant to compare PC's of 5,10, or 15 years ago to the current crop of high end PC's available. The newer PC hardware at the high end is of high quality and perform admirably, featuring ports and upgradability no longer available on the Mac laptops. As an old time Mac user, you just need to take a few months and learn how to install and use Linux (or buy a pre-installed system from System76 or Purism).

 

[tallscot]

Listary can also bring you to where you were in file explorer last time. Its search is also fast.

I do agree that windows is still a bit messy even today.

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

I don’t see how MacOS is superior, maybe in usability but that’s about it.

I am in Engineering and in my field Windows and Linux distros are the best options. I don’t know what the people in this survey study but I can’t use MacOS for all my professional needs.

If gaming is within your likes, you also need Windows.

It is the same when I read that “iPad” replaced their computer... what the F?... I love my iPad but it is miles away from replacing a computer, not even for web browsing.

Yeah, this is exactly right. My first Mac was beige, and there were tangible reasons why Macs had aesthetic advantages over Microsoft. Currently, Windows has actual defaults that work well for screen resolution and fonts, which wasn't always the case. Windows runs everything you need, particularly if it's unusual scientific or engineering software. Playing with 3D software? Better hope it doesn't use CUDA if you want to use a Mac.

Apple smartly has established themselves as a boutique brand. So you'll get a majority of people saying they own a Mac or would prefer to own a Mac, even if they never will because it won't actually meet their needs for the price.

Make no mistake. I am in awe of how good a new Macbook feels. It's balanced and solid like nothing the PC world puts out. And the trackpad and screens are of course always going to be great. PC manufacturers still use **** plastic manufacturing on crap that are races to the bottom, and they still put out "laptops" the size and heft of a network switch.

I kind of drew the line at my last purchase for splurging to get the touch bar. It has its uses, but it feels gimmicky, and not worth the premium price.

 

[tallscot]

Yeah, this is exactly right. My first Mac was beige, and there were tangible reasons why Macs had aesthetic advantages over Microsoft. Currently, Windows has actual defaults that work well for screen resolution and fonts, which wasn't always the case. Windows runs everything you need, particularly if it's unusual scientific or engineering software. Playing with 3D software? Better hope it doesn't use CUDA if you want to use a Mac.

Apple smartly has established themselves as a boutique brand. So you'll get a majority of people saying they own a Mac or would prefer to own a Mac, even if they never will because it won't actually meet their needs for the price.

Make no mistake. I am in awe of how good a new Macbook feels. It's balanced and solid like nothing the PC world puts out. And the trackpad and screens are of course always going to be great. PC manufacturers still use **** plastic manufacturing on crap that are races to the bottom, and they still put out "laptops" the size and heft of a network switch.

I kind of drew the line at my last purchase for splurging to get the touch bar. It has its uses, but it feels gimmicky, and not worth the premium price.

You are spot on in regards to CUDA. Apple pissed away a lot of customers because they don't offer a desktop computer with slots where you can put the latest nVidia GPU in it for CUDA.

But OS X and iOS are superior to Windows 10 and Android. It's their decisions in regards to hardware that drives me up the wall for their phone and their desktops, and their laptops. I put up with hardware that isn't really what I want because the OS is so good.

 

[TallManNY]

I'd have to do more investigations of the CS school here at U.T. Austin. I suspect that most of the Macs used are of 2015 vintage or earlier - the Mac laptops most students use these days still have the lit up Apple logo and multiple USB ports, SD card readers, and HDMI ports. These students need ports, not only for CS courses, but for S.T.E.M. courses they take. At the graduate level there is increasing need to have a Unix/Linux client to work with. Much of the higher level CS and other scientific/engineering research involves working with high performance workstations and computers, which at least at University of Texas facilities, often involves working with various Linux/Unix systems backended at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). Of roughly 12 (I think) different systems, the Stamped 2 is their latest and greatest. It is Linux based. Here's a link to it with specs:

https://portal.tacc.utexas.edu/user-guides/stampede2

If I was a CS or other technically oriented student working with stuff like this, I'd want either a Unix or a Linux based laptop/desktop client for simpler and more transparent access through a shell like bash. You can get that with a Mac (it's BSD Unix, easily apparent upon launching Terminal) or a PC running Linux. If you want a variety of ports sans dongles to use with your machine, you'll need either a Linux PC or an older Mac. Windows has recently introduced a virtual Linux kernel, of which I know little at this time. Incidentally, here's the kind of Mac laptop you can still get (2015 MBP) at places like Amazon. I'd seriously consider buying something like this, even though it's a 4 year old model. It just has all the ports I still like to have, and with MacOS / BSD as a system:

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-2-5GHz-MGXC2LL-Refurbished/dp/B0784J8FXM?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4
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Which Macs are still common in your social circle? The newer models, or 2015 and earlier? There's a very large difference, except that they still run MacOS/OSX/BSD. If you go back 5, 10, or 20 years to substantiate the reasons to buy a Mac, that's just historical anecdote. Those older MBP's can't be compared to the newer ones for functionality. It is also not really relevant to compare PC's of 5,10, or 15 years ago to the current crop of high end PC's available. The newer PC hardware at the high end is of high quality and perform admirably, featuring ports and upgradability no longer available on the Mac laptops. As an old time Mac user, you just need to take a few months and learn how to install and use Linux (or buy a pre-installed system from System76 or Purism).

Valid question. It varies. One uses a 2018 MacBook Pro (she needs legit power for 3D design), one uses a 2017 iMac, one uses a 2018 MacBook Air. All are replacing a 5+ year old Mac. Only the 3D designer considered a PC, but she used a Mac at work before becoming an independent consultant. Two friends are still using Mac Pro "cheese graters" that they bought as "too much" computer so they would get significant life. Both were bought as replacements for Mac Pro towers that lasted a long time.

And obviously my social circle goes far beyond those folks.

 

[macfacts]

what makes you say that? what does apple lack in the real world exactly?)

Low cost solutions.

 

[alexandr]

Low cost solutions.

well it is a high end brand, sorry. mercedes has the same problem...

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

…But OS X and iOS are superior to Windows 10 and Android…

I know this has been debated for years. But I wonder what you mean. As I say, the build quality on any Apple product is second to none. MacOS and iOS are tuned precisely for the machines they run on, and they show it, running incredibly efficiently. iOS especially does the whomp-whomp on Android, but that's an issue for another dayt.

Macs will run FinalCut and Logic without breaking a sweat. In the real world, they run efficiently, low power, and will last a long time. This is a great solution for many people who will get everything out of a Mac. To run a Mac yourself without being an IT tech is easier, usually, than using Windows PCs. Usually.

Windows 10 is pretty solid. I've had blue screens from drivers, but as a heavy user (and someone responsible for testing/endpoint managing models of laptops, both Mac and Windows), it's a push. Doing something particularly technical on a Mac has resulted in plenty of kernel panics.

As a Mac user, yes, there have been plenty of times when I would have said that, pound-for-pound, MacOS is "better" than Windows. However, Windows is a lot more stable than ever, has tasteful aesthetic defaults for the first time, has Exposé and multiple desktops finally, integrated GNU/Linux if you need it, and it will run a bunch of boutique software and games which still get put out only for Windows. Whereas on MacOS in the last few years, I've found it incredibly annoying fighting with Keychain in a managed environment, and the rollout for the new file system caused a lot of problems where people I knew who managed their own Macs still were reduced to reinstalling or recovering their entire OS.

 

[macfacts]

well it is a high end brand, sorry. mercedes has the same problem...

You think businesses are going to buy luxury items for their employees? That's why those students are going to be disappointed when they enter the work force

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

You think businesses are going to buy luxury items for their employees? That's why those students are going to be disappointed when they enter the work force

It's more often the ability to manage devices. Macs (and iOS) have really proliferated in the workplace since Apple relented on AFP protocol and went to SMB as their default networking protocol, also making it easy to hook into Windows AD.

Macs are supported much more in corporate environments now more than ever, especially as more decentralized work environments proliferate with BYOD support for phones and tablets is a regular occurrence.

The reason most environments use Windows on PCs does include marginal costs, too, but it's just at the margins. Macs are not so much luxurious as they cost more upfront and are expected to have longer life. If your employees are using desktop clients which are just atom PCs running a thin client (more and more), it makes a lot more sense from a management standpoint to be able to swap these out more often than using, say, MacMinis, in most cases. Use cases vary.

The other reason is software. If most of what you run needs to run on Windows, then you'll default to managing that. Especially as there are a lot of boutique software packages in a lot of businesses which need to run on Windows.

Conversely, I have seen environments where they default to all Mac. Specifically an advertising company, which will often heavily use Macs for the production people, will still expect their sales people to use Macs, even if their versions of Microsoft Office were not as robust as the PC versions. As Office365/2016 work the same on Windows and MacOS, there's literally never been a better time to be using a Mac in a spreadsheet-oriented office. The reasons they don't are those for cost and management, per above.

It's also extremely common for businesses to just give a new employee a budget and tell them to get what they need. That's what happened in my case. (Considered the Mac, but bought an XPS last year.)

 

[alexandr]

You think businesses are going to buy luxury items for their employees? That's why those students are going to be disappointed when they enter the work force

i do. i do graphic design, so it's a no brainer that companies buy macs for "design department", but between 2005 and about 2012 i've seen almost all other departments switch to macs. i'm not going to tell you that this is necessarily the way all companies are, but the few i've worked for i can speak for.

btw pc's/android aren't exactly cheap. unless you're deliberately purchasing crap.

 

[blueflower]

i do. i do graphic design, so it's a no brainer that companies buy macs for "design department", but between 2005 and about 2012 i've seen almost all other departments switch to macs. i'm not going to tell you that this is necessarily the way all companies are, but the few i've worked for i can speak for.

btw pc's/android aren't exactly cheap. unless you're deliberately purchasing crap.

Agreed my thinkpad cost me almost $2000