Continuing with my previous story about apple in the work place, I have been following the crazy of Apple Computers (sorry, Apple Inc) since the release of OS X. Although I will be the first to say I was a mac hater and never “drank” the apple juice until the launch of the 17in Powerbook. Yes, I was one of those who picked up that MASSIVE machine and used it for some video editing and everything else under the sun. Then when Tiger hit the scene it was game over for me, I migrated down to a 12in powerbook and was a mac advocate. With the move to intel based machines I had to upgrade as well as get some family members a new computer (You’re welcome Mom and Nicole).
Anyway, when growing up the public schools ALWAYS had apples, between the Apple II E, Macintosh, iMacs, and the G3s I would always see Apple computers in the classrooms. Well moving up to college it was a DIFFERENT BALL PARK. Each school recommended (Required?) a PC and well, as for macs, I was not “drinking the juice” just yet. (Give me about 6 months of college and then I was an Apple Nut.) I know Apple Inc has changed A LOT while I was growing up, between the Ending of Steve to the Coming of Steve with the iPod, Apple has changed a lot over the years, but schools need to step up and follow.
Being a graduate of college, I have seen first hand what works in school as well as how to keep track of homework, quizzes, tests, and assignments in 5 to 6 classes. This would keep any student busy and with a job… forget about it. OS X just has it all with Mail, iCal, iPhoto, etc and with OS X 10.5 just around the corner (Are you getting your copy tonight?), its gonna change peoples minds. I was just BLOWN AWAY that the University of Vermont BUSINESS SCHOOL REQUIRED YOU TO HAVE ALL MICROSOFT PRODUCTS! I DID NOT want to “downgrade” so I was forced to have Virtual PC running XP while I was taking classes (Before intel chipset was released). The only “reason” I can get from people when I say Apple vs Windows is cost, but if you look at how much “longer” or more “support” Apple offers its AMAZING. My 12in powerbook is STILL support for 10.5 that will be released this Friday, its over 2 years old and the last of its rev! As I recall it was hard enough “upgrading” to Vista without buying parts, let alone if you want Aero Graphics.
Okay, so maybe I went a bit far on this, but I just feel that schools, companies, business, need to say F U to Microsoft and start thinking in a “smarter” fashion with OS X. I find it interesting at all the “startups” I have been to as well as worked with, everyone either has a linux box and/or is running it on a Mac. I know corporate has run on Windows long enough, and I can understand the pain, trust me I have been there and have worked on Windows during the day and OS X at night.
The last thing that has just BLOWN me away, is the past couple of weeks I have been doing some on-site PC help and every time I am fixing some problem I am SCREAMING GET A MAC inside, but with programs like Quickbooks and other “suck you in software” not releasing a OS X version (although Quickbooks plans to next year) yet… its just hard for currently small companies and/or people in “Corporate America” to switch. You could just dual boot and/or run virtual machines, but some people just don’t want to drink the juice. So with that being said, I hope to see more schools back to its roots with an Apple rather then the corporate dullness of a PC.
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There have been several news stories this semester about the resurgence of Macintosh on campus - at least on University campuses. E.g.
Doug Eshleman, On-campus Mac users quadruple, Princetonian Staffer, The Daily Princetonian, October 5th, 2007. http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/10/05/news/18871.shtml . Mac users at Princeton makeup 40% of the total community.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Mac goes back to school - Ipod fever fuels Apple’s resurgence on campuses across Minnesota, Pioneer Press, October 25, 2007 01:24:30 PM CDT. http://www.twincities.com/ci_7277845 .
At the University of Vermont during the fall back-to-school sale, Macs took just a bit under 50% of the on-campus sales, outselling Dells and Gateways, but not quite both together.
The main contributing factors seem to be, on the plus side, the iPod halo effect, and the notebook price points; on the negative side, Vista has not been good news for Windows users. If you have to learn a new system, might as well as learn one that is relatively virus free. Notebooks made up 100% of the back to school sale.