quote:
Originally posted by Kyle McD:
My schools starting to bring in a heafty load of iMacs and G4's for us to use instead -- my sysadmin is a bit of a MacFan. Poor Soul.lol. Whattya's think about that?
:confused:
I think the guy's not being paid enough!
Linux is wonderful and all, but subjecting little kids to it really is asking for trouble. Unless elementary schools are now teaching kids how to run servers and I somehow hadn't heard about it, I really don't think Linux is the smartest choice.
Windows is a pretty damn lousy choice -- well, because it's Windows, obviously. But also because of the fact that M$ really doesn't seem to give a shit about the fact that most school districts don't have money to burn on their ridiculously overpriced software licenses.
And the argument that "we should let kids learn on the platform they're most likely to use when they're out in the real world" is pure bullshit, too. Does anyone really think a fifth-grader using Windows ME today (because i doubt the average school has "upgraded" to XP yet) is going to have some magical insight into the prevailing operating system in use in 2011, when he/she enters the workforce? Yeah, I didn't think so either.
And I think Cabal is missing the point, above. Don't think for one second that Microsoft has ANY altruistic motivation behind donating machines and software to schools. This is a settlement that allows them to further their monopoly by shoving Windows down the throats of countless school districts, depriving them of a choice. Can they use the money to buy something else? Sure, but how likely is that when they're probably most inclined to believe Microsoft is a "great citizen" for showering them with all this money?
Finally, Apple got off its "take the higher ground" ass and said something about this shit in a public statement, though I personally don't think they were strident or angry enough.