[MacCheetah3]

Hi
I'm open to the fact that kids should try different platforms, software, etc and not be forced to one or another. But, I don't think it is a wise move to drop a product (Apple in this case) because the faculty are not trained well enough. Maybe if they saw that Apple is no longer the most suitable or some such reason but the former is quite pathetic in my opinion. Just like the top admin at our tech college that only has 128 and 256MB of RAM in the Quicksilvers trying to run OS X, Classic, and graphics/web apps all at the same time with Windows users being careless and only closing the windows and not quitting apps so they all stay open. In these cases extra training should be first priority before having that these less knowledgeable people make such careless and short-sighted decisions.
Steve, could you possibly give us a low down on what network protocols they are running, etc so maybe you (along with us) could possibly "enlighten" them? It isn't that difficult at all really. Well, unless they are running a Windows or otherwise third party only protocol. Than, it isn't impossible but it does get a little more diffucult.
MacCheetah3
"As he gives the wet shoulder"

[d00d]

When I visited the link, it was a modified multi-color apple symbol and a couple words. There were no articles. If there will be, that's fine, but that was not specified in the original message. When someone new appears on these boards and appears to be antagonizing people here just for the sake of it (aka trolling) or simply advertising their site, I like to nip it in the bud. However, FallenApple's further clarification makes it acceptable, though I would have preferred an explanation of why said content isn't available yet in the original message. I am not biased to disallow any criticism of Apple or the Macintosh platform. If anyone has a problem with me, you are welcome to private message me, or any of the sysops (Jason Snell, Chris Breen, Lisa Schmeiser) whom supervise my position as a volunteer moderator. Please reexamine your evaluation of this situation should you ever return and post here again, Monkey Pants.

[Caelth]

In reply to:

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At my school, some kids just played Quake III on the PCs, no one appearantly could figure out how to keep people from installing programs.

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Oh boy, speaking of dense IT departments. But I guess most places are like that. I used to work in an university IT dept and every computer in administrative buildings had unrestricted access to the Internet. As a result, we had to reimage them every semester in order to eliminate all the junk people managed to download and install. And let's not talk about productivity issue when I witnessed secretaries exchanging instant messages or browsing VIctoria's Secret catalogs online during work hours on daily basis.
It would be so easy to eliminate the problem. Heck, give me access to routers and I create access lists myself! But I went to manager, to campus networking guys and they all said "we don't want any more work, forget about it"
Sure, no wonder colleges need to raise tuition every year /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Nobody]

MacCheetah....thats the thing they use Novell for the PC's schoolwide and log in as generic 'student' log in but the Print shop and Graphics Shop use their own dedicated server (the orginal G4) in each shop. I tend to believe that because they can't get them to work they may want job security and say to buy PC because if they can't get the MACs working why not buy a computer they know how to fix.
I appreciate the response on this issue and the links...I do support cross platform use and use Windows at work when I don't bring in my PowerBook...I belive that students do need the cross platform experience but not to totally remove the tools that they will most likely use in their career choice and switch to a platform that is less used in the industry...does that make sense?
Our Office Tech student's train on Windows PC because it is used in the Office environment more than MAC. My Computer Science student's train on PC but believe they need MAC experience too if they ever work in the field like CompUsa or freelance repair work.

[mmartian]

Novell networks? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I come from a PC world and have always hated Novell networks. They are a PITA to work with and even worse to configure. No wonder they are having trouble connecting the Mac's to it. Even connecting PC's can be troublesome.
I don't think that either PC's or Mac's should be exclusive in a school environment. Each computer has it's place. Especially since a school's primary job is to prepare students for the real world. They need to be able to use both computer systems depending on what area they are going into. Students going into I.S. and developing need to learn PC's. Students going into graphic design and video production need to learn Mac's.
I used to work as a software developer and in the workplace the PC was the standard. I've since started up a company doing low budget movies and as a result I've bought a G4 since that is the standard for video editing.

[Par_XI]

In reply to:

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I want to try and stop this and feel that MAC is the primary platform in these industries and want to know if this is still true?

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Apple has a tiny, tiny, tiny marketshare. Even Pixar (Jobs is the CEO) uses PCs these days. Just for some reference, this year, of all computers sold, Apple has quite a slim share of 2.05%. Considering how irrelevant Macs are in todays market, I cant imagine how teaching kids to use PCs instead of Macs is a disservice.

[d00d]

To be fair, Pixar never used Macs. They went from Sun machines to Intel based machines (and that was for their render farm, I'm not sure what they're using for workstations now).
And I think the issue here is not that kids are not getting an opportunity to use PCs, but now they won't get an opportunity to use Macs, which is just cutting down on their experience and denying them of additional education. I don't think one can just proclaim Macs as "irrelevant." Heck, you haven't even produced statistics (or even personal experience) to say anything one way or the other to Steve's question.

[Visions_of_them]

pixar never have used macs but you can sure as hell bet what will be the choice for there render farm when it comes to updating it...macs all the way, saying that silicone graphics the giants of 3d rendering are being replaced by PC's at Industrial Light and Magic, the visual effects wizards as they have ditched them for PC's, for something such as the cards available to PC's far outweigh SGI machines, but Nasa and the Pentagon use macs, mainly since the launch of OSX, I read several stories at the time about how they were switching to them
some times it's not about the quanty of your clients try looking at the quality

[westhinksdifferent]

The same thing is happening in the science lab at my school. They bought about 25 Ruby iMacs last year and plan to get rid of them this summer because the network techs think that they're crashing the network. It's these same network techs that can't figure out for the life of them how to get rid of the KLEZ virus that's been on our network for the past 3 months. I've continuously told them about the virus, and how it could potentially ruin the yearbook, and they just shrug it off.
--Wes

[mark_G4]

I think the best thing to do is to go to the "powers that be" a tell them the school must keep the Mac for the very sake of demonstrating their ability to be multi-platform. They should have Mac, Windows and Linux computers on the network to expose the students to them. Running OS 9 or less can be more difficult, so they should consider upgrading the Macs to OS X and then they have nothing to complain about, because if they can't get X to work they can't get Unix/Linux and that means they are totally incompetent.

[Nobody]

"whom supervise my position as a volunteer" ???

[mballai]

The school techs need to do their homework. There should be enough information on MacWindows.com and from their network vendors to solve any problems. There's still an ongoing bias against Macs from tech people, because once set up, they don't require nearly the level of support that Windoze does. Schools need to support whatever platforms the teachers want to use and not force the teachers to support whatever administrators or some techies try to foist off on the people doing the job of education.
A school system that doesn't support the work of educators who are sold out to teaching their students is a total failure regardless of how much it might appear otherwise. The priority is education, not techie gymnastics by people who have no idea of what the mission is.

[d00d]

I'm a volunteer moderator (I'm not an official Macworld employee). The people that actually work for Macworld make sure I do my job right.

[Jeff_S]

I am a Computer Support teacher who looks after 4 elementary schools running Macs ranging from 7100's to iMacs. With little information to describe your network, it is hard to make too many suggestions. However, working in a school district which has some PC but mostly Apple networks, I have to say that the Apple networks seem to be the most reliable. Appleshare IP is easy to set up and administer if you know networks at all, and runs well. Security is always an issue, especially in junior high settings, but programs such as FoolProof do help. iMacs are a great network computer and do most of the things which educational curricula require them to do. Most of the trouble occurs when the students are not properly supervised and try to go to internet sites which are gaming sites etc. (In my view, inappropriate use of school computers) Sounds like your IT people need to do a little learning themselves. Most schools which are switching to PC do so simply because they think they can do it cheaper than Mac. I have yet to see a PC network do anything educational that Macs can't do as well.