“The logo will change, but the tool is the same. That was the message from Henrico County school officials, who said yesterday that they hope for a smooth transition next year in the switch from Apple iBooks to Dell laptops for all high school teachers and students,” Olympia Meola reports for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“Dell Inc. and Apple Computers Inc. were neck and neck until the home stretch, according to school officials. But a combination of factors — including a $4 million price difference — gave Dell the advantage,” Meola reports. “Dell offered the county 15,800 machines at $1,131 a piece compared with Apple’s $1,386 per-unit cost. The four-year, $17.9 million deal with Dell will still push the School Board over budget by about $250,000.”
Meola reports, “Meredyth Hoggatt, a history teacher and selection-committee member, said the move to Dell should be more of a transition than an attempt to reinvent the wheel… Adam Hall, a sophomore at Hermitage High School, said he is pleased with the planned switch to Dell, because it has a better operating system. ‘They’re better than what we have now,’ he said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Amazing Ignorance Alert! “The logo will change, but the tool is the same.” A Dell with Windows XP “has a better operating system” than they would with Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger.
We’d say that these dolts deserve what they’re going to get for the next four years, except it’s the students and the teachers who will suffer instead of the morons who were snowed by Dell and made this deal without looking past the initial sticker price.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
PC World review gives Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger 4.5 stars out of 5 – April 30, 2005
Ars Technica: Mac OS X Tiger ‘at least twice as significant as any single past update’ – April 28, 2005
CNET: ‘If you’re tired of Microsoft’s promises, Mac OS X Tiger may be your best incentive to switch’ – April 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system around’ – April 28, 2005
Associated Press: Mac OS X Tiger ‘provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows’ – April 28, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
InformationWeek columnist: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘a compelling upgrade’ – April 28, 2005
NY Times: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is the most secure, stable and satisfying OS on earth – April 28, 2005
Wired News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘full of welcome surprises’ – April 27, 2005
HENRICO COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
P.O. BOX 23120
RICHMOND, VA 23223-0420
JOBLINE: (804) 501-5480 We need 200 IT people right away.
FAX: (804) 652-3763 Don’t use this. We’re not sure how to use it yet.
PHONE: (804) 652-3664
TDD: (804) 652-3932 What’s TDD????
Sorry that I didn’t spell it out for some of you slow guys—-all of the comments after the numbers were my attempt at humor. The comments were supposed to be the School Board asking the questions.
Excuse the attempt. Go back to sleep. Long live Rush. That’ll stir it up.
Maybe they can get the extra 200 IT people when King Bill gets rid of the H1-B visa cap…
Wonder what they are going to do with all the iBooks they currently have????
“Lloyd Brown, director of technology for Henrico schools, explained the features of the new Dell Inspiron 600M laptop. The screen is 14 inches compared to the iBook’s 12-inch screen. It has two USB ports and a track pad for moving the mouse. The Dells will utilize a Windows XP operating system.
A lot of the bad things that I have heard about a Mac relate to most peoples greater familiarity with PCs and XP rather than the that fact that the particular task “cant” be done on Apple. I work in pre-press/print production and graphic design. We have a mostly Apple user base at work although a number of those people are from a PC back ground. The PC users at work whoi dont know how to do something on a Mac think it cant be done when there is no one else who can show them what they need to do.
I think this is also a mentality with a lot of people out there when they have their first Apple experience.
Why do schoolkids need laptops anyway? From ANY company, even Apple. A total waste of taxpayer money. The need current textbooks and good teachers.
But when you have current textbooks and good teachers, laptops can add a lot. It makes things more interactive, which will keep the kids interested in learning instead of dreading school.
‘…Lloyd Brown, director of technology for Henrico schools, explained the features of the new Dell Inspiron 600M laptop (compared to apple ibook)….It has two USB ports and a track pad for moving the mouse….
what the f*ck???
are these people on crack?!
Apple needs its own Office
I hope the news covers the story when the next big virus comes along and brings their network to its knees.
Did the IT director actually say, “track pad for moving the MOUSE”? Hey Lloyd, a track pad moves the cursor. So does a mouse. But one doesn’t move the other.
If their IT people understand neither hardware nor software (see that antivirus vs. content blocker gaffe), they’re getting what they deserve. Let them eat cake.
“I’m typing this on an iMac DV 400, purchased just after they came out in 1999. It’s running Tiger beautifully at nearly six years old. Do you think those Dells will be still useful at that age?”
Beautifully? Really? I highly doubt that. We installed Tiger on an eMac 700 (3 years old) last night and it was quite painstankingly slow.
And if this means anything we have a Dell Optiplex at work (550 P3) that is around 6 years old and it runs XP quite well.
Dell fineprint:
Please note that our advertised price does not include delivery or state taxes – $100 extra. Monitor not included – $100 extra. Windows XP Home edition is shown for display purposes only – Dell recommends Windows XP Professional for $150 extra. Dell 3 year warranty excludes educational purchases. Thank you for purchasing Dell.
[This is a joke]
These guys spout so many made up “facts” and distorted half-truths. I smell a rat. None of their justifications demonstrate any objectivity.
At the bare minimum, someone influential on the committee has a bias to WinDells. At worst… someone(s) are getting a kickback.
The parents should be calling for an investigation.
“they hope for a smooth transition next year”
Hope, is most often posponed dissapointment.
chrish:
did you forget that you and all the other mac users only make up 2% of the market, or in your delusional world does everyone use a mac and those who don’t are outside the norm? since when was making a decision because it costs less a bad one, ESPECIALLY when most of our governments are running gigantic deficits. is it just all of you idiots, or has the whole economy thrown out simple economics?
and those of you who claim that people who use PCs spend their whole lives dealing with viruses are simply put, IDIOTS! Like there is no word to describe how big of an idiot you are. If you dont’ spend your whole lives downloading internet porn like most of you probably do, or even if you do, and you AREN’T an idiot, then YOU DON’T GET VIRUSES.
oh and another pet peeve: stop blaming all your idiocy on using a dell. every time you make a simple mental math error, like John did earlier, don’t blame it on your computer. even if it was the computer’s fault, and it somehow sabotaged your decision to type 255 by replacing it with 55, any person who was NOT an idiot would realize that before submitting and change it.
The day the mac community returns to reality will be the day the sky falls.
It was about the money, they didn’t allocate enough funds to buy decent kit.. Not that it was all rosy with the iBooks, don’t forget Henrico got plenty of iBooks with duff motherboards. Do Dell laptops last for four years?
They probably paid for Apple for Virex in the iBook program (doesn’t every govt-linked tech person say best be safe) and think that’s what saved them – Dells have anti-virus software too, and more variety.
The unnamed writer of the article doesn’t seem very tech savvy and may well have misconstrued meanings and responses. Sure sounds like Apple suggested save money by not licensing Office and they didn’t like that, it is office that created MS’s monopoly, not Windows.
“They hope for a smooth transition…”
And I hope that I’ll wake up tomorrow and look like George Clooney!
The difference is that I know that I’ll be disappointed.
bisabuelo:
Do you think that blanket market numbers equal installed user base numbers? Is this part of your “simple economics”?
I used to do education sales and I would bet the RFP included Office to give dull the advantage. I’ve helped write RFPs to guide the selection process.
biggieG said “Beautifully? Really? I highly doubt that. We installed Tiger on an eMac 700 (3 years old) last night and it was quite painstankingly slow. “
How much memory does your eMac have?
“Adam Hall, a sophomore at Hermitage High School, said he is pleased with the planned switch to Dell, because it has a better operating system.
‘They’re better than what we have now,’ he said.”
Translation from teen speak: Hacking at Windows allows me and my friends to get at porn sites which we can’t do on Apple computers. The bigger screen size allows us to see porn better. Plus there are more games for Windows. Thank goodness the school board is clueless about technology.
I thought Paul Thurrott was the last person in the world who thought Windows was better than Mac OS. And even he’s starting to waver.
Those poor kids ain’t gonna know what they’re missing with Tiger. And all because of the prejudices of one or a few persons …
What are the hardware requirements going to be for “LongWait”?
You can thank the union movement to the end of (in western nations anyway) child labour, unsafe working conditions, a living wage, holiday leave, sick leave, compassionate leave, penalty rates for overtime and public holidays, protection from unfair dismissal, etc, etc, etc….
That’s not to say they don’t stuff up from time to time, or get silly ideas in their collective heads, but on the whole they do their best to protect the interests ordinary workers from the excesses of capitalism and intrusive government.
Proudly a union member ( http://www.RTBU.com.au ).
Artisiculated:
If not, what is the user base then, since you seem to be omniscient? Until shows me some data otherwise, that’s what I have to go off of. The other figure I’ve heard is 1 of every 33 computer users. Is that better?