Apple Announces $899 20" iMac for Schools

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Yoder54

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"Also the PCs at my school are ancient, but have the following parts (I might have broken a few rules looking up there system specs):

Basic:
P4 2.2 Ghz
1GB DDR 333 Mhz
graphics unknown
20GB HDD

For teachers:
AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.8 Ghz
1GB DDR 333 Mhz

Both of which have 1GB OF RAM!!!"

So, what kind of tech ed goes on over there? It is a tragedy that students have to use crap like that. In our Mac labs we run Final Cut for video editing, and Logic Pro, Cubase, and Pro Tools in the digital recording class. We also have a Game Design class that is run on the Dell's, but we need better specs to run Torque and Maya. We also run CS3 on all of the machines.

It is a shame when kids only use computers for word processing and running archaic educational software.

@warzme: find me a 17" laptop with 1920 resolution, DDR3 1066, FSB 1066, 2.8 or greater CPU, 320 7200 rpm HD, blue tooth capabilities, audio editing and video editing software, a decent OS (think Vista Ultimate) for a significantly cheaper price than the Apple. You won't. With the education discount most PCs were about $100 more than the Mac, and the Alien Ware and Puget Computers were a few hundred more. You need to work with exact specifications. The Sony came in about the same.

I have a clean box at home an Vista is always stalling or throwing the BSOD at me. At least three times a week. Fortunately, I just use it for Web development...everything else is now done on the Mac to increase productivity. My set-up is a 17" MacBook Pro with 24" monitor, and a dual monitor 24" and 19" 64-bit Vista Ultimate. The Vista box boots in about 5-10 minutes while the Mac is under 1 min. The Vista crashes on a regular basis and there is no easy way to determine or fix it. The only time my Mac failed was the result of some software I installed. I looked at the report, saw where the crash occured and uninstalled the culprit...if only Windows was so easy.
 

bfstev

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I am a tech for certain florida based school system. I can honestly say that macs are such a freakin pain to set up especially since we are all set up like an enterprise active directory with distributed offices(schools). Also mac needs to realize the real selling point of having decent hardware under $1k. The way inventory works is that anything over $1k is put on property control which means you have to do alot of hoop jumping for accountability purposes. so most schools tend to buy under that price line. Dell gives us excellent deals on their optiplex line and if a screen breaks i dont loose a computer. service is also a huge issue in this area. I tend to shy away from hp just for the fact that the service company in this area can be abit flakey and down right atrocious. (their tech had to ask me how to take apart one of their laptops to replace the keyboard) Apple's service is even worse. they hire some of the most pretentious assholes I have ever seen. They come in the school and walk through the hundreds of PC's wht their nose up in the air to work on 1 laptop and then just bitch about how better apple is than all the rest and why cant the schools see that. Just annoying to no end.
 

keither5150

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@Yoder,

Windows is that easy. The errors show up on the BSOD.
You need to write down your BSOD errors and google for fixes.

You will need to uncheck automatically restart for system failures.

To do this
Control panel, system, advanced system settings, startup and recovery..click settings, uncheck automatically restart.

You will now have a BSOD that will stay on your screen.

I have 1000's of hours on OSx before you call me a MS fanboi.

Sounds like you are looking to a career in some sort of IT or computer industry.

Your last paragraph indicates that this line of work may not be for you.

No offense but you should sell your PC's and stick to your Mac and try to forget what's on the inside.

A computer guy that can't get Vista running properly is like a hair dresser not being able to figure out how scissors work.

BTW
My laptop with Vista boots in 49 seconds.

My gaming machine boots in 66 seconds.

My HTPC boots in about 55 seconds.

All 3 machines have Vista business or Vista home premium 64 bit.

The biggest tragedy here is that you will be leaving school with a tech degree of some sort and you can't get vista running. I taught my 11 year old niece how to fix BSOD's and viruses as her 3 brothers kept infecting their machine. She is now quite proficient at it. Every now and then she will call me when she is stumped. She now fixes her neighbour's and friend's computers all the time. She laughs and tells me that most of the problems she sees are simply user error.

Google can teach you faster than school.

You might be offended now, but if you get over yourself and learn how to fix your problem instead of blaming Vista, you will thank me later.

I am the IT dept at a medium size company that has Macs and PC's in case you are wondering.
 

Yoder54

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Regarding the under $1K price for property control... that is a school board issue. Also, in smaller districts you have to send out to get work done. We do everything in house...repairs, upgrades, etc. The biggest determinant in the total cost of getting a computer is software. We license through MS and pay outrageous prices for Office, XP Pro, etc. Why the schools do not go with open source and Linux is beyond me.

Also, in determining the total cost of the computer you must look at: 1. initial capital outlay, 2. life of computer, 3. software costs, and 4. energy costs. Using antiquated computers is foolish since they consume so much energy. Sell off the crap, and in energy savings alone a school district could replace them with high-end PCs or Mac's and give kids the type of technological education they need.
 

Yoder54

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"Windows is that easy. The errors show up on the BSOD.
You need to write down your BSOD errors and google for fixes.
You will need to uncheck automatically restart for system failures.
To do this Control panel, system, advanced system settings, startup and recovery..click settings, uncheck automatically restart.You will now have a BSOD that will stay on your screen."

Yes, I know. The fact that I have to research the cause of the error is not user friendly as per the Mac OS that tells me where and what created the error right there on the screen. No searching the Internet trying to find a cure.

"I have 1000's of hours on OSx before you call me a MS fanboi."
Nobody called you a "fanboi." Well, I didn't anyway. Paranoia?

"Sounds like you are looking to a career in some sort of IT or computer industry."
I started programming in Fortran in 1978, worked with Unix at Cal, and then moved to DOS. Then GUI came along. I have worked in industry as a system analyst, network engineer, db programmer, and software engineer. Been there, done that.

"A computer guy that can't get Vista running properly is like a hair dresser not being able to figure out how scissors work."
Actually, there comes a time to where you no longer want to play with fixing things and working on them all of the time. You just want to create software...At least some of us. I know my Win OS, but I am bored with going into registries, and what-not. At first it was fun, but now I would rather design and build audio equipment. My weapon of choice is a soldering iron.

"The biggest tragedy here is that you will be leaving school with a tech degree of some sort and you can't get vista running."
No, I have a BS in Neurobiology, and a MS in Applied Mathematics. I have Vista running, but like many others out there I am not happy with it.

"You might be offended now, but if you get over yourself and learn how to fix your problem instead of blaming Vista, you will thank me later."
You are so pretentious. No need to get personal. You make it sound that I am the only user who does not like Vista...hmm, is that why MS offers a downgrade? Is that why it is being scrapped for Win7. You say "get over yourself," and then you say I will be thanking you? Who needs to get over what now?

"I am the IT dept at a medium size company that has Macs and PC's in case you are wondering."
I was the IT department for Gallium Arsenide chip manufacturer, and I was the CIO for a medium sized school district. Now I work for a district that has over 10,000 computers...Mac's and PCs...just in case you were wondering.
 

The_Blood_Raven

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[citation][nom]Yoder54[/nom]So, what kind of tech ed goes on over there? It is a tragedy that students have to use crap like that.[/citation]

Those tech classes are handled in another building with far better PCs.
 

mamw93

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Photoshop for a [citation][nom]Yoder54[/nom]Oh, to upgrade to 2-4 Gb of RAM would only cost a school $35-$60. The majority of schools do not use more than a Gig of RAM. I am running CS3 with 1 Gb on 5 year-old eMac's and all is fine, but I need more RAM to do any rendering, video, or audio work.I should add that I cannot run CS3 on any 5 year-old Dell with 1Gb.[/citation]
Photoshop for a Mac is threaded for the mac arcetechture. So it'll run okay on them but not for a PC.
 

keither5150

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@Yoder54,

So does this mean you are not going to thank me?

I would have bet that you were a student after looking at your post.

I still don't get how someone with your knowledge and ability lets your Vista rig take 5-10 minutes to boot up.

I really do not need to get over myself. I enjoy learning new things and appreciate when someone with more knowledge takes the time to help me.

Seriously I thought you were a student.

Good point about Linux. Nobody in my company listens to me about Linux either.


 

Mach5Motorsport

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When I was working in the Sacramento CIty School District, union rules stated that IT can't can't install/maintain/servce both PCs and Macs. Insane.
One principal just told me quietly could a please dust off these old Macs and "quietly" place them in the classrooms. He didn't want to deal with all the hassle of trying to get an appointment with the Mac guys in the district because it might take weeks.
 

jacobdrj

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[citation][nom]bustapr[/nom]I dont like apple, never will![/citation]
Darth Vader paraphrasing Captain Kirk's views on Klingons, being applied to the ageless battle between Microsoft and Apple.

Amusing. Most amusing.
 

jacobdrj

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[citation][nom]superblahman123[/nom]This may be good for schools to implement a slightly cheaper Mac lab, but this kind of computer is still a rip off. Especially considering that for that price, you could get a PC like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6883103154 for the same price.[/citation]
Yes, but it is more expensive because of viruses, and that brown suit that the PC dude wears... Stupid brown suit... Makes me so angry that I want to go out and buy a Mac...
 

bfstev

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[citation][nom]Yoder54[/nom]Regarding the under $1K price for property control... that is a school board issue. Also, in smaller districts you have to send out to get work done. We do everything in house...repairs, upgrades, etc. The biggest determinant in the total cost of getting a computer is software. We license through MS and pay outrageous prices for Office, XP Pro, etc. Why the schools do not go with open source and Linux is beyond me.Also, in determining the total cost of the computer you must look at: 1. initial capital outlay, 2. life of computer, 3. software costs, and 4. energy costs. Using antiquated computers is foolish since they consume so much energy. Sell off the crap, and in energy savings alone a school district could replace them with high-end PCs or Mac's and give kids the type of technological education they need.[/citation]
We are the third largest district in the nation, no school district does in-house repairs because its cheaper to get from outside. We as well license from microsoft and are apparently getting education deals that your school system needs to look into. We use micosoft for most things because the school system uses alot of educational, grading, personel, database, and record software that is not available on mac or linux. Its also hard to buy new computers when you dont have the money. its also hard to sell and get rid of your old when your computers were procured through government funding.
[citation][nom]Yoder54[/nom]I was the IT department for Gallium Arsenide chip manufacturer, and I was the CIO for a medium sized school district. Now I work for a district that has over 10,000 computers...Mac's and PCs...just in case you were wondering.[/citation]
Gallium Arsenide is a material used in chip manufacture not a company, school boards do not have CIOs they have superintendants board members and school operations managers, a school district that has 10,000 computers is a district with about 20 schools. try again
 

Yoder54

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Oh, we get deals on MS software. Most of our db work is via Oracle, and a majority of the other apps are done via the Internet using non-Ms apps. MS provides the server OS, workstation OS, and productivity software. Linux could do all that MS does, only far cheaper. Most of the development is done using Adobe products, and some MS. All of the"house keeping" software can be done on any platform since we work primarily via the Internet.

Yes, Gallium Arsenide is used to manufacture wafers used in night vision devices, video devices, etc. Oh...I see I left out "a"...as in "a Gallium Arsenide"...my bad. Hey, I do not make the titles for the schools. You must realize that most districts are run by school boards and as Mark Twain said: "God first made the school board member for practice, and then he made the moron."...though I would not call myself a CIO per se, that was the title that they gave me. It is merely a matter of semantics.
 
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what's with calling someone a retard just because they don't agree with you?
 
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