Maximizing Your Dollars in a Dual Platform Environment

The following information is a computer platform cost of ownership study that was done at Regina Coeli School in Toledo, Ohio. This study was conducted from August of 2000 through January of 2005. The study is based upon support incidents that took place during that time period, and the costs incurred from those incidents. The incident criteria included "everyday" hardware and software failure issues (including virus incidents), and NOT incidents based upon user inflicted damage (accidental breakage such as dropping a mouse, spilling liquids etc.). Although a recent cost comparison is included in this document, the study does not focus on the original purchase prices of the equipment as Macintosh and Microsoft Windows-based computers are competitively priced. Macintosh computers are found to be less expensive in a number of cases when compared feature for feature with their Windows counterparts.* The study will instead focus on the support issues surrounding both platforms.

See: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html

In August of 2000, the author was hired by Regina Coeli School as the technology coordinator and computer instructor. At that time, he was told that the school was preparing for a major upgrade to its entire technology program. Networking was being added to the buildings, and computer systems would need to be purchased to provide each classroom instructor with one workstation for instructional use. During a technology committee meeting, it was discussed that Windows-based PCs were commodity items, were inexpensive, and should be used over Macintosh. The author agreed to build Windows systems using the components listed in Table B following this article. Licenses were purchased for Windows 98SE, Microsoft Office 2000 and anti-virus software.

In November of that year, a decision was made that the student computing platform would remain Macintosh for the time being. During the period of time between 2000-2005, 61 Macintosh computers were purchased from Apple Computer at various price points. During the entire study, the computer lab Macintosh computers (30), iBook mobile lab computers (15), and the faculty Windows-based PCs (18) were booted locally from their internal drives and were not part of any network domain/directory environment, except for the ability to save files to the school's Mac OS X server using either SMB (Windows file sharing protocol) and/or AFP (Apple file sharing protocol). The student classroom computers (31)** were administered through a Macintosh Manager environment (September 2001-September of 2004) running on a Mac OS X server.

The author's duties are as follows:
Technology Coordinator- Plan, design, and implement all phases of educational technology at Regina Coeli.
IT Support- Implement and maintain all aspects of the school's information technology program including: repairing, rebuilding, troubleshooting and configuring 100+ workstations (20+ Windows, 3 Linux, and 80+ Macintosh), administering one Mac OS X server, designing and maintaining wired and wireless networks, overseeing the cable television system, telephones, network printers, file sharing, server backups, video production, school newspaper, as well as being the web-based newscast and web-based video correspondence project coordinator.
Webmaster- Design, develop and maintain three independent domains/web sites for the school and parish.
Computer/Technology Instructor- Computer teacher responsible for teaching 350 students (17 classes each week) ranging from grades K-8.
Grant Writer/Implementer- From 2000-2005 we wrote, or participated in, grants that brought in over $20,000.00 used for the purchasing of educational technology equipment and offering professional development to our staff.

*After Apple announced the iMac G5, the author compared the iMac feature for feature with a Dell Dimension system. After adding on hardware customizations and software to bring the computer up to spec with the iMac G5, it was over a hundred dollars more expensive than Apple's offering, and did not have a dedicated graphics accelerator but rather shared video memory. Switching to a different model Dell yielded similar results.
**This study only covers new computers purchased from August 2000-January 2005. There are other computers that were either pre-existing to the school, or received as previously used equipment that are not included in this study.



During the time period of this study, it became apparent to the author the number of gross disparities that arose in dealing with Microsoft Windows-based PC hardware/software support versus the Macintosh platform (complete data listed in Table B).

Total PCs	Total Support Incidents	Total Part Costs	Total Labor Costs @$21.00/hour	Total Downtime	Total Support Costs
18	34	$944.55	$1155.00	58 days	$2099.55 and 58 days downtime
Total Macs	Total Support Incidents	Total Parts Costs	Total Labor Costs @$21.00/hour	Total Downtime	Total Support Costs
61	9	$150.00	$157.50	23 days	$307.50 and 23 days downtime

According to this data, there is a 14.5 times greater chance of having a problem with a Windows-based computer versus a Macintosh. In discussions with numerous colleagues and peers, a number of issues were raised by them regarding these findings:

1. "You used cheap PC hardware. If you had purchased good quality PC hardware, then you wouldn't have had those problems."

One of the most argued points for using Windows based PCs over Macintosh computers is that they are cheaper to buy up front, thus allegedly reducing the total cost of ownership. If we were to build "top of the line" hardware based PCs, or purchase them from a vendor, there would be virtually no cost advantage up front when comparing those systems to Macintosh based computers. As you can also see from the information found in Table B, and discussed elsewhere throughout this document, there are a number of issues that arose in dealing with the Windows operating system that were completely unrelated to the hardware used.

2. "You just don't know how to properly configure a PC."

The author purchased his first computer, a Macintosh, in 1995, and built his first dual boot Windows/Linux PC in 1996. During the last 8 years the author has built numerous Windows based computers for various clients. He has attempted to grow and maintain his knowledge base in the platforms of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, as well as the areas of system design, construction and maintenance, networking, disk duplication, operating system security, file sharing, and multimedia production. He has also taken workshops through Ohio SchoolNet and Northwest Ohio Computer Association that dealt with both Windows and Macintosh technologies.

Some points to note:

A. The security implementations around both platforms were identical. Use of the Windows computers, however, was limited to faculty and staff only.
B. All hardware/software configurations were thoroughly tested and confirmed stable before they were deployed to the end users.
C. Acceptable use procedures were identical for both platforms.

3. "Macintosh computers are only secure because the platform is so small that no one wants to write viruses for them."

The underlying UNIX architecture of Mac OS X based systems has been refined over many decades. If platform security were based upon market domination, and not upon refined architecture, then it would stand to reason that the UNIX viruses that surely must have existed when UNIX was the dominant computing platform could easily be adapted to attack Macs.

The facts are, however, that UNIX uses a permissions based environment that restricts non-administrator users from being able to make major system level changes. Should someone try to create a virus that attacks a Mac OS X computer at the system level, the virus would require administrator level authorization to proceed. Without an administrator password, the virus would be unable to proceed.

Windows, however, does not require an administrative password to make system wide changes when running in an administrative account. As a result of this, and also by virtue of the fact that most home users operate their computers from an administrative account, when a virus attacks a Windows machine, it is given free and total reign of the operating system, and can complete any administrative changes that it has been programmed to make.

See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/18/technology/circuits/18POGUE-EMAILt.html?ex=1107666000&en=e06ce2f3298cea11&ei=5070

Another good example of Macintosh security can be seen by looking at the United States Army's web site. The web site was broken into and defaced a number of times when it was being hosted on a Microsoft Windows NT server. After the Army switched over to Macintosh in 1999, it has never been broken into since. The following link confirms the server platform:

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.army.mil

See also:
http://member.advisor.com/doc/05511
http://www.3-rivers.com/whyhostonamac.html

4. "It isn't a fair comparison to compare Windows 98SE to Mac OS X based computers."

By August of 2000, when we built these Windows boxes, most of the major issues had been worked out of Windows 98. It was reported that Windows 2000 still had some issues that we really didn't want to have to deal with. At that point in time, our staff was primarily going to be using Microsoft Office, a grade book program, and a web browser, so we didn't think that it was a wise decision to use Windows 2000 before it was fully stable, or until our needs required it. As it turns out, this decision was actually a blessing in disguise. During the major virus outbreaks between 2002 and 2004 that affected Windows 2000 and XP, our school went virtually unscathed while businesses and schools across the world had building-wide and LAN/WAN-wide infiltrations and infections.

5. "There isn't any software available for computers running Mac OS X."

There are now over 10,000 applications available for Mac OS X including: Microsoft Office-Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Fireworks, Macromedia Dreamweaver, DigiDesign Pro Tools, Oracle 10G, and many others. Furthermore, thousands of applications have been developed for UNIX platforms, and in many cases, these programs can be recompiled to run on Mac OS X.

See: http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/38632.html

There are those rare applications, that for whatever reason, either don't run on Mac OS X or no equivalent substitute program is available. On those occasions, one can either run Windows on her/his Macintosh using Microsoft's Virtual PC application, or she/he can and SHOULD purchase a Windows PC. In determining which computer to purchase, the deciding factor should always be, "which is the best tool for the job?" While teachers can make instructional videos for DVD using Windows Movie Maker and a third party DVD creation application, they might just have a more productive and more enjoyable experience using iMovie and iDVD on the Macintosh if given the opportunity.

Educational technology decisions should be guided by a fully qualified educational technologist. These extremely important decisions about classroom educational/instructional tools should be determined by a detailed and exhaustive needs assessment and not be influenced by pressures from IT personnel and administrators to use the dominant computer platform of the time.

6. "Macs have had security issues just like Windows."

There have been security updates released for Mac OS X. The significant difference between security issues on the Mac versus security issues on the PC is this: Security updates that have been released for Mac OS X usually deal with optional and advanced services (SSH, FTP, etc.) that are turned off by default.

Windows security issues and vulnerabilities, on the other hand, usually affect ALL Windows computers running with a default installation of the operating system. To put it simply, when a user boots up their Macintosh for the first time and connects it to the internet, they can be assured that their computer is secure. A Windows user does not have this comfort. A Windows user concerned about security should make sure that their computer:

A. Is behind a hardware firewall
B. Is running anti-virus software
C. Is running spyware detection and removal software
D. Is NOT being used in the administrative user account that is setup by default when first turning on a Windows based PC.

These are serious differences between the two platforms in terms of security, and should be cause for serious deliberation as to which platform should deployed on a large scale (assuming that all other needs can be met equally).

UPDATE:
This study was originally presented at the 2005 Ohio SchoolNet State Technology Conference in Columbus, Ohio.  The first day of the SchoolNet conference arrived only to find that every one of the Microsoft Windows-based (PC) hands-on workshops scheduled for that day were canceled. The author asked someone what was going on and was told that viruses and spyware had infected all of the loaned laptops that were to be used in these sessions- to the point that they were useless. The Monday sessions would not take place. The next day we were told by another person that ALL Windows-based hands-on workshops were canceled for the duration of the conference. They went on to say that engineers from Cisco Academy had been brought in to try to fix the situation, but late into Monday night, they informed SchoolNet officials that they could not get the problems alleviated in time. SchoolNet had to cancel the Windows hands-on workshops as a result. The Macintosh workshops, on the other hand, went on as scheduled.

7. "You can't have Macs and Windows based PCs on the same network."

The author recently attended an Ohio SchoolNet sponsored workshop entitled, "Active Directory Integration and Mac OS X." During that workshop, attendees were taught how to integrate Mac OS X workstations into Window's Active Directory domains. Conversely, Mac OS X Server can host Windows login directory structures using Apple's Open Directory. By utilizing the latter approach, many license fees to Microsoft can be eliminated as Apple includes unlimited logins in the educational purchase price of $499.00 with Mac OS X Server.

See: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/windows_services.html

During the 5 years that the author has been the administrator of a dual platform environment, there has never been a single issue of network incompatibility between the Macintosh computers and the Windows based PCs. The only limitations that one could run into would be to create web based environments using Microsoft's Active-X technologies. Aside from being proprietary and non-standards compliant, Active-X has proven itself to be a security risk and highly exploitable.

See:
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-184A.html
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-293A.html
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878

Active-X web technologies ONLY work with computers running Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. Mac OS9, Mac OS X, Linux and other forms of Unix are excluded from participating in Active-X environments. Committing to internationally accepted standards will ensure that web citizens on all platforms can benefit from whatever web content/environment is created and implemented by your organization.

8. "When compared to Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon powered computers, Macintosh computers are slower."

Both of the following quotes were taken from a Virginia Tech press release (http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?itemno=495) describing Virginia Tech's new super computer that is currently the 7th fastest super computer in the world and the fastest super computer owned by any academic organization, college, or university.

" 'Our goal with System X was to lower the barriers of access for a computational resource of this size,' said Srinidhi Varadarajan, assistant professor of computer science and director of the facility. With more than 12.25 teraflops of sustained Linpack performance, System X is the largest academic computing resource in the world as of the November 2004 TOP500 List."

"Blacksburg, Va., January 10, 2005 -- Research time on System X, the 2200 processor supercomputer at the Virginia Tech Terascale Computing Facility (TCF), is now available on a cost-recovery basis to computational science and engineering researchers. System X is currently rated the world's fastest academic supercomputer."

See: http://www.top500.org/lists/plists.php?Y=2004&M=11

The super computer is made out of 1100 Apple XServes with 2200 2.3 GHz G5 processors. It uses the least amount of processors of any super computer system in the top ten. This tells us that the G5 processors in the XServe are equal to, or more powerful than, the processors used by the other systems. They are certainly not "slower." Compared to the other super computer clusters, the Mac-based cluster was also the most economical, costing only a fraction of all of the other systems in the top ten.

Recently, this author compared a G4 1.33 GHz PowerPC processor in a Macintosh G4 computer to an Athlon 3500+ (2.2 GHz) in a Windows PC. The benchmark used was Distributed.net's RC5 brute force encryption breaking client. RC5 is an encryption method that was recently broken by the combined resources of distributed.net. Distributed.net's software is designed to allow ordinary home computers to be utilized in massive distributed computing projects. It runs on many different processors and operating system platforms. Since the developers for each client want the application to be efficient on their respective processor architectures, it is optimized for each processor/platform independently of the others. Here are the results of this informal test:

RC5 Benchmark@2.2 GHz Athlon64 (3500+)
8,196,096 keys/sec

RC5 Benchmark@1.33 GHz Macintosh PowerPC G4                         
14,196,744 keys/sec

As you can see from this example, the processors in Macintosh computers cannot be judged solely on the basis of clock speed . It is easy to see that a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 processor has the capability to be MUCH faster than a 2.1 GHz AMD Athlon (which incidentally is faster in some benchmarks than a Pentium 4 at the same processor speed) for specific tasks.

See: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36964.html

9. "Corporations don't use Macintosh computers in their enterprise structures."

There is now evidence available that points directly to major corporations capitalizing on the power, stability, and affordability of Apple's new technologies:


Besides being the largest computer networking hardware company in the world, some would say that they are also one of the most highly respected. The fact that a company of the stature of Cisco Systems chooses Apple technologies for their enterprise, says volumes about Apple, their products, and their IT solutions.

Companies and businesses throughout the world are switching to the Macintosh platform to avoid the costs and hassles associated with other platforms.

See also:
http://www.apple.com/business/profiles/mmmb/
http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/gilbert/index2.html
http://www.apple.com/science/whymac/extended.html
http://www.apple.com/itpro/
http://news.com.com/AT%26%2338%3BT+looks+into+closing+Windows/2100-1016_3-5397748.html
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/39826.html

Real World Experience

There are a number of other issues that were not included in this study, but should be mentioned. In most circumstances, when updating Macintosh computers for system and Apple specific application updates, all of the updates can be selected at one time, downloaded automatically and installed. One time, one reboot. Conversely, there have been numerous occasions where Windows Update displayed a large number of critical updates and Microsoft component updates. Trying to install them all at once frequently would trigger a message that "Update X needs to be installed separately from all other updates." This results in vastly greater support times for the Windows workstations.

Another issue has to do with software installs. Mac OS X applications are usually distributed as "packages" that can be installed by simply dragging and dropping the application into the Applications folder. Windows installers, on the other hand, require files to be sprinkled around the file system and data to be written to the Window's registry. Poorly written applications/installers have caused our school downtime after they crashed during install, corrupting the registry, and destroying our pristine Windows installations. Device driver installers have done this, as well as other types of third party applications.

Uninstalls are even more complicated on Windows. You must go to a control panel to begin the uninstall process. If the uninstaller finds .dll files that it wants to remove, it asks you if it should remove them or leave them. Should you choose to remove them, you may find portions of your operating system, or certain applications, crippled if they were sharing those .dll files before you removed them. In stark contrast to this uninstall procedure, for the most part, in order to remove an application from Mac OS X, you drag it from the Applications directory to the trash.

During the entire time period between 2000 and 2005, we have never purchased any anti-virus software for any Macintosh computer. The fact that Windows PC workstations virtually require it (as evidenced by Microsoft's recent acquisition of an anti-virus company and subsequently they are now giving the software away for free) should cause even the most zealous Windows user to take note.

See: http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20041209.html
See: http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/it/archive/000203.html

During the end of 2002, we decided that we would purchase a server to host a database that was required for some reading applications. We went to Apple's web site and configured a dual processor 533 MHz server. The total came to just under $3000.00. That price included the hardware and an "unlimited" license for Mac OS X Server. If you already own a compatible Macintosh computer, Apple Computer's Mac OS X Server educational pricing is $499.00. Period. For that price you get UNLIMITED: SMB (Windows) file sharing clients, web serving connections, AFP file sharing clients, email accounts, netboot clients, and many other services and capabilities. After going to the Microsoft education site, we noticed that "unlimited" licenses couldn't be found. We compromised and priced a "campus" configuration that allowed for up to 300 file sharing clients, 300 web serving connections and 300 SQL clients. Because Microsoft sells some server products on a "per seat" basis, the server software alone was many times the cost of Mac OS X Server. What made this even more surprising was that we found out that we would be required to buy a maintenance agreement that required ANNUAL fees. Surely this was a mistake. After speaking with another tech coordinator from a much larger district in our area, it was confirmed that people pay these fees with no questions asked.

When looking at the reliability of Macintosh hardware and software, here are some real world observations. In the three years that we have used Mac OS X, there has never been a time in our computer lab, or when using the mobile lab of iBooks,  where one of our students crashed a computer requiring a reboot. There have been, on rare occasions, those times when a single program has quit, or in another example, become unresponsive. In the former example, the student can simply re-launch the program. In the case of the latter, a simple force quit of the application and re-launching it takes care of the problem. In terms of an optimal educational environment, this teaching and learning environment is invaluable. There are enough distractions in the classroom without having to wait for "Johnny" to reboot his computer during a lesson that requires model and practice.

On the topic of learning environments, we cannot overlook the advantage of having our lab outfitted with 30 iMacs. Because these computers use convection cooling as opposed to cooling fans, our lab is free from any noise save for the near silent whirring of hard drives. Being able to teach/lecture/answer questions without having to yell over the din of the multiple cooling fans found in Windows computers is an advantage that is never taken for granted. Visitors to our school frequently comment on this after being amazed to find that every one of the 30 iMac computers is up and running though barely making a sound.

The reliability of Macintosh hardware has been found to be nothing short of amazing. Earlier this year, our school was nearly hit by a bolt of lightning. Even though we weren't directly hit, the resulting voltage irregularities caused the power to cycle in the computer lab. Nine of our iMacs initially wouldn't boot up after this incident. The iMacs were opened up, the power manager reset button on their motherboards was pressed, and all nine iMacs started right up and are still in use today. During the past five years of usage, not a single purchased Macintosh computer has had any hardware failure save for a worn out hard drive or CDROM drive, both of which are considered normal maintenance repairs after years of use. It is even more interesting to note that there have been only nine repair incidents associated with the 61 Macintosh systems at Regina Coeli. Even more interesting is the fact that seven out of the nine were fixed under their warranty. In the five years that we have integrated 61 Apple Macintosh systems into use at our school, the total cost of repair parts incurred by the school for those Macs has been $150.00. In stark contrast to this, our 18 Windows PCs cost us nearly $950.00 in repair parts, 55 hours of labor, and a combined 58 days of downtime.

See: Table B

Lastly, the value of the Apple bundled applications needs to be addressed. Apple Computer recently announced their iLife '05 suite of multimedia applications. This bundle of programs includes a photo library and editing program called iPhoto, an HD (high definition) capable video editing program called iMovie HD, GarageBand- a multitrack recording application that comes with hundreds of high quality software based instruments, loops, and effects, realtime notation of live performances via midi, software based guitar amplifier models, and the ability to edit any track. This program is a music teacher's dream.  iDVD is a DVD authoring program with dozens of DVD navigational theme templates, and iTunes is a music library and encoding application that encodes your CDs to mp3, AIFF and AAC. How much are these applications worth? The fact that all of these applications seamlessly work together in an "automagical" sort of way makes them nearly invaluable. Pictures from iPhoto and music from iTunes can be quickly added to your digital video projects when working in iMovie. It doesn't get any easier than the iLife applications. Looking only at the application GarageBand, we can quickly see how much value Apple has given us. You would need to spend close to $300.00 in order to get comparable applications on the Windows platform if you wanted to have the functionality found just in GarageBand. How much is it worth to give our students all of these tools?

On January 11, 2005, Apple debuted the Mac mini, a computer that is bundled with ALL of these iLife applications. The Mac mini is a full featured computer in an enclosure 6.5 inches square and 2 inches tall with a 1.25 GHz G4 processor, a slot load combo drive (CDRW+DVD),  256 megabytes of RAM, an ATI Radeon 9200 AGP graphics accelerator with 32 mb of video memory, a 40 gig hard drive, Firewire ports to connect to digital camcorders or external hard drives, USB 2.0 ports, DVI and VGA video connectors, and an audio out port. It also ships with built in PDF document creation, a Mac/PC USB print server, Windows/Macintosh filesharing, SSH command line remote login/administration, integrated FTP server, and integrated web server. How much is a computer with all of this functionality worth? Apple is selling the Mac mini for $499.00.



Here is a breakdown of the Mac mini and a competitor's $499.00 system feature for feature (Feature snapshot was taken on 1-14-05):

TABLE A

Specifications Price 499.00 Processor 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 Memory 256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SRAM, supports up to 1GB 3D Graphics Accelerator With Dedicated VRAM Yes- ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM with AGP 4X support Hard drive 40GB Ultra ATA Optical drive Slot-loading Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) Firewire port: Yes USB 2.0 Yes DVI output Yes VGA output Yes 10/100BASE-T Ethernet Yes 56K V.92 modem3 Yes HD Video Editing Yes Export Video To Multiple File Formats Yes Multitrack Music Recording Software Yes MIDI Music Recording Yes Music Recording to Notation Yes Home Finance Software Yes PDF Creation Yes FTP Serving Yes Web Serving Yes Windows Filesharing Yes Apple Filesharing Yes NFS Support Yes CLI Remote Administration Yes Microsoft Word Compatible Word Processor Yes System software Mac OS X version 10.3 “Panther,” includes Classic environment, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iSync, iCal Included Software FULL USE COMMERCIAL ITEMS ONLY-EXCLUDES TRIAL VERSIONS OR FREE DOWNLOADS iLife ‘05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand), AppleWorks, Quicken 2005 for Mac, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold and Apple Hardware Test Monitor No Keyboard/Mouse No

Specifications Price 499.00 Processor 2.8GHz Pentium 4 Memory 256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SRAM, supports up to 1GB 3D Graphics Accelerator With Dedicated VRAM No- Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 (Shared System Memory) Hard drive 40GB Ultra ATA Optical drive CD-RW Firewire port: No USB 2.0 Yes DVI output No VGA output Yes 10/100BASE-T Ethernet Yes 56K V.92 modem Yes HD Video Editing No Export Video to Multiple File Formats No Multitrack Music Recording Software No MIDI Music Recording No Music Recording to Notation No Home Finance Software No PDF Creation No FTP Serving No Web Serving No Windows Filesharing Yes Apple Filesharing No NFS Support No CLI Remote Administration No Microsoft Word Compatible Word Processor No System software Microsoft® Windows®  XP Home Edition Included Software FULL USE COMMERCIAL ITEMS ONLY-EXCLUDES TRIAL VERSIONS OR FREE DOWNLOADS WordPerfect Monitor Yes Keyboard/Mouse Yes

It is clearly seen that while Microsoft Windows and x86 powered PCs may be the dominant computer platform of this time, they may not be the best choice when looking at both platforms from support and usability standpoints. The platform combination of Apple Computer's Macintosh hardware and Mac OS X software has proven itself to be an incredibly stable, powerful, and economical solution for consumers, students, faculty, IT personnel, and businesses. Ignoring these facts as a result of our bias, or a lack of knowledge about the technical workings of a better solution, would go against the philosophical foundations that make up the basis of our system of education. We ask our students to face the future with open minds, inquisitive minds, and a hunger for knowledge, yet some of us may shield ourselves from the truth and facts about better educational technology choices by hiding behind an attitude of platform segregation and prejudice. We owe it to our students to seek out the BEST tools with which they can learn and grow. The tools with which they can become the innovators of tomorrow.

While we can work for days, weeks, months, and even years calculating the true cost of ownership of Windows based PCs and Macintosh computers, as well as deliver solid arguments, data, and numbers to back up our studies, there is a vastly more important factor that many of us in educational technology seem to be ignoring. We should not be looking solely at the cost of computers that we purchase for our children and students to use. More importantly, we should be looking at the totality of the value found in those computers, and what those computers can do in the hands of our extremely talented and capable children- the leaders of tomorrow.

TABLE B

***Although the CDROM drive was out of warranty by just over 30 days, Apple replaced it free of charge.

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©2004-2005 C. Hamady