Mac or PC?

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Permalink Reply by Jana Hoggle on July 5, 2008 at 9:47am

In our very rural Alabama, we use both. I have PCs that run our Student Information System and we use Macs for its iLife applications. The Macs are not on the network, but have Internet capabilities. At home, I have a Mac loaded with Parallels and Windows XP. To me, this is the best of both worlds! I get the productivity tools that come with the Mac (that are much easier for me and for students) while also getting the PC side that is necessary to run many network applications. I can see - somewhere in the future - switching to this dual platform system wide.

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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on July 5, 2008 at 12:07pm

For multimedia work--especially beginners with multimedia, it is hard to beat the Mac with its iLife Suite. It also helps introduce students to the idea that a project can be constructed using several applications--each doing what it does best.

I am also a big fan of Linux, but it comes up short with multimedia in a big way. If you are just web browsing, word processing, etc. Linux gives the best bang for the buck. I take the old windows computers and put ubuntu on it. The kids really like ubuntu.

I am the only teacher at my school that has a Mac as a work machine--and the only teacher who goes beyond browsing and word processing--maybe a coincidence. Maybe not.

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Permalink Reply by Derwin Kitch on July 6, 2008 at 1:49pm

I've been on both sides of the coin: teaching and Head of IT Dept. As the Head, PCs are just so much cheaper and easier on the budget. You can get many more computers in the school for less $. You still have to plan for good virus and malware protection though. There is more software available for the PCs as well.

I'm now an ICT teacher in an all Mac schools (except for the business office) and I love them. Much easier to use, fewer viruses but less software available and much greater purchase cost. Still, the software that is available for Macs is great.

I'm looking forward to the middle ground in hardware cost and software like Ubuntu or other Linux/Unix models coming out and becoming more readily available: cheap and secure. Especially with so many free online applications out there like zoho or google apps, this model is exciting. My school is getting me an Everex computer as a test station for next year. We'll see how that goes. If it works well, it may be a cheap way of opening up an auxiliary research lab.

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Ahles on July 6, 2008 at 3:15pm

As head of IT at a fairly large secondary school, I put in two new labs- one PC and one MAC. I had to fight hard to get them to put in the MAC lab because of the higher upfront cost. The machines were used all day, everyday by students. After 12 months of keeping stats, I had 1 repair in the MAC lab for every 4 in the PC lab, after 2 years I had 1 repair in the MAC lab for every 9 in the PC lab. When it came time to roll over the machines, the extra upfront cost was no longer an issue!

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Permalink Reply by Derwin Kitch on July 6, 2008 at 3:33pm

Hi Bonnie...that's interesting. What brand of machines did you have in the PC lab?

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Ahles on July 6, 2008 at 4:34pm

They were IBM (pre Lenovo days) midrange machines. Our main problems were keyboard damage, CD Rom drive damage, hard drive problems. The school did not have much of a problem with malicious damage, but kids just couldn't resist rearranging those keys! It was also interesting to note that when we wanted to reimage the labs, it took us longer to create the MAC image (probably because of our lack of expertise) but it was much quicker to deploy. The MAC lab could easily be reimaged overnight but always seemed to strike problems with the PC lab. This probably wouldn't be the case now.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Anderson on July 6, 2008 at 9:04pm

How can you say that there was no problem with malicious damage, right after you said there was keyboard damage and cd-rom drive damage? These things do not damage themselves! While I do admit, that the cd-rom drive doors on most pc cd-rom drives do require some "gentleness" most of ours last 5-7 years, without any "damage". We have as many problems with students sticking paper clips, pieces of paper, etc in our mac's (cd-drives) as we do with the pc cd-rom drives. I would have to say that our cd-drive failure rate on our pc's are higher than on our macs, but our replacement cd-rom costs are higher on the macs, due to the high price of replacement parts for mac's.
I would also point out that rearranging keys is also malicious behavior and any damage that results from this should be considered malicious damage.
While I do not doubt your statistics, I do think that most of the statistics are probably more due to other factors, rather than Mac or IBM. From the sounds of your main problems, I would say that most of the problems in the pc lab were probably due to poor or no supervision.
I don't even know if most schools could do a fair comparison of the two platforms, based simply on the fact that very seldom are the two used in the same ways. The tasks that the computers are used for, and the teachers knowledge of the platform and software (as well as good supervision) will have more to do with the problems encountered, than the platform or the computer.

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Ahles on July 6, 2008 at 9:27pm

Hi Paul
You are right. When I said little malicious damage, I should have been clearer. The students rearranged keys because they could. It was seen as a 'game' and often happened during the last few minutes of lessons. I would add that it was basically the same teachers working in the MAC and PC labs as they were mostly used for middle and senior school IT electives. Most were more familiar and comfortable with the PC platform. One could assume that the level of supervision and tasks undertaken were very similar.
I would still put in a lab of each platform simply because it gave students greater opportunities and experience. In fact now I would probably put in Linux lab with Open Source software as well. (That is if I was putting in labs at all!)
I was simply trying to point out that looking at the TCO of each lab over time was more realistic than just looking at up front costs.

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Permalink Reply by Katie Neville on July 6, 2008 at 4:26pm

I bought my first Apple in 1990. In 18 years I've owned 7, including the iMac and MacBook I currently own. I've done by own upgrades. Only one repair in 18 years. Not a bad record.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Anderson on July 6, 2008 at 9:40pm

Since 1990 I have went through 10 "PCs", although I still am using 4 of them, and still have 2 of the others. During this time I have went through 3 monitors, and spent less than $7,500.00 total. This includes all repairs and upgrades. I would not consider this a bad record either. Any idea on how much was spent on your Mac's?

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Ahles on July 6, 2008 at 9:54pm

Our machines were rolled over after 4 years. I don't have exact figures at hand but when I did a TCO for all machines in both labs at the end of the 4 years, the cost of the MAC lab was slightly less than the PC lab, but not by much.
I totally agree with you that it has as much to do with supervision, the brand of PC originally purchased, and warranty inclusions. One thing I did notice was that the MACs were more sensitive to power fluctuations and as the school was doing some major building work, we reset machines more often. This problem stopped once the building work was complete.

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Permalink Reply by indigo196 on July 10, 2008 at 6:48pm

I got my first PC in 1989... In 19 years I have owned 12, including the four self-built computers I current have and my wife's e-machine. The first was a five year old hand-me-down from my dad to do some Alpha5 programming for him and the next two were a Packard Bell and a Hewlett Packard; all the remaining computers were self-built with the exception of my wife's e-machine. I have never had one repair in those 19 years.

Then again I know people who have owned PCs and had nothing but issues... and others that own Macs and have had nothing but issues. I think both platforms can have success if properly administered.

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