Why Use Macs?

Why Use Macs in Your Local School
— A Very Brief Summary —

1 - Numerous studies have shown that students are more creative and more productive with Macs than with PCs.
[Assumes that the OS on the Macs has been properly kept up-to-date!]

2 - Essentially every independent survey ever done has shown that teachers prefer working with Macs over PCs.
[This also assumes that the Macs have been properly maintained.]

3 - Countrywide experience in all levels of educational institutions and businesses has conclusively demonstrated that Macs are easier to maintain than PCs.

4 - The lifetime of Macs has always been longer than PCs. The typical reported averages have been 6+ years for Macs and 4± years for PCs. (For instance, in our local North Carolina schools there are still eight year old Macs in daily use. No eight year old PC is in daily use throughout the entire NC school system — if not the country.)

5 - When factoring in ALL aspects of ownership (including purchase price, technical support, setup time, maintenance, training time, network management, years of useful service, cost of electricity to operate, etc.) Macs have consistently been shown to be LESS EXPENSIVE than any Windows/PC alternative — typically by over $400 per year per computer.

6 - Apple is the technology leader in the computer business and provides features (like the Spotlight search engine, Bluetooth technology, a built-in camera, etc., etc.) not normally included on PCs. (Note that Apple has over 100 times the number of Patents than a typical PC box assembler has. They also have over twice as many computer related patents as Microsoft has.)

7 - Apple is unlike virtually all of its competition in that it develops and builds BOTH the basic hardware and the Operating System. This is a compelling reason why Apple is better positioned to retain its lead in reliability, quality, innovation, better integration of hardware and software, etc.

8 - Macs are significantly less susceptible to virus attacks. (Currently there have been zero identified Mac OS X viruses, but well over 100,000 PC viruses.)

9 - All current Macs can natively run Windows (all versions, including Vista) and its software, for FREE. Files can also be moved cross-platform! PC computers cannot similarly run Mac software.

10-Macs can read PC Pen Drives/PC Zips/PC CDs/PC diskettes without any additional software. (This means that students with a PC at home can bring to school almost any document, and these documents can be used and edited on the Mac. Similarly, they can convert their Pages/AppleWorks document into a PC version to be brought back to their home computer. PCs do not offer this degree of flexibility and ease of translation.)

11-All OS 9.x and 10.x Macs can easily be set to automatically update their OS software from an Apple website. (PC’s have tried this idea as well, but do not do as thorough a job of it — e.g. in the area of drivers.)

12-With OS X Macs have the power and flexibility of UNIX software with an easy to use graphic interface.

13-With Mac OS X servers, the system administrator can update their one Mac server, which immediately updates the system software of all Macs on their network (NetBoot). Again, this cannot be done on the Windows servers often used by school districts.

14-Apple Servers are more secure than Windows servers. (Nationwide experience shows that there are significantly fewer hacks onto Mac servers by students than onto PC servers.)

15-If your school district already has an investment in Mac hardware, software and training, this money and effort will be seriously undermined by standardizing on PCs.

16-Considerably more important than having a “Windows experience” is that students learn keyboarding, master word processing, can create spreadsheets and charts, can put together multimedia projects, have expertise with working on the Internet, develop an ability to use the computer as a powerful tool, etc.,etc. Learning all of these important skills is easier on a Mac.

17-There is an unusually strong community among Mac users. Why does this make a difference to educators? Well, take our NC area as an example. A Mac users group was specifically started here with the intention of providing a resource for free extra training for teachers and students. They have had monthly meeting for some eight years now. No such PC group exists.

18-Apple is very motivated to expand on its business with schools, and as such is willing to negotiate any issue.

Girl Throws Hammer

Download a printable pdf version of this document (rev: 5/23/05).

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Can not be located — but
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rev: February 28, 2007

— Section #14 —