Looks like teachers in the Pinellas County schools in Tampa will be reverse switchers. The directive came from Pinellas County superintendent Howard Hinesley, who wants to the district to use one type of computer instead of two. It always saddens me to see school districts and companies dumping all Macs as a matter of policy because “one platform is cheaper.” One platform is cheaper, but it’s the Mac. Windows is more expensive to maintain. Trust me: I do both. I think it’s very telling that I manage Windows2000 Servers at work and come home to a Mac.
Howard Troxler of the St. Petersburg Times wrote a great follow up article. Here’s a sample:
I totally endorse the decision of Howard Hinesley, the school chief in Pinellas County, to eliminate Apple computers from the public schools and switch to Windows-based computers.
ERROR: THE FILE “WHATSIS.DLL’ HAS UNEXPECTEDLY DISAPPEARED FROM THE HARD DRIVE.
Beautiful.
Maybe the administration at that school should read this article: Reliance on Microsoft called risk to U.S. security. Bad for U.S. security, good for I.T. job security.