Schools Are Ditching Chromebooks For MacBooks By the Thousands (9to5mac.com) 122
Apple says its lower-cost MacBook Neo is beginning to displace Windows laptops and Chromebooks in K-12 schools, with several districts purchasing thousands of units. According to the company's latest earnings call, nearly half of the large MacBook Neo purchases made by U.S. educational institutions last quarter reportedly replaced competing platforms. 9to5Mac reports: Apple's commentary highlighted some large district deployments moving to Neo Pinellas County Schools, one of the largest districts in Florida, which is moving its 25k students off Windows and onto MacBook Neo across its 18 high schools. In Washington, Peninsula School District 401 moved over its 8,000 students from Chromebooks to MacBook Neo. Midwest City-Del City School District in Oklahoma purchased more than 6,000 MacBook Neos to become an all-Apple district for students.
Until they run out of defective processors (Score:4, Interesting)
You mean binned? (Score:3)
I guess they are "slightly defective" in the same way an Epyc 9115 is a slightly defective 9965.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple used up their backlog of processors. It's why Neo shipment times have turned into months - Apple was shocked by how many people wanted the computers and sold way more in the first month than they expected to ever sell.
As a result their supply of processors has dried up.
Re: (Score:2)
I went to Apple's website and looked at the delivery time for the base macbook neo. The estimated delivery date is two days. The higher-end model, two weeks. The backlog certainly isn't months.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple used up their backlog of processors. It's why Neo shipment times have turned into months
False. Not a single NEO config I select on Apple.com has more than a 3 day delivery to my address.
When you have to lie to make your point, its time to make some tough decisions in life. Will you forever push your false agenda and false narrative?
Re: (Score:2)
They've already ordered a new production run of the chips. Yes, that costs a bunch more than using the old binned chips.
Shitty Trade (Score:2, Interesting)
Trading shit for more expensive shit is a crappy use of tax payer money.
Worse still is that studies show what we knew all along. Giving a laptop or iPad to every kid does not improve their education. In fact, the studies show them to be detrimental to the child's learning.
Re: (Score:2)
Worse still is that studies show what we knew all along. Giving a laptop or iPad to every kid does not improve their education. In fact, the studies show them to be detrimental to the child's learning.
Yep. I had that suspicion 25 years ago when I was involved a related EU project. All the senior people with actual teaching experience involved though pretty much the same. Most of the others had a no-proof "Technology makes everything better!" mindset, which I found quite problematic. Turns out that intuition was pretty much correct and the senior folks with teaching experience had it all right. (I did not have a lot of teaching experience back then.)
Re: (Score:2)
I just don’t understand this attitude from you guys at all.
Why force kids to write long-hand instead of typing? Why deny them access to collab software for project work with other kids when it would be helpful? Why not use software for routine or lengthy messages from the school or teachers to pupils? Even stuff as simple as details of a school trip is better done with an email going to both pupil and parents with a clickable link for parental permissions and an attachment listing the kit requirements
Re: (Score:2)
Why force kids to write long-hand instead of typing?
Because you memorize the stuff you write.
When you type: you don't.
Are you really that stupid and uneducated, oh yes, as you probable never made some "hand written notes".
My daughter studies history of art â" what on earth is wrong with her using her iPad when she goes to a museum to make a short video of an artwork sheâ(TM)s studying and record some thoughts about it?
Nothing. But what exactly has making a video to do with handwriting versus typi
Re: (Score:2)
I got my NatSci degree in the early 90s, and of course wrote my notes long hand, so I very much have personal experience, you rude little twat. Go look up where people do NatSci degrees and wind your fucking neck in.
And your views on notes are naive and overly simplistic. Urry and colleagues were unable to replicate Mueller and Oppenheimer’s 2014 study and specifically, that the effect of taking notes longhand was not statistically significant. Same was true for Morehead, Dunlowsky and Rawson’s
Re: (Score:2)
Urry and colleagues were unable to replicate Mueller and Oppenheimer’s 2014 study and specifically, that the effect of taking notes longhand was not statistically significant. Same was true for Morehead, Dunlowsky and Rawson’s direct replication and extension.
While I wouldn't say that everyone could benefit, I have long been in the habit of taking copious longhand notes, then putting them away, because I remember what I wrote.
When I have not, the intel doesn't "stick" quite as much. Or at least it doesn't seem so to me.
Maybe I should do an experiment to see, because I know with note taking with pencil and paper seems to work. I have an eidetic memory, not perfect, but pretty good - perhaps I am an outlier?
Re:Shitty Trade (Score:4)
Re: (Score:2)
Apple will keep jacking up prices too, due to AI taking all the RAM and flash.
But isn't this a massive upheaval and cost for you? Switching from managing Chromebooks to Macbooks, switching software suites, dealing with all the different IT problems that arise from MacOS etc?
Re: (Score:2)
Google Workplace runs on a Mac the same (or better?) like on a Chromebook.
So, what software suit would one switch?
Wait a moment ... Anaconda does not run on Mac's, right? Jupyter and Obsidian run just fine on Mac's ...
Every Linux tool I ever needed runs on Mac's.
The only hard problem on Mac's is: you have to fiddle to figure how to switch from zsh to bash. But there are great youtube videos about how to do that, most of them less than 10 minutes long, and some do not even have adverts.
Oh, and Java is not pr
Re: (Score:2)
Google Workplace runs on a Mac the same (or better?) like on a Chromebook.
I likewise have no issues with Google Workplace on My Macs. I'd rather not use them, but a couple people I work with like to use them. I do a fair number of Google Forms as well. Works perfectly.
Every Linux tool I ever needed runs on Mac's.
The only hard problem on Mac's is: you have to fiddle to figure how to switch from zsh to bash. But there are great youtube videos about how to do that, most of them less than 10 minutes long, and some do not even have adverts.
I freaking hate zsh. Funny how they have instructions after you go bash to "update" to zsh, but not the other way around. I look at zsh as Apple's version of powershell, at least in terms of being a pain in the backside.
Guess I ventured OT here,
Is that making things better or worse? (Score:2)
Because the big advantage of Chromebooks is that they are generic and you can even turn an older laptop into one. If it is all web-based, it may not matter that much as well.
Re: (Score:2)
Only the stuff you do in a browser is web based - obviously.
Antigravity, VC Code, Android Studio, git, bash, all standard ordinary programs.
Why would they be web based?
Re: (Score:2)
you can even turn an older laptop into one
If it's school-issued, then they aren't repurposed old laptops, so that everyone is on the same platform.
If it is all web-based, it may not matter that much as well.
Indeed: what does it matter if the kids are running google docs or Office-365 on a Macbook Neo?
Re: (Score:2)
you can even turn an older laptop into one
If it's school-issued, then they aren't repurposed old laptops, so that everyone is on the same platform.
Exactly. In a student environment the devices need to be as close to identical as possible, Which BTW, in my recent classes, W11 machines supposedly on the same computers, are not the same.
If it is all web-based, it may not matter that much as well.
Indeed: what does it matter if the kids are running google docs or Office-365 on a Macbook Neo?
I'd be surprised if the Macs do not allow local use. Of course, they could always use Apache Office, and trim some more costs.
Ah! the old (Score:2)
Apple got lucky on the timing (Score:5, Informative)
Apple released the Neo at just the right time, at the right price, right when the market was stressed and looking for answers.
I've been ordering Chromebooks for my district for eleven years. Prices hit an all-time low of $227 per unit back in summer 2021. Since then, prices trended up for me year after year. Last year's units were $297. This year's were quoted to me in April at $430 each. I was able to find new-in-box 2025 models for $330 each and went with those instead. I was also warned that, if I ordered Chromebooks, it might take months before they would arrive. I have a neighboring school district that placed an order, then had it cancelled two months later because Dell couldn't fulfill the order. (There are supplies of Dell Chromebooks to be found, but at the moment, Dell is prioritizing supplying its biggest vendors like CDW. Meanwhile, many districts in my area typically order through smaller in-state vendors who aren't getting the same priority from Dell.)
The market is stressed this summer; supplies are low and difficult to find. Supplies that are available are 50% - 80% higher in price than last year. Apple comes along and says "You can buy an educational laptop right now for $500", and hell yea, the fish are gonna bite. It has nothing to do with people suddenly falling in love with Apple, and everything to do with constrains in the marketplace.
And I have no love for Apple either. Don't forget that schools have been begging Apple for a decade to release a $500 student laptop, and all Apple did was thumb their noses at us every single year. Why did they decide they now they need to release a $500 student laptop? It's only because they've been losing business to Chromebooks for a decade.
Re: (Score:2)
Why did they decide they now they need to release a $500 student laptop? It's only because they've been losing business to Chromebooks for a decade.
Even worse than that, it's probably only because they had a bunch of chips that wouldn't bin out as higher spec parts, and they wanted to use them up, so they will probably do a rugpull sooner or later.
Price Increase (Score:2)
The MacBook Neo was indeed a pretty appealing prospect. Quite useable for most people, and cheaper than a MacBook Air.
But - At the end of June Apple increased prices, and the cost of a Neo increased by around 15%. That soured the appeal somewhat. Even if it is still objectively worth considering, a prospective buyer would feel like they had lost out.
Re: (Score:2)
The MacBook Neo was indeed a pretty appealing prospect. Quite useable for most people, and cheaper than a MacBook Air.
But - At the end of June Apple increased prices, and the cost of a Neo increased by around 15%. That soured the appeal somewhat. Even if it is still objectively worth considering, a prospective buyer would feel like they had lost out.
Not really surprising the prices increased, and they probably will again soon enough. Their "binned" chip supply (which were otherwise unavailable for product use, so closer to free to Apple) being used in the Neo had been mostly exhausted. and the price of memory has only gone up over the months (thank you AI data center build out). While Apple may try to keep the price increases low (for all their iDevices) for a bit (where low may be *only* 15-20%), Apple is not going to absorb all of the cost increase
Depends on the use (Score:2)
I think if I was a school administrator, I would prefer the Chromebook, unless the pupils were going to use the machines for programming (or something best done on the machine rather than remotely from the machine).
For tasks like collaborating on a Google spreadsheet, or video conferencing, Chromebooks are great. And the administration is a dream.
MacBooks are great hardware and design, but the long suffering school IT folk would find themselves with more troubleshooting work.
Re: (Score:2)
On a Chromebook, you use standard IDEs for programming: on the machine.
The only things remote are git(hub/lab), or a server onto you want to deploy.
MacBooks are great hardware and design, but the long suffering school IT folk would find themselves with more troubleshooting work.
Unlikely. They simply have no troubles to shot. No idea where this misconception is coming from, they run as solid as any other unix machine.
Re: (Score:2)
On a Chromebook, you use standard IDEs for programming: on the machine. The only things remote are git(hub/lab), or a server onto you want to deploy.
MacBooks are great hardware and design, but the long suffering school IT folk would find themselves with more troubleshooting work. Unlikely. They simply have no troubles to shot. No idea where this misconception is coming from, they run as solid as any other unix machine.
As I noted in a post above, I was not an IT guy, but I was assigned support for Macs at my institution. Almost no issues. And when there was, it was usually a drive going bad, maybe a broken mouse. UNIX FTW
Re: (Score:2)
MacBooks are great hardware and design, but the long suffering school IT folk would find themselves with more troubleshooting work.
Interesting, I was somehow assigned IT for our institutions Macs, several hundred of them. I got perhaps 2 calls a month, many months with no calls.
Meanwhile, Windows support had an entire division of support people who we busy 8 hours a day, even performing digital triage at times.
Now that's a comparison that's just a comparison, if you are correct about Chromebooks needing less IT than Macs, perhaps the IT departments could just disband. If a kid has a computer problem, just buy them a new one - che
Re: (Score:2)
I had always head that JAMF does pretty much everything you need from an MDM for an Apple device in an edu setting, whether iPad or Mac. Including reimaging, lost mode, etc. Is that not the case?
How about backpacks and teacher pay? (Score:3, Insightful)
Charities across the US hold backpack drives each year, to provide supplies to students who can't afford them. Teachers very commonly also buy supplies out of their own pockets.
Median pay for teachers is $65K per year
Maybe we should put more money into the basics, instead of fancy computers (of any brand).
This solves nothing (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Seems like great hardware (Score:2)
The laptop line seems to have great hardware, and I would buy it in a flash, except that I don't want what I see as an awful OS - not so much the OS itself, but the restrictions and app choices it ties you into. I know Apple enthusiasts see this differently, but I just don't understand their enthusiasm for the company.
Don't much like Windows either as OS, but sometimes for some purposes you need it, and it runs very nicely in a VM for those occasiona, and otherwise keeps out of the way.
When they let you ru
Re: (Score:2)
The laptop line seems to have great hardware, and I would buy it in a flash, except that I don't want what I see as an awful OS - not so much the OS itself, but the restrictions and app choices it ties you into. I know Apple enthusiasts see this differently, but I just don't understand their enthusiasm for the company.
I have a Windows VM on My Mac mini, so I can run whatever I need. The exorbitant price? 500 dollars. And the M4 Chip is a lot faster than my recently bought Lenovo.
You really don't need to understand my enthusiasm. I use all three major OS', I can make my own decisions as to which one I use at any given time. Mostly MacOS, mainly because I like it best, the Linux machines because they are fun. and the nice shiny Windows machine so I keep current on the myriad of fixes needed that I might need to address.
Thank god (Score:2)
Was a time (Score:2)
Apple is trying to go back to it's roots
Was time, when you went into a school, the computers you saw, were apple.
Then Jobs and his Gucci/Yves St Laurent thinking came in.
You say that like it's a bad thing (Score:3)
Because you don't repair these things, you replace them.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In schools no matter how robust the hardware, the kids will destroy them. You'll have to buy a whole new set next year for the new kids anyway.
Re: You say that like it's a bad thing (Score:5, Informative)
I bet you don't have any school-age kids.
The school systems I'm familiar with assign notebooks to kids, and they carry them forward through future grades until they're obsolete.
Re: You say that like it's a bad thing (Score:5, Interesting)
My iPhone 7+ that got 8 years of updates wants to know what the fuck you are talking about.
Re: You say that like it's a bad thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
But is 5s still usable like on the web, online services, etc.?
Re: (Score:3)
Of course not - because the brand new browser in the brand new update - from earlier tis year - can only speak web 0.9 from 1993 - sadge.
And you remember: when Apple refused to put Flash and similar nonsense into their browsers, all internet sites upgraded their web sites to Flash, just out of despise. So, Apple phones are completely useless in browsing the web. Come on, that is obvious, who calls a web browser "Safari"? What could possibly go wrong on a safari? Braindead idea.
Re: (Score:2)
Weak. My iPad2 hasn't had an update in well over a decade. In fact, the last update for it, that I skipped, was designed to kill the battery. My iPad2 stills stay charged for over a month at idle. Can't do anything with such a locked down device, but it is useful for playing backgammon and cribbage while on the toilet.
Re: (Score:2)
My mini-1 is working as a photo frame.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: You say that like it's a bad thing (Score:4, Insightful)
ahref=https://www.ifixit.com/News/116152/macbook-neo-is-the-most-repairable-macbook-in-14-yearsrel=url2html-19906 [slashdot.org]https://www.ifixit.com/News/11...>
Please continue the whining, if it makes you feel better?
Re: (Score:3)
That is repairable by the standards of Apple computers, not the standards of open hardware.
My experience dealing with a Chromebook deployment mirrors one of the grandparent commenters: 90% of the problems are broken screens, Screens are quick and easy to replace if you have the part, but screens cost money and you'll never had as many as you'll eventually need. You'll have extra parts for everything else because of the staggering number of broken screens.
I have an occasional side job dealing with PC/laptop/
Re: (Score:2)
So here we have the goalposts shifting. First it was "the whole thing has been pumped full of epoxy" and "you don't repair these things, you replace them" and now we've evolved to "That is repairable by the standards of Apple computers, not the standards of open hardware."
The repair manuals are available online. You can order replacement parts directly from Apple. A new screen costs about $200 (I would also guess that schools get dramatically reduced prices to repair, but that's purely speculation). Yes, I
Re: (Score:2)
Because it sounds like a fanatic who doesnt know what they are talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Rossmann#Criticism_of_Apple [wikipedia.org]
But hey, Im sure that Apple stock is soaring for you.
Re: (Score:2)
https://selfservicerepair.com/en-US/macbook-neo/display [selfservicerepair.com]
https://support.apple.com/genuine-parts-distributor [apple.com]
https://support.apple.com/en-us/docs/mac/301292 [apple.com]
Apple went through a span of time where it was unfriendly to repairs. People rightfully complained, and they got better. That's everything working like it's supposed to, and Apple should be praised for improving.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you think there's a world where Apple suddenly offers inexpensive replacement parts for anything? Sometimes the screens on Chromebooks are as low as $30. I'm sure they're third party panels, but they work and return the device to useful life. How likely is it that Apple offers screen replacements under $100, even to institutional buyers?
Re: (Score:3)
Your comment is disinformation. I guess thats why your score is zero. MacBook Neo Teardown: The Most Repairable Mac Yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: Good luck when it breaks (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, I have repaired precisely four Macbooks over a span of about 30 years. All the repairs were successful and not difficult. Today, iFixit makes it very easy. So, I guess some BS commenters never actually repaired anything.
Hey, we have to remember that the fans are still pissed off because Macs only have one button mice.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Have the seen the terrible build quality of the entry level Chromebooks they're giving the middle school students? They're cheap plastic trash, and I'm amazed that they can survive an entire school year without falling apart.
Re: (Score:2)
Unlike Chromebooks?
Re: (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure you're trolling, or are you really that ignorant?
https://www.ifixit.com/News/11... [ifixit.com]
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure you're trolling, or are you really that ignorant?
https://www.ifixit.com/News/11... [ifixit.com]
They gotta have some talking points, and actual knowledge gets in the way of that. That Neo is pretty darn modular. If people want more "replaceability" than that, perhaps they should look into a tube based laptop.
Re: Good luck when it breaks (Score:2)
At least the display won't suck.
My kids all used Chromebook over the past 9 years. It hurt my eyes, just looking at it.
It will be interesting as most kids are used to touchscreens..
Re: (Score:2)
At least the display won't suck. My kids all used Chromebook over the past 9 years. It hurt my eyes, just looking at it. It will be interesting as most kids are used to touchscreens..
Yeah, I bought one to play with. The screen was awful.
Full disclosure - I wanted to install linux on it. I did, then after spilling coffee on it, that was the end of My Chromebook experience.
Re: Good luck when it breaks (Score:2)
Even iFixIt gave the Neo good grades. And iFixIt tends to be very stingy about that.
Re: (Score:2)
Compared to the cost of equivalent chromebooks the Neo makes a compelling value IMHO, and has a lot more cases and shells and such to protect them already than almost any model of Chromebook ever did so more likely to survive the school year.
Like I'm all in on x64 between the Windows and Linux computers sitting around me, but even I picked up a Neo instead of a chromebook after trying one, they're shockingly competent and nowhere near as locked down as a chromebook is.
Re: Whyyy??? (Score:2)
>>and nowhere near as locked down as a chromebook is.
Besides a web browser, what apps are a k12 student going to want to install?
Re: (Score:2)
Dunno about the US, but my daughter’s iPad for school sees regular use of Teams, Messages, Notes, the camera, Word. That’s off the top of my head, I’m sure there’s a bunch of other apps. For sure, she uses an app that allows her to create flashcards for her revision. Her econ and science friends will be using Excel and maybe a stats app too. I don’t think it would be particularly different if the school had given out / mandated Neos instead of iPads, except that the camera woul
Re: Whyyy??? (Score:2)
Which of those can't be done in a web browser?
Re: (Score:2)
Where did I claim that they couldn’t be done in a web browser? Oh that’s right, I didn’t. I just answered the question of which apps students might use besides a web browser. The fact that these things *can* be done in a web browser is not the same as saying students *want* to do them in a web browser. Because students are normal young human beings rather than angry tech people on Slashdot, they typically prefer to use apps to browsers for many of these services. Not least because it means
Re: (Score:2)
Because students are normal young human beings rather than angry tech people on Slashdot, they typically prefer to use apps to browsers for many of these services. Not least because it means they can work offline, eg my daughter can look over and edit her notes on the tube home without worrying about the wifi dropping in and out.
Mic drop. Cymbal crash!
The guy you are arguing with will move the goalposts with every post you make. He'll be pissed at the Apple one button mouse by the time you're done with him.
And while I don't have completely up to date knowledge on the Chromebooks, I do know that MacBooks have a marked tendency to run reliably
Re: (Score:2)
Which of those can't be done in a web browser?
Your goalpost not only has wheels, it's got a hemi in it.
Re: (Score:2)
Obsidian?
Jupyter Notebook?
A Python IDE, like Spyder or PyCharm?
A local LLM like OpenClaw, a frontend runner for LLMs like Ollama?
A diagraming tool/environment like GraphViz or PlantUML or Excalidraw?
A Java SDK - or two or three? And an IDE for it like Eclipse or IntelliJ?
Dart and Flutter, and an IDE that supports them, like Antigravity or AndroidStudio?
Qt and VSCode for C++? Well, I don't like VS Code that much, but I was to lazy to search for an alternative C++ IDE.
What about PostgresQL or MariaSB or Mongo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Whyyy??? (Score:2)
Dont worry, socialmedia and tribalism make sure that no matter the OperatingSystem and hardware, the kids are already plenty dumb even before they enter the dystopian school system...
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Whyyy??? (Score:4)
Not so much the laptop, but everything they neglected for the laptop.
Re: (Score:3)
They don't automatically make them dumber, at best they have no noticeable effect on their learning. At worst, they're worse off.
So the headline should really read "Schools ditch one expensive pointless tech toy for a different brand of expensive pointless tech toy. Also, teachers pay to remain at 1980s levels".
Re: Whyyy??? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I smell a rat.
Not sure anyone is having to provide an incentive. While in small quantities, old models of Chromebook might cost as little as $200 on sale, chances are good that schools are spending more like $400 to $500 on average for their devices.
At just $600 for the Neo (the current educational price), the cost difference is minimal now. And if your teachers are already using Macs, that's one fewer platform to support. And if the hardware lasts longer (to be determined), then that could easily make up the remainin
Re: (Score:2)
I checked out the specs for the Neo and it looks a lot better than your average student Chromebook. The screen is 500 nits of brightness, 16 hour battery, an aluminum enclosure. Plus it can run apps that aren't resident in the browser, a much more flexible machine.
Re: Who's providing the "incentive" to do this. (Score:2)
Is that a good thing? It's one of the advantages of a Chromebook, iinm...well, it was before they added android support.
Re: (Score:2)
Chromebooks also run any App, outside of the browser.
Or how exactly do you get an IDE on it?
I used a Chromebook for 4months or so. Everything on it is a standard unix/linux application. The only fucking problem is: you can not give it a name. They all are called "Pinguin" - how retarded is that?
# ping 192.168.0.111
hostname resolved: Pinguin
64 bytes from Pinguin icmp_sec=1 ttl=64 time=0.04ms
# ping 192.168.0.109
hostname resolved: Pinguin
64 bytes from Pinguin icmp_sec=1 ttl=64 time=0.04ms
All the farking Chrome
Re: Who's providing the "incentive" to do this. (Score:2)
As opposed to Chromebooks?
Re: Who's providing the "incentive" to do this. (Score:2)
If one platform is more attractive, i.e. âoespoilsâ users, isnâ(TM)t that mean better by market standards?
Re: (Score:2)
Anything you hand out is going to be 'a platform' and normalize it for the students(not necessarily a point in its favor; people tend to resent the deliberate limitations of hardware that IT has been told to at least try to make less useful for porn and cheating); but there is a potential dif
Re: (Score:2)
Apple is now genuinely competitive even if you are just going to slap managed chrome on there and reuse your existing, chromebook focused, IT and curriculum stuff.
And much less need for IT. Although Chromebooks didn't need as much IT staff as say - Windows.
Re: (Score:2)
Well that, but Jobs said it best: MS has no taste. I would add, Google even less so.
Re: (Score:2)
/sarcasm off
Re: (Score:2)
Unlike Microsoft Office of course. That wasn't pushed at all on schools with very heavy discounts and the option to also buy heavily discounted for home use.
/sarcasm off
We had it, then Microsoft took it away.
Re: Who's providing the "incentive" to do this. (Score:2)
Most schools lost interest in Apple when PCs became usable, around Windows 2000.
Re: (Score:2)
I don’t think Apple ever sold to “most” schools, but it’s always had a sizeable education business, and it was estimated at around $14bn in 2025 (including higher ed).
Re: (Score:2)
I don’t think Apple ever sold to “most” schools
I'm old enough to remember when most schools had a "computer lab", and every box was an Apple IIe.
Re: (Score:2)
Most schools lost interest in Apple when PCs became usable, around Windows 2000.
And now with Windows 11, the Windows devices stretch the "useable" concept.
And I have teaching classes to verify that. Multiple classes where no class had everything working at the same time. Spent every class "fixing" multiple computers. I even went to running the software involvedon my Mac after I got nuked by an update that moved files to onedrive that had to be on the laptop. I deactivated onedrive, Windows activated it again. Had a lot of pissed off students, and they wanted me to teach a linux ver
Re: Perfect way to prepare students for ... (Score:3)
Do you think Chromebooks run Windows?
Re: Perfect way to prepare students for ... (Score:2)
Some, maybe, but I think the point is that it doesn't bias students one way or another....of course, they all run web browsers, so, yeah...doesn't matter really.
There's an easy fix (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Right now I'm using a Mac for work. My previous place also gave me a mac (and a crappy windows machine, but hey...). In my entire career, I've never so much as seen a chromebook in an office.
Oh no, I tell a lie, a one-man-band consultant came in with a chromebook once.
So yeah, if kids are going to get anything, it would seem a mac is better than a chromebook. From a personal point of view, with either they get to see what a computer *could* be, which I hope will make them think "what the hell?" when they ge
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
...a business world dominated by Macs. Oh, wait. Sorry - perfect way to prepare students for a consumerist market dominated by Apple. We know which lesson is more important to those in charge now.
Might be time for that Apple Domination. W11 is an anti-user disaster, even Microsoft admits it. It is regressing, and having a working W11 computer is becoming anomalous.