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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lokerd" data-source="post: 10496">Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am not throwing in the towel on the Mac...yet. I did make a pretty strong case for going ahead and switching yesterday...but my supervisor would understand if I came back with some definative feedback and research. Oh, and regardless if I switch, the current lab will be transferred to a middle school lab.I think the key here IS preparing them for the real world. At least in Southeast Texas, in Beaumont, a city of about 100k, about 90 miles east of Houston, there is VERY little Mac acitivity. I was one of the strongest advocates, which is part of the reason why the Mac lab is even here. The problem is that even the local industry has TOTALLY left Mac. The city newspaper has them You can't buy them at Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Mac or Office Depot, and that is it for technology in the store. There is an Apple Dealer here, but the average person is not going to go looking for them...they are going to walk into Best Buy and buy! Apple made a HUGE mistake when they lost the BB program. When they had iMacs there at first, Apple had a fighting chance. And if even ONE, JUST ONE major store had Macs for sale, I would be FAR more likely to justify to stay. But the reality is that they are VERY, VERY unlikely to ever use another Mac computer again. If we were even in Houston, I would think differently, certainly in San Fran or other cities with high concentration of Macs.I mean, the likely hood of any of my students pursuing a career in photography or computer design is VERY few. I have had a few over the 5 years I have taught this class go directly into design. And I push the issue during the course of the year as a resume builing strategy. But things have changed. The school demonographics has changed for one.I understand about the viruses, but I guess I have been very lucky as I have only had a couple of viruses ever, and I knew exactly who was doing the activity to get cause my office Network, and I had it contained pretty quickly. I know Macs. I think it is important to reiterate that I am teaching in a lower economic school. I am not using that as a slam or anything. On the contrary, the students level of computer competency is VERY low. And as far as students messing up the desktop, does XP implement a MultiUser enviroment? Isn't there something like Remote Desktop? If you all suggesting that there is no way to manage each machine remotely? One thing I was VERY disappointed to find out about is that the software for At Ease for WOrkgroups was not compatible with Apple Share 6.3.1. In just a couple of days, I will have OS 10 Server and Apple Remote Desktop. I am REALLY hoping it answers some management challenges that I am having right now as I get the lab up to speed from reformating every computer over the summer. It is a time consuming process to manage 20 computers. If PCs do not have some sort of remote management, that is CERTAINLY a reason to stay.Thanks for any adiditonal feedback. If I am to go back on what I jsut told him yesterday, I am going to need some meat!Thanks!</blockquote>

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