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Actually, according to that article it seems more likely that his IT guys are the ones who dislike Macs and have urged him to turn down the grant. So if anyone is actually going to contact this guy, don't blame him... urge him to get a second opinion from somewhere other than his PC-loving IT staff.

You all are not looking at both sides of the argument. 

Think about it.  For all of Apple posturing, things can still go wrong. 
If you have an IT department that knows only PCs, then what do you do when something goes wrong on the Macs?  WHo sets them up?  They will end up having to hire someone in just to administer these computers.

Do I think the decision was stupid overall?  Yes.
Do I see thier side of the argument however?  Hell yes.

If their IT people are too stupid to be able to support Macs, they need real IT people.

I agree. They either have smurfing morons for IT staff, or they're just plain prejudiced against Macs.

It's probably a bit of both.

It sounds like a typical case of bureaucratic decision making.

"They may be free computers, but they don't meet our policy requirements. Sorry, it's our policy. We can't make an exception"

Short-sightedness is tragic sometimes.

Teachers aren't expected to know how to work a computer, so IT guys get hired, who then do everything possible to ensure job security. The reason the computer grant was turned down is because only the worst people in IT will work for a school district.

And so what gets compromised in the process? The kids' educations. It's not about computer platforms, it's about learning.
Someone should get pistol whipped for decisions like that.

Accept the computers and give them, at random, to the students!

WHo sets them up?  They will end up having to hire someone in just to administer these computers.

I think there is already a Mac person.

If there isn't, they have 6 Windows System Admins. They can afford to let one go. But I imagine it's a gang of Admins so when one leaves, THEY ALL LEAVE. like he-man, master of the universe.

Let one go? Your blind loyality has distorted your view on real world realities.

Here in America workers have these things called "worker rights", say it with me "Wuuuu-keee-rr-isa Rye-tiits". Maybe these don't exist where you're from, comrade. And then if they are in a union or association there are by-laws, appeals, contracts to be honored.

You can't fire someone for no reason, even worse you can't target someone based on the color of their skin, who they pray too or vote for,  or what GUI they like best. That's a good thing for you too, I wonder how many Mac zealots would get fired for constantly whining they have to use a "PeeCee" at work.

Sometimes the Mac zealotry is scary, you'd actually rather see someones life potentially put in financial ruin, along with their family, kids, needy grand-ma with an iron lung, cats who need food.. whatever, all because of a computer.

Let one go? Your blind loyality has distorted your view on real world realities.

Here in America workers have these things called "worker rights", say it with me "Wuuuu-keee-rr-isa Rye-tiits". Maybe these don't exist where you're from, comrade. And then if they are in a union or association there are by-laws, appeals, contracts to be honored.

You can't fire someone for no reason, even worse you can't target someone based on the color of their skin, who they pray too or vote for,  or what GUI they like best. That's a good thing for you too, I wonder how many Mac zealots would get fired for constantly whining they have to use a "PeeCee" at work.

Sometimes the Mac zealotry is scary, you'd actually rather see someones life potentially put in financial ruin, along with their family, kids, needy grand-ma with an iron lung, cats who need food.. whatever, all because of a computer.

AMD - while I completely agree with the last half of your statement, there should be a better reason to fire someone than a bunch of free Macs and the school needs a new skill set. 

But the first half is wrong.  You can get fired in the US for virtually any reason at any time.  The only things you can't get fired for are race, creed, color, gender.  If your boss decides that you don't socialize well with workers, didn't like your tie, hates your mannerisms, or if you're late to work once then you can get fired.

Layoffs are a slightly different story though.  Layoffs usually mean that the position is being eliminated.  In this case, I'm not sure if a PC tech could get laid off to have his position filled by a Mac tech.  I'm thinking probably not b/c HR would likely not make platform a distinction in the job descriptions.  It's probably "IT support personnel" or something like that.

IMO this is bad, period.  Regardless of platform $43 grand is a big chunk of free cash.  And what is the problem of taking 1 of those 6 guys that do the IT and fixing to learn Mac stuff?  hell half the problems can be solved probably from reinstalling software anyway (hardware probs would be covered by warranty and hopefully any compu guy can recognize a hardware prob).  Go get Mr. Pickles the CHimp to be the mac guy i'm sure he would be fine and would work for banannas.

Oi.

There are a lot of reasons, none of which has to do with any Mac hating conspriacy.

The last school I consulted for (small private HS school with 2 campuses) , the IT guys refused to touch Macs for two reasons; 1) It wasn't in their job description, 2)They were not trained.

Big deal you might say. These guys were on a contract to do a specific job and taking care of Macs was added responsibility, added responsibility means more pay. Also if the school wanted to hold these guys accountable for screwing up the Macs, they needed to pay for a certain level of Mac training. If a tech hosed a Mac he could say "Welp, I'm not trained for these so you can't punish me" and in this case he'd be right.. the school could not touch him for Mac incompetence.

The IT guys wanted the Macs, it ment school paid training to pad their personal resumes and more pay. The workers union wanted them too, they argued since the x86 techs were already over worked, the school need to hire a Mac tech (i.e hire a new union member) or two.

Since added pay, paid training and maybe more employees would have maxed out the budget, on top of the fact the Macs were more expensive and came with less software (MS threw in several Office licenses for Windows, not for Mac), no Macs. And the existing ones were sold.

So it's not as easy as you might think, it can be a messy proposisition when politics, contracts, and job descriptions get involved.

The art department already uses Macs. Thus, your argument is completely flawed.

In other words, its an AMD post.

I hope the electorate realizes their tax dollars were essentially WASTED (buying computers as opposed to accepting free ones).  I hope it is repeated in the electorate's minds over and over again.

IMO this is bad, period.  Regardless of platform $43 grand is a big chunk of free cash.  And what is the problem of taking 1 of those 6 guys that do the IT and fixing to learn Mac stuff?  hell half the problems can be solved probably from reinstalling software anyway (hardware probs would be covered by warranty and hopefully any compu guy can recognize a hardware prob).  Go get Mr. Pickles the CHimp to be the mac guy i'm sure he would be fine and would work for banannas.

Oi.

There are a lot of reasons, none of which has to do with any Mac hating conspriacy.

The last school I consulted for (small private HS school with 2 campuses) , the IT guys refused to touch Macs for two reasons; 1) It wasn't in their job description, 2)They were not trained.

Big deal you might say. These guys were on a contract to do a specific job and taking care of Macs was added responsibility, added responsibility means more pay. Also if the school wanted to hold these guys accountable for screwing up the Macs, they needed to pay for a certain level of Mac training. If a tech hosed a Mac he could say "Welp, I'm not trained for these so you can't punish me" and in this case he'd be right.. the school could not touch him for Mac incompetence.

The IT guys wanted the Macs, it ment school paid training to pad their personal resumes and more pay. The workers union wanted them too, they argued since the x86 techs were already over worked, the school need to hire a Mac tech (i.e hire a new union member) or two.

Since added pay, paid training and maybe more employees would have maxed out the budget, on top of the fact the Macs were more expensive and came with less software (MS threw in several Office licenses for Windows, not for Mac), no Macs. And the existing ones were sold.

So it's not as easy as you might think, it can be a messy proposisition when politics, contracts, and job descriptions get involved.

The art department already uses Macs. Thus, your argument is completely flawed.

In other words, its an AMD post.

I wasn't referring to that school, but thanks anyway. Try to keep up.

The art dept of the schools I consulted for had Macs too, but when the contract was up, they wanted a raise to admin them rather than admin them as they had been doing.
 
It was an obvious ploy just to get a bigger raise and had almost nothing to do with Apple, Macs, or trying to keep the platform down. All that mattered was that they were different and an easy way to get a few extra bucks.

You might want to consider something like that is going on in the back room in-fighting in this case, which was the point you missed.

You  don't want to know how complicated it can be, which is fine with me. All you want to see is "Golly gee wiz, it's yet another example of how poor misunderstood Apple is getting the ole PC shaft by IT guys who obviously hate Macs, love Windows, and are trying to keep the Mac down"

Sorry that I injected real world employee realities into the "Woe is Mac" sob story, you guys can continue on with the tears and damming the injustice of it all.

Instead of accepting new macs, the school superintendant went out to find 30 used computers from Boeing.
[URL=http://www.macdailynews.com/comments.php?id=P1312_0_1_0] Check out this article![/URL]
I guees Mike Silverman dislikes Macs so much he literally WENT OUT OF HIS WAY to find any excuse not to accept them!

[URL=http://macaddict.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21713&highlight=]Check out my previous thread for more info[/URL]

Then contact Superintendent Michael Silver. His email address has again been removed by a moderator

Yes they turned down some macs. Whatever. To post the superintendant's email address here is not the right thing to do.

This guy runs a school district. I'm sure he has better things to do than read hate mail from a bunch of mac users. You should use your head before doing something like this.

If you don't have kids in the Tukwila school district and you don't even live in the state then you've got no business bugging this guy about any of his decisions.

Its people like you pulling this kind of crap that gives mac users a bad rap.

-=Jax=-