Apple Market Share
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| bigg Feb 28, 2007 9:40 AM EDT |
I thought this was interesting, though it is only available with a subscription (such as at a university library). According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the University of Virginia tracks students' computing, and here is the OS breakdown for new students: Year Windows MacOS Mac percentage 2000 2,510 73 2.8% 2001 2,737 81 2.9% 2002 2,620 98 3.6% 2003 2,638 111 4.0% 2004 2,709 251 8.5% 2005 2,664 400 13.1% 2006 2,479 605 19.6% No word about Linux market share. |
| tuxtom Feb 28, 2007 10:46 AM EDT |
As the volume of Macs goes up, the quality of the minds coming out of American universities goes down. Seriously, aside from a few technical people I know, most Mac users are clueless about technology (..and many other general things in life.) Most do not hold positions of high responsibility. If the world were run by the average Mac user we would all be wannabe urban hipsters hanging out at Starbucks (doing nothing productive) or be tripping on acid running around naked at Burning Man year-round (doing nothing productive) or buying and using Adobe products (doing nothing productive), which are native Windows applications ported to the Mac. Maybe that was too harsh a generalization, but you have to admit that it is true to a large extent. Personally, I like the Mac...but only because I'm a Unix-type guy. Wanna see a blank stare?...tell a Mac user their machine is running unix. I'm not saying Microsoft is a better choice, I'm only making sociological observations of Mac users based on my experience. Generally speaking, your average Microsoft user is more tech-savvy than your average Mac user, no matter the technical superiority of what is under the hood (I guess they have to be to fix the persistent problems that crop up.). However, your average Mac user is more loyal to its guru than the average Microsoft user. If Microsoft is a religion, Apple is a cult. I know engineers with Masters degrees that use Macs who cringe at doing the most basic tasks in a shell (they only use it to view output) and are babes lost in the woods when they get on a Linux machine. If I bought a Mac I would spend 90% of my time in Parallels running Linux or dual boot the machine. I can't justify the extra expense just to look cool in Starbucks...which I don't frequent anyway. I can have both a dual-core desktop and a dual-core notebook for the same price as a Mac. Take that to Economics 101. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 28, 2007 10:46 AM EDT |
It's highly likely they only have "What do you have, Mac or PC" and then assume Windows. |
| Aladdin_Sane Feb 28, 2007 12:27 PM EDT |
>It's highly likely they only have "What do you have, Mac or PC" and then assume Windows. Yes. I've seen it happen. It is truly scary. Sometimes I fear the basic educational problem is that most adults do not know what software is. So they lump it in with hardware, not able to grasp the abstract that is "software." In the rare case that an adult actually bothers to ask, and I actually get to the one who informs, I start making analogies to other abstracts. "Show me 'temperature'." "Oh, you can't?" "Does that mean it does not exist and cannot be measured?" Ah, but I can show you thermometer hardware all day and all night, from open pools of mercury to bimetallics to micro-sensors. It exists. It has a name. It can be measured. My favorite, "Show me the music on a cassette tape, and I will show you software." The conceptual hierarchy necessary for an adult to grasp the concept exists: It merely needs activation by reference to previously known abstracts. Antecedents also being necessary for knowledge I credit the above pedagogic technique to the play "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson. |
| jimf Feb 28, 2007 1:39 PM EDT |
Every college student I talk to on Linux IRC support tells me that they live in a sea of Windows and Mac, so I don't think that Linux is doing well on the Campus. On the other hand, outside the Campus I see more activity with Linux, especially since 2003, than Mac, by a large margin. It's certainly not reassuring to see our brightest(?) latching on to the simplistic. I think that it's unconscionable that Colleges, especially public ones are even allowed to run MS in a server capacity (many, if not most do), or that students aren't encouraged to run Linux instead of the proprietary systems. It's really contrary to the public interest. |
| bigg Feb 28, 2007 1:45 PM EDT |
> brightest LOL If mom and dad are willing to pay for a Mac, why shouldn't they take it? They've seen Macs and Windows their whole lives, might as well get the parents to put out a little extra money for the cool one. |
| jimf Feb 28, 2007 1:48 PM EDT |
> cool one :P Matter of perspective I suppose. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 28, 2007 4:15 PM EDT |
My "coolness" measurement is based upon control. That's why I use Linux. I also like stick-shift transmissions. My work in 1992 was Mac support on the System 7 Answerline. I have never talked to such astoundingly stupid people in my life. ----------- "So," asked one caller, "how come you Apple guys are letting AT&T and Microsoft push you outta the business?" ----------- Me: Is it plugged in? He: I'm a tenured professor! Do you think I'm stupid or something? Of course it's plugged in. Me: No, sir, I'm just trying to start at the first step to find the trouble. Can you just look and confirm nothing has worked loose, it's not plugged into a power strip that is turned off, or something like that? He: Fine. Hold on....shit. ------------ That's not to say that many Windows users are any more sophisticated, since they too have become accustomed to buying a "PC" that has Windows on it already. Back in 1992, at least a PC owner had to know which side of a 1.2MB floppy was "up". |
| Scott_Ruecker Feb 28, 2007 5:41 PM EDT |
Quoting:Me: Is it plugged in? He: I'm a tenured professor! Do you think I'm stupid or something? Of course it's plugged in. Me: No, sir, I'm just trying to start at the first step to find the trouble. Can you just look and confirm nothing has worked loose, it's not plugged into a power strip that is turned off, or something like that? He: Fine. Hold on....shit. I worked for AT&T doing phone tech support for the 2WIRE modem covering Windows and Mac. I had a conversation like yours once a day...I don't know why but I can't remember much about those days... ;-) |
| tracyanne Mar 01, 2007 12:06 AM EDT |
I've had the exact opposite conversation with tech support at Telstra (Australia's monopoly Telco). Me after having finally convinced the help desk person that the reason my son has not been able to complete his registration of his Internet account is related to the faulty intenet account set up CD that Telstra supplied my son with. Ok so what is the url I need to go to, so I can finish this registration? Him: Click on Start... Me: Pardon? Him: Click on Start and select run... Me: Excuse me, but all I want is the url, so I can complete the registration. Him: Click on Start and select run... Me: Excuse me are you reading this? Just give me the url. Him: Umm..Click on Start and select run... Me: Just give me the url. Him: Click on Start... Me: Oh for Chist, what do you want me to do? Him: Click on Start and select run. Me: OK Him: now type in iexplore http://yadayadayada.com.au Me: OK is that the url? Him: now press enter. |
| techiem2 Mar 01, 2007 7:05 AM EDT |
When I was looking for work, I considered seeing if there were any openings at the private college my brother attends (which shall remain nameless).
That was until I visited him on campus and gained a look into their network.
First off, they were using M$ Proxy Client/Server (which has enough problems).
Then I talked to the head of IT briefly.
He told me right out that they are a pure MS network.
They picked MS back before they were big and never looked back (and apparently never re-evaluated the available options). And the students wonder why the network is so flaky.... *shudder* What a way to run a college network... I guess they'll be proficient at rebooting and reinstalling anyhow... |
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