Why Mac? Apple Ramble
“So, if you had 120 computers in your business, what tech support would you have?“ I asked. The sun was streaming down as I talked to a business acquaintance, while watching our boys playing tennis. It was nothing to do with sunstroke, but more like a thunderbolt (slightly poetic licence!), when I realised just how little work is involved in running 120 odd 
macs, that range in age from 1-6 years old, over two operating systems (OS 9 and OS X) and a mix of portables and desktops. His answer, “I would need 1-2 full time technicians“. Off course, other questions immediately arise, like; “Is he purchasing the Windows systems from the same supplier on the same day (checking that they are using all the same specifications in terms of parts)“, is he using ghosting/ drive imaging software to make installation and troubleshooting easier?“ etc. However, I teach 70% of my time which leaves 30% to:
• help users (teachers and pupils in my school) who have invariably created some of their own problems or just need a helping hand to the next stage of their learning.
• cover technical issues
• administrate the network
and it was only just recently that we decided to bring in a part-time technician for 2-4 hours total, a couple of part-mornings a week.
When someone talks about Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) , I have realised over the last 5 years that this is very different in a Mac world compared to the windows world I had left to take up the ICT Facilitators position in the school. It still amazes me when after creating a disc image of the latest operating systems, I can then use one image apply it to all machines in the school, including some that are 6 years old and it just works. I use Carbon Copy Cloner and Netrestore (Apple) for these tasks and to restore a machine, or image a new machine, I hold down 'N' on powering a machine and away we go after choosing an image and popping in my password. Because of the smaller hard drives in some of the older machines I tend leave off the bigger applications like Garageband, but it is great to be able to get such a long life cycle out of this gear.
I also use Apples Remote Desktop 3 to carry out any post installation checking, machine specific installing, minor updates and spying on pupils (lol), still is fun to take control of their machine when they don't know. Remote Desktop is also great for sharing out a screen on a projector to share work in progress or new ideas, or if you don't have a projector to share screens with other pupils, which I had to do recently when the bulb in my projector blew.
So, with lower cost of maintenance TCO, but still able to carry out high level multimedia use (aka iMovie, Garageband) which is harder with a thin client system (lower again TCO), and a great range of software on board free with each machine, I reckon these Macs are great. Oh.. and less crashes, no virus problems (although we have had one incident of a Word macro virus, which can spread but not actually do anything else on a Mac), and no spyware problems on a operating system that just keeps working..
• help users (teachers and pupils in my school) who have invariably created some of their own problems or just need a helping hand to the next stage of their learning.
• cover technical issues
• administrate the network
and it was only just recently that we decided to bring in a part-time technician for 2-4 hours total, a couple of part-mornings a week.
When someone talks about Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) , I have realised over the last 5 years that this is very different in a Mac world compared to the windows world I had left to take up the ICT Facilitators position in the school. It still amazes me when after creating a disc image of the latest operating systems, I can then use one image apply it to all machines in the school, including some that are 6 years old and it just works. I use Carbon Copy Cloner and Netrestore (Apple) for these tasks and to restore a machine, or image a new machine, I hold down 'N' on powering a machine and away we go after choosing an image and popping in my password. Because of the smaller hard drives in some of the older machines I tend leave off the bigger applications like Garageband, but it is great to be able to get such a long life cycle out of this gear.
I also use Apples Remote Desktop 3 to carry out any post installation checking, machine specific installing, minor updates and spying on pupils (lol), still is fun to take control of their machine when they don't know. Remote Desktop is also great for sharing out a screen on a projector to share work in progress or new ideas, or if you don't have a projector to share screens with other pupils, which I had to do recently when the bulb in my projector blew.
So, with lower cost of maintenance TCO, but still able to carry out high level multimedia use (aka iMovie, Garageband) which is harder with a thin client system (lower again TCO), and a great range of software on board free with each machine, I reckon these Macs are great. Oh.. and less crashes, no virus problems (although we have had one incident of a Word macro virus, which can spread but not actually do anything else on a Mac), and no spyware problems on a operating system that just keeps working..
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