news media

[Sean]

If the University as a whole takes a stand on the subject. You just killed
diversity. MSU IS diverse in its hardware/software compared to a lot of M$
shops around the nation at college campuses. This is from what I have
seen/read about other college campuses around the nation. 

The following was taken from some platform wars and is NOT intended to
start a platform war but to exemplify the point. It was originally written
for a Mac vs Windows platform war, which I find remarkably similar to the
Linux vs Windows wars. 
___<snippet>
Take for instance Duke or Univeristy of Florida. They require all incoming
freshman to have a XXX brand x86 portable computer running windowsxx. They
have had horrible problems supporting all those machines. It has been a
nightmare. You won't see it in the news either because someone would have
to admit to making a huge mistake, and thats not a very politically
correct thing to do. 

If the university as a whole dodges the whole "you must have a laptop"
stipulation for college entry. You are in essence killing diversity of the
platforms. Because although M$ sucks, it doesnt do anything _well_ but it
does do just about everything. Thus, if you are a university and your
creating a policy, you are most likely going to standardize on one
platform, for both political and "economic" reasons. The political reason
is simply everyone knows the name, very few technicians even know the
difference between x86 and other platforms. Thus if you decide to
standardize on Apple, who has 10% of the market (This is because of a
combination of low market share and lack of need because they rarely
break). And is the Number 1 educational seller, you not going to get the
support of the public because no one knows who they are. If you decide on
M$ everyone knows who they are. Whether or not it is better makes no
difference in a political debate. The economic reasons of
"standardization" are really not there for x86 architechure, or windows in
general. I believe I do still have numbers comparing TOC (total cost of
ownership) of an all windows shop versus an all mac shop and some numbers
with a 50% mix (and the numbers I have seen are significantly in Apple's
favour and far outweighing the "extra"(extra cost is actually a bit less
then you might think once you start comparing equivelent products.) cost
you paid initially for the actual hardware.)

You can extend this further. All Apple's machines are network bootable for
the last 2-3 years. If your running a lab, why wouldn't you get a lab of
iMacs and a Network server, basically adjust a few things like accounts
and permissions and you have pretty close to a plug n play network
bootable solution with very little maintainence actual lab maintainence.

On the same hand the average replacement of Apple hardware is 4-5
years versus the 3-4 of the x86 type. I mean you even see it on this list.
"yeah we just replaced the Mac Classic with a P-III, my god its so much
better" of course it is its 10 years newer, when did you replace the 286
that you bought at the same time? 
______<\end snippet>

If the university lets the departments control such aspects which is
where MSU takes it's platform stance, instead of taking the all M$ stance,
you will see a smattering of all sorts of machines around campus, because
each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. Really take a _look_
around the engineering, and other department buildings and you will see a
smattering of all sorts of platforms if you look at where the
employees/grad students are. Yes, maybe the "common/undergrad" labs
feature all Wintel (although there used to be some mac labs and NeXT
labs *dates himself*). 

In effect the university does have a policy on it. It's just kept kind
of quiet in an effort to avoid the subject. In essence the letter you
wrote could easily be twisted into pro-M$ singular platform letter not
only defeating your original purpose, but actually used in support for
moving to a "common" platform (although I never quite got how win85,
win98, winNT, win2k constitutes a common platform)

___

Second I LOVE the State News and I probably always will. It's not meant to
replace the professional papers for news. It's fun to read, Its nice to
get certain veiwpoints. Its a cross between a "real" newspaper and a
weekly rag and my favourite column is still Police Briefs. 


Sean

PS Didnt you write a letter like this last year? I seem to recall a
similar letter written to the State News.




On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Marcel Kunath wrote:

> I don't know it was a slow Saturday and I felt motivated. I just wrote the
> Editor in Chief of the State News and told him (?) that they blatantly misuse
> their resources and don't cover the variety of news they should cover. I don't
> know but I don't like the paper much. It just seems like air.
> 
> One of the things I pointed out is that they covered topics like Napster in
> midsummer even though the topic which goes back to the roots of rights
> of indiduals, creators and consumers, deserves a further look and it all
> started in November already.
> 
> I then in the main part of the email (about 3 pages; you know I get
> carried away always) I question much of the university regarding the
> purpose and causes pushed when it comes to technology. I pointed out that
> the university is always saying how it promotes diversity but if you look
> at technology on campus its not diverse. I ask where the ideology of the
> university lies.
> 
> I mentioned a few times that its part of the papers job to cover news
> like free software development, Linux, open source software and the push
> of the people in the last 18 months towards a new model of how we use
> technology and develop it. I questioned why nobody at MSU, President, Board,
> ASMSU takes a stand on these subjects and asked them to investigate on this as
> I see it is their duty to inform the students of their choices and where their
> tuition dollars are going.
> 
> Now why do I tell you all of this. I am sure in some form or another you feel
> the same way. I don't see how the local media covers these and other subjects
> enough and I would encourage others on this list to write an email, letter or
> call them and mention that certain life subjects have been ignored and should
> be investigated and reported upon.
> 
> I don't think anybody disagrees that many views by the people on this list
> deserve to be suspected and looked into as educational tool.
> 
> So if you like go write ASMSU or the StateNews if you have thoughts on this.
> 
> Marcel Kunath
> 
> PS: Oh and just to calm everybody I did not make any detailed references
> towards Linux or the GLLUG. I mentioned them but I kept focus mainly on: "Why
> does the university not take stand on this subject?"
> _______________________________________________
> linux-user mailing list
> linux-user@egr.msu.edu
> http://www.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
>