How Many Of You Are Recent Switchers?, Just wondering... Options

[eji]

This isn't a Mac "issue" per se, but it doesn't really belong in a non-Mac-related forum here.

We're a pretty geeky crowd here, and I was wondering how many of you fellow Z users are recent (as in, the past year) switchers to the Mac? You get one side on, for instance, the MacRumors forums, where non-techie folks seem to be a dime a dozen, but it'd be nice to get some idea of how many power users have taken the plunge.

For the record, I switched in the pre-iPod days.

[brashley46]

I bought my wife a used eMac about 6 months ago, to replace her WinXP Home desktop, which was just too vulnerable. I run a Xandros Linux box, and an old Win XP machine as a webserver and utility machine for stuff Linux doesn't do yet. (My Abyss X2 server runs on Windows, yes, but it's reasonably secure, and its the paid version which I would have to pay for again to switch to the Linux version of.)

[BarryW]

I bought my wife a used eMac about 6 months ago, to replace her WinXP Home desktop, which was just too vulnerable. I run a Xandros Linux box, and an old Win XP machine as a webserver and utility machine for stuff Linux doesn't do yet. (My Abyss X2 server runs on Windows, yes, but it's reasonably secure, and its the paid version which I would have to pay for again to switch to the Linux version of.)

Uggghhh, only about 10 more years and we won't have any more of them in the schools.... Pain to work on. Fun to carry a lab of 30 or so up a flight of stairs too.

[adf]

ah.... but what about turning old e-macs into kiosks (running linux) locked down nicely for limited (and possibly unsupervised) reference use by students--- All you'd need is a platform to screw it to, a tough keyboard (also screwed in place) and a touchpad (likewise immobilized). They would look ok, keep the power bill down and cost little---and if you screwed 'em onto fixed platforms, no more carrying

Our schools got rid of the macs, pretty much. we now have a dell/novell/commercial software setup that looks like something from a defense department pork barrel project. They are "moving to linux" which probably means more money for novell and no idea about how the gpl works or what it means.

When asked, I often recommend that people who really can't run linux, or people who want a working appliance rather than a hobby, buy a mac.

[BarryW]

ah....  but what about turning old e-macs into kiosks (running linux) locked down nicely for limited (and possibly unsupervised) reference use by students---  All you'd need is a platform to screw it to, a tough keyboard (also screwed in place) and a touchpad (likewise immobilized).  They would look ok, keep the power bill down and cost little---and if you screwed 'em onto fixed platforms, no more carrying

Our schools got rid of the macs, pretty much. we now have a dell/novell/commercial software setup that looks like something from a defense department pork barrel project.  They are "moving to linux"  which probably means more money for novell and no idea about how the gpl works or what it means.

When asked, I often recommend that people who really can't run linux, or people who want a working appliance rather than a hobby, buy a mac.

We use linux thin clients for that. It's not that I don't like eMacs with OSX, I just don't like carrying the damn things. Or opening them up. You shouldn't have to completely dissemble a machine to replace the hard drive.

[adf]

true enough...they are not designed with maintenance in mind.
thin clients? k12ltsp or a homebrew ltsp?
in my corner of the world macs are suspect and linux thin clients are clearly communist technology inspired by aliens plotting to subvert Our Way of Life. I did some k12ltsp anyway. worked great. Got called names by people who think whitelisting is a reasonable approach to educational computing. interestingly the clear strengths of linux over windows have some teachers looking at macs again, for personal use, as a sort of nix with training wheels (not thaat I think that that is all there is to OSX)

[BarryW]

true enough...they are not designed with maintenance in mind.
thin clients? k12ltsp or a homebrew ltsp?
in my corner of the world macs are suspect and linux thin clients are clearly communist technology inspired by aliens plotting to subvert Our Way of Life. I did some k12ltsp anyway. worked great. Got called names by people who think whitelisting is a reasonable approach to educational computing. interestingly the clear strengths of linux over windows have some teachers looking at macs again, for personal use, as a sort of nix with training wheels (not thaat I think that that is all there is to OSX)

I'm pretty sure we're using k12ltsp, but don't quote me on that. We're also doing windows terminal machines. We're a 90% mac environment with windows for about the other 9% and a few linux machines thrown in. Most of the mission critical servers are xServes with a few linux machines then a couple winblows server 2003 machines. Our instruction lab in the central office is all intel iMacs that dual boot to windows xp so we don't have to have half macs and half pcs.