At my daughter's tiny elementary school, they have a computer room
with both Wintel and iMac machines.
Students have to learn both operating systems and pass basic tests. My
daughter's latest report card stated that she knew the Mac OS well, but
not Windows. Upon questioning, she replied that everybody in her class
was in the same situation, because "nobody wants to work on those
machines. Everybody wants to use the iMacs." Seems the iMacs are not
only "cool," but easier to learn. And this is in a situation where
almost all of the students (including my daughter) have access to a
Wintel box at home, but not a Mac.
And now for the Evangelism. My first Mac was a prototype in the
early 80s, when I was dragged kicking and screaming into a beta-testing
session in the campus computer lab to test this new operating system
the students were working on. Seems it was a visual thing, and they
needed an artist-type to test it on. We thought that little trash can
was just the coolest thing we'd ever seen. I'd love to say that I never
looked back and have been a Mac fanatic ever since, but when my Graphic
Design instructors asked for a Mac lab, they were told, and I quote,
"Computers are for Engineers, not for bunch of painters." My how the
times change.
In the intervening years, unable to afford a computer of my own, I
have begged time on every Mac I could find. My position here as a
designer uses, unfortunately, Wintel boxes, because this is one of
those benighted places you read about where Macs are anathema. Well,
you can probably see this coming, but when they upgraded the design
office here so that we were entirely computer-based, I couldn't talk
them into a Mac, for all the obvious reasons. The result? My system, in
the last year and a half, has crashed an average of once every three
months, needing a complete wipe-and-reinstall. I have lost I can't
remember how much important data to the Gates Demon. I and the Geek
Squad spend most of our hours trying to coddle the Wintel box into
working. Even now, my system crashed in September, and we had to
upgrade to - horrors - Windows 2000, which can't run half the software
I rely on every day.
Not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, I did the only thing I
could do to keep myself sane. I sent in the papers this morning for a
PowerBook for myself. I
don't care if I have to get a loan to do it. I now await with bated
breath the arrival of Warrior PowerBook Xena on my doorstep next week.
500 MHz of Gates-kicking OS-envy. A way to get my job done - and play,
too.
And in a few months I'll be saying hello to Docking Station
Gabrielle and all her little Amazon peripheral friends. Now if only
there was a Xena game for the Mac, I'd really be in heaven.
- Mari Hersh-Tudor
<campus shegeek>
Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Adjunct Faculty
Clinton Community College
If a webmaster cries in her cubicle, does anybody really hear?
This was originally posted on EvangeList. It is published here with
the author's permission.
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