Michigan To Purchase Record 130,000 Laptops

goombah99 writes "The Detroit FreePress reports that Michigan state is planning the largest single laptop purchase/lease ever, over 130,000 wireless laptops--enough for every 6th grader. And of course future purchases for each new class. The main competion is between Dell and Apple, with Apple having the edge in classroom integration experience. But price points will matter since the school districts may have to pay $25 per pupil. And the Gates foundation has a foot in the door. No word on what OS the Dell laptops would run. What would be your choice for middle school classrooms with minimal sys admin?"

Re:My choice

[garysears]

for the same purpose, we use patched XP and Deep Freeze. You don't even need virus protection-- the next time the system boots, the thing goes back to a snapshot image.

Who needs an OS

[darkmayo]

Have the little buggers write there own.. and with this new generation of Nerds we then can take over the world!!!

Guess

[CGP314]

No word on what OS the Dell laptops would run.

I'll give you a hint. It starts with a 'W' and ends with an indows.

Re:Misguided Spending

[mopslik]

tools to help aciheve one

See? Look what affect computers have had even on me!

Re:My choice

[Stargoat]

Apple OS on an X86 computer? No. Michigan is going to go with Microsoft Windows XP and they are going to like it. There is going to be heavy use of Norton Ghost, or a similar product. Maintance will not be very difficult. (Any problem at all? Ghost it.) Virus protection can be easily managed using any one of the client-host virus updating softwares. And with new Microsoft servers (Server 2003 for example), it will be easy to automatically patch the workstations.

OS Choice

[killmenow]

130,000 Knoppix CDs?

Easy administration. Easy distribution of new apps...just make a new CD and distribute it. Put the /home dir on the HDD for user files. Buy laptops with smallest HDD possible. Save $$$ on hardware and software licenses.

etc...

Re:My choice

[Blarfy_Snarflepoop]

My gawd - If these children are given laptops that are running Windows, and not taught how to use windows update...

...I'm moving to the mountains!

Sales Point

[omarques]

From detnews.com [detnews.com]

Michigan's Computer Giveaway Is Questionable Use of Tax Dollars

New technology doesn't guarantee better student achievement; kids could use devices to play games

For the first time, Apple can use the lack of games for mac as a sales point!

Re:what?

[orthogonal]

my girlfriend has a 900mhz iBook, and I have to tell you, I'm not really sure where my extra $1000 went.

A Slashdotter with a girlfriend.

And he's missing a thousand bucks.

Ahem.

I think we can all connect those dots.

Just how much are those web-cam "girlfriends" per-minute, anyway?

Re:Durable enough?

[mydigitalself]

i have to agree with you whole-heartedly! i've always been a dell fan and have had both latitudes and inspirons. when i moved company i was given this ugly black thing (ThinkPad T21) with no touchpad and a stupid red nipple and i sulked for about a month. until i realised... this is by far the best laptop i have ever worked with. i'm on my second now (upgraded for RAM limitations on the old T21s) and have never had a single fault with any of the hardware. unlike my mate who's Inspiron's hard disk makes funny clicking noises every now and then and occasionally he has to push down on the casing to stop the LCD from doing this weird flicking stuff.

the only thing i would ever consider other than the thinkpad is a PowerBook - and thats purely because that thing is so beautiful I would have sex with it if it had a pair of tits! ;)

RIAA -- Get your lawyers ready ...

[jonhainer]

With 130,000 sixth grader with wireless internet access, the state of Michigan has just become the center of the P2P file sharing universe ...

Re:My choice

[b!arg]

having been the guy that fixes computers at a sorority for over three years now

Need any help?

Must suck..

[Frank of Earth]

... to be a 7th grader.

Re:My choice

[Hecubas]

having been the guy that fixes computers at a sorority for over three years now

Screw business networks, that's a sysadmin job I want!

My choice...

[kzinti]

What would be your choice for middle school classrooms with minimal sys admin?

Fisher-Price. Anything with Barney or Pooh-Bear on it.

Since when is the first comment "Redundant" :-)

[hansiboy]

TSIA

Re:My choice

[Raunch]

Screw business networks?

No, no you got it all backwards.

Re:My choice

[Anonymous Coward]

> all they need is a browser, and a word processor

Jesus, man. Do you hear what you're saying? You're saying that the youth need less than we had available to us, that all the information they need comes via http and internet explorer.

I say load them up with chat programs, programming tools, links to hacking websites, etc. Sure, most of them wouldn't use them; many would abuse them.

It would be a challenge, and will take time, to learn how to work in this environment, instill responsibilty, and encourage legitimate innovative use. Nevertheless, that's the only way to proceed with something like this. To make the investment, then limit it to a small subset of _our_ scope of information is rediculous.

We might fetter their hands as well.

PLEASE be Apple

[the_2nd_coming]

woops am I fanboying :-p

Re:what?

[SuperKendall]

A Slashdotter with a girlfriend.
And he's missing a thousand bucks.
Ahem.
I think we can all connect those dots.


His girlfriend's laptop now has a lot of RAM and external storage? What else would you do with a thousand bucks?