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> It’s also worth noting that there is a reason Microsoft offers heavy subsidies for education: it’s because if you indoctrinate people into your platform early

by cronix 3y ago

> It’s also worth noting that there is a reason Microsoft offers heavy subsidies for education: it’s because if you indoctrinate people into your platform early on then they’re likely to keep buying your platform for years to come because change is scary. That was Apple in the tail end of the 70's and 80's. Just about all grade schools where I am had Apple ]['s and few to no PC's. Apple heavily discounted the hardware and software for education. It was the same through Jr. High and High school (graduated in '90), except by then we had Mac's in the school "labs." As a kid and teenager, I didn't even know there was an IBM or Microsoft until the 90's. Everything was Apple in education. I was heartbroken to receive a 386sx/16 for my graduation present as I was heading off to software engineering in college. Until I got to college and hardly anyone had Apple's and the whole college was IBM clones.

hnlmorg 3y ago
Are you American? Macs were much less common in Europe and particularly in England. In fact England had its own educational computer in the 80s as a venture between then BBC and Acorn, the company that invented the original ARM CPUs.
- cronix 3y ago
  Yes, this was in Portland, Oregon (and Beaverton)
  - hnlmorg 3y ago
    Interesting. Just goes to show how regional differences vary so much back then. I had no idea schools were running Macs before today :)
- chasil 3y ago
  Macs were all over the University of Iowa in the early 90's, even in the college of engineering (the other half of the lab eventually was HP-UX).
- lproven 3y ago
  They must be. Giveaways are things like "grade school" and "junior high" which do not exist anywhere else. Here on the Isle of Man, some schools did use 68K Macs at the end of the 1980s. Acorn and Apple even had a joint venture to sell into education together, called Xemplar: http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/news/acopress/apple.shtml http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/news/acopress/apple.shtml
xp84 3y ago
I had a similar experience in the early 90s (II followed by 68K Macs (LCIIs) and a few molar macs), but by '98 (HS for me) they were buying pallets full of Gateway and Dell desktops which gradually replaced the Mac labs. My guess on causes in no particular order: 1. Apple got stingier in the discounting 2. They faced more aggressive competition from PC vendors and weren't willing to eat any additional margin by increasing their subsidy 3. What I suspect is the case: Schools looked around, compared Windows 95 vs Mac OS 7 and 8, looked at Apple's business marketshare (nil) and their shrinking consumer marketshare, and concluded Apple was lost in the wilderness and teaching kids to use Macs was pointless. Even as an Apple admirer at the time (couldn't afford one though) I can understand the decision.

by cronix 3y ago

hnlmorg 3y ago

Are you American? Macs were much less common in Europe and particularly in England. In fact England had its own educational computer in the 80s as a venture between then BBC and Acorn, the company that invented the original ARM CPUs.

cronix 3y ago
Yes, this was in Portland, Oregon (and Beaverton)
- hnlmorg 3y ago
  Interesting. Just goes to show how regional differences vary so much back then. I had no idea schools were running Macs before today :)
chasil 3y ago
Macs were all over the University of Iowa in the early 90's, even in the college of engineering (the other half of the lab eventually was HP-UX).
lproven 3y ago
They must be. Giveaways are things like "grade school" and "junior high" which do not exist anywhere else. Here on the Isle of Man, some schools did use 68K Macs at the end of the 1980s. Acorn and Apple even had a joint venture to sell into education together, called Xemplar: http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/news/acopress/apple.shtml http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/news/acopress/apple.shtml

xp84 3y ago

I had a similar experience in the early 90s (II followed by 68K Macs (LCIIs) and a few molar macs), but by '98 (HS for me) they were buying pallets full of Gateway and Dell desktops which gradually replaced the Mac labs. My guess on causes in no particular order: 1. Apple got stingier in the discounting 2. They faced more aggressive competition from PC vendors and weren't willing to eat any additional margin by increasing their subsidy 3. What I suspect is the case: Schools looked around, compared Windows 95 vs Mac OS 7 and 8, looked at Apple's business marketshare (nil) and their shrinking consumer marketshare, and concluded Apple was lost in the wilderness and teaching kids to use Macs was pointless. Even as an Apple admirer at the time (couldn't afford one though) I can understand the decision.