Last edited by gazmario; 06-11-2008 at 01:07 PM.
Well, I can tell you the answer why... While it is more expensive to buy a Mac, it is much cheaper to operate them particularly with older simpler machines. When you multiply the support necessary for Windows based machine by a thousand computer, you actually save money with Mac. The technician to machine ratio was often about 1 to 400 in those days and on Windows, the average would have been and still is around 1 to 60. So instead of having a tech guy in each school, many boards only had one had the main office. That's a pretty significant saving...
Mind you value for money, you can't beat Linux since it's free
Just like the Lada will cost you less but you'll be in the shop more often than with the Mercedes...
In the 80s and 90s Apple gave educational discounts to schools that, together with a lack of competition (we talked pre Dell, Gateway, etc.), is why so many had Macs.
Europe 2006 Mac surpasses Dell as number one supplier of schools
UPDATE: Apple takes top spot in European education - Mac - Macworld UK
Agreed! But, that's only happened in the developed countries, you need to look at the developing nations, where most of the schools didn't have any computer lab and kids will go to computer classes like Aptech etc to learn programming and stuff, where they mostly had windows, and this was only in India which has lot better facilities/infrastructure than some of its neighbouring nations.
And frankly computers were and still to some extent are out of reach of a normal middle class family, even today...
So even if I agree that merc is 100 times better than lada in principle, I can't buy merc, I can buy lada or toyota, because even if they are not as classy as merc they are still good enough cars.
Last edited by gunsnroses; 06-11-2008 at 05:51 PM.