How many Macs at your university?

Thu, 4 October 2007

When you walk into a lecture theatre at any university these days - what do you see? A hundred students with their laptops, of course. And how many of those laptops would be Macs? Five, six, maybe ten or twenty… OK, let’s not get carried away. A few, one would think.

Not so at Missouri School of Journalism. Take a look at the picture below (also found on page 6, Book of Dreams, by Steve Jobs) - full size here.

I counted three non-Mac laptops, can you spot any more?

Some folks suggested this might be a staged photo, but looking at some suggestions on the official website of the University of Missouri-Columbia this seems to be a very genuine situation there:

The faculty has designated Apple Computer as its preferred provider for two primary reasons: (1) Apple’s OS X operating system is based on Unix, which makes these computers far less susceptible to viruses than other computers. Viruses are a serious problem on university campuses. (2) Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro computers come bundled with iLife, a suite of applications ideal for learning the basics of photo editing, and audio and video editing. We’ll use those programs in several classes. Incoming students will receive information on recommended models and pricing in February of each year.

and also

Students are encouraged to acquire wireless laptop technology from Apple, which the School has designated as its preferred provider, but students also will have a choice of a Windows-based alternative. Last year, 99.5 percent of incoming students chose the Apple option.

I wonder what Bill Gates thinks of this. I bet he looks at the picture and thinks “What an ugly vista … errr … view.“

Stumble it!