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Macs at USF?

Life is too short to do things you really don’t want to do. I really don’t want to do Windows. There are many who agree with me, but this personal choice often does not translate into our professional lives. Take my experiences at the University of South Florida as an example.

On a daily basis, I have to contend with Macintosh phase-outs, waning UNIX support, and growing Wintel boxes on the desks of my colleagues at USF. I have seen tenured professors refused Macs and instead given the standard Dell tower to monopolize their desks. Macs are “special need” computers that have no place in the world of higher education at USF, it seems.

Since the university is becoming more of a business, I could see their reasoning if Macs were more expensive than PCs, but today Apple’s machines are competitively priced. An iMac would take up less room on the desk and be much more attractive and quiet, since fans have become unnecessary. The standard monitors that come with these new towers are fuzzier than the sharp image delivered by an iMac. All of these physical advantages aside: the iMac runs the MacOS and Windows if necessary, though it rarely ever is. With the Dell configurations running over $1200, and an iMac at $999, I don’t see the advantage of using Dells. Need a floppy? Please. Playing a lot of games at work? I don’t think so.

This sort of tyranny is arbitrary. Why has USF decided to sleep with Dell? Why is USF rounding up all of the wayward Macs (not to mention all of the other criminal machines on campus) to replace them with substandard Dells running NT workstations? Why do academics—faculty and students—have to comply to compulsory PC use? Why is there no choice at a research one institution? If the university controls how its faculty researches, communicates, and teaches, what else are they going to start doing? Will they begin to write all syllabi? Order all books? Decide arts and sciences are irrelevant? When the computer represents one of the largest tools available to researchers, can we afford to accept what non-academics compel us to use?

Who makes these decisions? I can’t get a straight answer, but I see the results of this practice every day. I have seen offices with perfectly good Macs pushed into corners because the departments cannot get support. Instead, they have had to make room for Dells. Who is making these choices? Certainly not the ones who are the backbone of the university: the faculty and students.

With computers becoming an increasingly major component of business, social, and educational interaction, MacTampa will provide a much-needed service for Tampa Bay. With the dominance of a single computer platform and its concomitant fear, uncertainty, and doubt marketing, MacTampa offers a clear, critical, and informed choice to computer users. Computers are not only about work, they are also about how we perceive our surroundings, what we think of ourselves as people, and most aspects of our daily lives. The choice of a computer is more important than choosing a car: all cars provide the same function, but we choose a type of car because of economics, image, and, most importantly, how it functions: speed, handling, and ergonomics. Ford is the largest car manufacturer in the world: why don’t we all drive Fords? When we are spending more time driving our computer than we are driving our car, choice about what computer we use becomes paramount.

MacTampa will support all aspects of the Macintosh choice: from what system is right for what purpose, to the installation of the system, to upgrades of hardware and software, to maintenance and technical support. The owners of MacTampa believe that the Mac is an excellent choice for most computing applications and are committed to supporting others who make the Macintosh choice. If you, like me, don’t want to do Windows, you do have a choice, despite what many computercentric institutions will have you believe.

07.09.00 by [email protected]

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