Will CS Students Switch From Microsoft? 879
spotter writes: "There's an article in Newsweek International that talks about how Microsoft's tactics are turning off an entire generation of CS students from their products and increasing the fortunes of Linux." The article isn't deep or flawless, but hits on a major point: what students learn in school is key to what they go on to do.
What I've seen (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking for an alternative (Score:5, Interesting)
Everything went fine until I got to Outlook 2002, which won't accept my serial number (since it's "registered to another computer" - no kidding. That box is headed towards the dumpster).
Apparently my only choice (besides tossing the piece of junk software out with the old PC) is to call microsoft and try to get it re-registered through that process. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get me to buy a new copy since the old one was tied to that processor.
Microsoft, you sure are making it easy to break up with you...
*scoove*
hell ya (Score:4, Interesting)
2nd- As a student, it is better to open up some code under the GPL and see how you can implement things, rather than see the application run. Linux apps are a great place to see howto write things, and what good coding style looks like.
3rd- The university that I goto only uses windows for the public labs, duh, and the first year CS labs. Second year uses a combination of NetBSD and solaris boxes.( Gnome and KDE are being looked at).
Living proof (Score:5, Interesting)
Since then, I have learned patience, and am getting increasingly fed-up with MS.
This is why I think the baby-CS folks will go with open source: MS doesn't document well, and they don't follow guidelines.
I thought VB was pretty OK, till I started developing with PHP and realized that a language (even though it is just a scripting language) can actually work exactly how the documenatation says it should. And besides that, the documentation is searchable, and organized gasp.
I am about ready to dump Windows for good, just because I like PHP/mySQL way better than anything MS can throw together (read: ASP).
To summarize, I think CS folks goto Linux 'cause it is written with functionality, not profitability, in mind.
Wishful thinking (Score:5, Interesting)
At Oberlin, I helped install Linux & BSD on all of our lab machines, and with a friend founded the our (still active) Oberlin Linux User's Group. But living in NY, I have seen the worth of C++, Linux System Administration and Perl skills go down while my friends who can hack Java and VB are always in demand. The moral - as harsh as it seems - is that students who learn Linux in college will probably just have to learn Microsoft later.
I'm a Comp engineering student... (Score:2, Interesting)
I despise programming for Windows, it makes me feel like Bill Gate's whore. It's not my os, it's his, and I fell like I'm only aiding MS in their quest for world domination when I write apps for them.
however... Almost all CS and comp engineering students I know have never touched Linux and would do everything in Visual Basic if they could. There are a few of us out there though.
The reason CS students are not interested in MS is (Score:3, Interesting)
maybe on your planet... (Score:3, Interesting)
you dont see redhat coming by and pitching woo.
Definately!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
This is not only true for the seniors, but a majorirty of the students in my CS classes stay away from MS products as much as a matter of principle, but also because they are not nearly as secure as other alternatives. In an upper level adminstration course we are taught to never use IIS, or ASP on any part of a network that will touch the outside world in anyway. Most projects I'm hearing about are involving Linux, BeOS, Solaris, Java, and JSP.
I don't know about the rest of the world, but if my college is any indication of how things are, MS products may be on the way out in many academic circles, and losing ground in the commercial world as current CS majors graduate, and start getting into decision making areas.
My 2 Cents (Score:4, Interesting)
Bascially, I can classify two types of people in CS. Those who care about CS and those who are in it for the money and personal gain (remember, 4 years ago this industry was the hottest thing going).
In my expirence those who are in it for the money, don't genarlly care about what M$ does, who they screw around with, or who they piss-off. These people, typically, are essentially 'advanced users' who have no interest in the technology... they just think of it as a simple income, somthing to do, or just plain don't care. Most of these people turn up their nose at the sight of a little work and thus, hate Linux, UNIX or anything that doesn't have a nice GUI where they can click to their hearts content and make everything perfect and pretty. These people are generally indefferent.
However, the other type of CS student I've noted is one that actually does care. The money and jobs are a bonus to actually liking the work. These people love to get thier hands dirty and do some real work and actually get pissed when they can't. As for the business practices of M$, most of them are really disgustied by what is happening. And resist using M$ products and services as much as they can.
Personally, I only use M$ things when I have to... I know I don't like the company's morals or business practices.
On another Note, I hold Corel about two steps above M$... just for what they did to Debian... don't even get me started on what AOL used to be like (they are improuving... slightly).
M$ isn't dead yet (Score:2, Interesting)
But the honest truth is that this is only a small proportion of the Computer Science population. Many more casual students: the type of students more suited to simple application programming as well as web design, hate Linux with a passion. Any truly honest computer enthusiast or porfessional knows that for simple functionality, MS Windows cannot be beat. No matter how much we hark on about Bill Gates being the anti-christ and Microsoft as some form of cult, ordinairy users find using Windows relatively painless. [Excluding crashes, inefficiencies, dubious business tactics and annoying paper clips] This goes for students who simply don't care that much about programming and the basics behind computing theory, but are more interested in application of knowledge gained, in the real world.
The whole IT market has grown so large, that many people who come into it looking for work, merely do so for the money. There are many students on my course with a shockingly low level of computer knowledge. These students have no deep interest in computing. They want quick, simple and easy tools computing tools that will allow them to get good jobs doing precious little. These people do not want to be on the forfront of technology, they merely want to ride the wave and let it take them wherever. These people may keep Microsoft alive because they don't care enough about the direction the IT industry is heading to realise what is happening. Until the Linux community tries to beat Microsoft at its own game by making a simple and easy packaging of the OS, that requires little computer knowledge to setup and maintain as well as having the kind of applications that they are used to, Microsoft will maintain its monopoly in the home, workplace and to some extents, academia.
Some attempts to go around this (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Comp Sci. Students & MSFT (Score:4, Interesting)
What I am saying, I guess, is never insult with style when you can insult with substance. MSNBC isn't exactly hampered by grade A reporting. This article is a prime example of their particular brand of News-lite.
Basically, it sounds like they called up a couple of people and asked their opinion on MS. Some of them didn't like it. There is not attempt to gather facts, or even a wide range of opinions, no attempt to delve into the reasons these people prefer Linux to Windows other than the simplistic "open source software lets us do more" and "Windows product activation is annoying", both of which are true, but hardly capture the reality of the situation. This is supposed to be exposing a trend, but provides only anecdotal evidence, nothign to indicate whether this is a real movement, or just the opinion of 3 or 4 guys.
At least the corporate PR-news I am used to seeing billed as "tech news" frequently contain facts, however slanted the tone may be.
The Oppinons of a CS Student (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always loved computers, and know that programming and working with them is what I'd like to do. But as this has come closer to being true (because I'm in college now, as opposed to the 7th grade), I have become extreemly disenfranchised with MS. MS was a company that I had always wanted to work for, (or Nintendo) because they make computer products, they do all sorts of cool stuff, and they are based in Seattle, Washington (MAJOR plus for me, used to live there, loved it).
But as I've gotten older, my oppinion has changed. I'm not sure if this is mostly my maturing, reading more news about the computer industry, or a multi-fold increase in the evilness of Microsoft. At this point in my life, I really don't want to work for Microsoft. As it stands (at least from my point of view) is that their products are getting bigger (bloated), buggier, slower, and more expensive. The biggest problem for me is the new features. They seem to keep adding this that are either useless or worse.
Let's review a quick list of "features" as I see them in recent products:
Now don't get me wrong, MS has done some great things too. DirectX started out life very patheticaly, but has really become an excelent API. MS made it so my soundcard doesn't have to be a Sound Blaster, become we all know that in the dos days "compatible" meant "good luck getting your games to work". The only mice and keyboards I have are ALL made by Microsoft, becase they are the most comfortable, and I know there will not be any compatibility problems (although I'm sure that that is rare with keyboards and mice).
The other big thing that has happened to me to change my oppion is Linux. I'm sorry but I just don't see how anyone who is in the CS field can look at Linux and not be inspired. Linus wanted to make his own operating system, and he wanted to it be good. He wanted it free, and now we have Linux. It's free, you can see how it works, and it runs great on hardware that's more than 6 months old. Yes, Linux has some serious problems from the desktop standpoint (we can argue this later), but it's getting there. This has made Linux VERY attractive to me, while MS just seems to sit there saying "I know what you need, it's my newest $100 upgrade that won't change a thing." Of course, what this really means is "don't like the bugs? Too bad! Pony up or suffer!"
It is for these reasons and many more that I have begun to dislike MS. They hold the computer world in the palm of their hands, and so they are squeezing money out of us. Yes, Office is a great program and they should charge a premium for it, but $600 for a full version? $250 for an upgrade? $100 for a full copy of Word? That's ludicrous.
In summation, I don't really want to work for MS anymore. I still like Nintendo, but I think it would also be fun to be at iD and some other companies. I can't think of anyone I've met at my school who don't use Linux, or at least have a grudge against MS. With Microsoft going the way it is, I really don't see how CS students could see them any other way. At this point I'd like to say thanks for listening to my rantings. They are my opinions and once again, I know that I can't spell. I'd copy and paste this into Word to be spell checked, but I don't feel like waiting a full minute for it to open on my 1 ghz laptop that has 512mb of RAM. Also, in reality I'm a CoE student, because I like the harware side too. I used to want to be CS, and I can't help but wonder if I've moved towards CoE in part because of how my feelings of MS have changed.
Moot Point (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Visual Studio .NET rollout (Score:3, Interesting)
At an actual cost of less than $20 per attendee, all of which will be written off as a promotional expense. Red Hat, SuSE, FreeBSD and the other Free Unix variants should take a cue from M$ and start calling ISO's "trial versions" or something and claim each download at the retail price as a business expense.
Too bad I'm not in Ohio, sounds like a fun event to pass out Debian CDs at...
Re:Comp Sci. Students & MSFT (Score:2, Interesting)
but why bother, when gcc + emacs is in the labs and you can get it free at home?
Perhaps you get VS.NET simply because it is better? Better development enviroment. Perhaps you can get a job easier? Perhaps you can be more productive?
Re:Comp Sci. Students & MSFT (Score:3, Interesting)
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/0000000000000
It talks about a variety of the lawsuits, and the most interesting sentence is this one "And AOL's case is not as lead-pipe as its media spin suggests."
What's remarkable about it, is that the article has far more substance than any article on the same issue in any of the tech trade journals, cnet.com, etc. How is it that the WSJ understand the technical world moreso than Infoworld?
Re:There'll be switches, but not for businesses (Score:5, Interesting)
I think you really should have taken 'Ethics' in college: yes, absolutely, I can say that if Microsoft (their name isn't really 'M$': M$ is a cartoon, Microsoft is real) offered me financial security for my work, I would turn them down. And yes, I have work [airwindows.com] worth taking over. I am developing dithering routines that push the state of the art, currently under the GPL. It is thinkable that Microsoft could want to take this over, buy the IP, and patent concepts like IIR noise shaping.
And I don't believe that they have all the money people say they have, but they do certainly have a lot more money than _I_ have.
But I also believe they are criminals by nature- they have threatened people (like Avie Tevanian) to try and suppress technologies that were better than what they had, they have acted like thugs and racketeers (the repeating theme of cutting off air supply- most recently with Washington lobbyists!) and they have intentionally lied to the highest courts in my country (the faked video deposition, not to mention half the arguments they make are at the least determined deception if not outright lying).
I am not a boot-stomping patriot type, but I am outright insulted at this last: I consider it treasonous and cannot help but consider that they are intentionally trying to destroy important parts of MY COUNTRY, such as it is, for their own gain. If Middle Eastern nationals tried to sabotage the processes of justice in this country we would declare war on them.
And you can't understand why I wouldn't take money from Microsoft? For my part, I cannot understand why you would. Are you that craven?
If you possess neither soul, guts nor morals, that's fine, but would you mind trying to remember that most people are more principles?
Now, let's have some of the nice randite posters moderate this down as flamebait- because, in fact, it is pretty scathing. I guess the "c'mon, you know you'd take their money if they were offering" was more insulting to me than I'd first realized.
Re:Well.. what I DO know is this.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Here at UMass [umass.edu], there's a course on Java (CS121, but that's mainly for CS majors with little to no programming experience). In addition, last year a semester-long seminar-type course was offered in "C++ for Java Programmers". The programming language gurus here (Professors Wileden and Moll) have each said at various times, whenever students ask about a particular language, "knowledge of any suffieciently advanced programming language allows you to quickly learn any other language that has a similar level of advancement. The languages that you learn here will probably be worthless by the time you graduate," or words to that effect.
I think this attitude towards programming languages is what separates good CS schools from not-good CS schools.
Different at our school (Score:2, Interesting)
In addition to this, our school is in negotiations w/ MS to bring a licenseing plan to A&M to make copies of all MS OS's and Office to students for about $5 per copy. A plan like this is already in the works at U of Texas.
It's hard to get away from it when its getting shoved down your throat...
Sure is nice to have the source to the OS (Score:3, Interesting)
Same goes for device drivers, if you are a student playing with a piece of hardware, are you going to create a device driver for nt? Not likely, linux, sure there is no barrier to entry.
Bypassing MS (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyways, I've elected to go into the job market as opposed to grad school. I could have applied to Microsoft for a job, but I did not.
For me, I have moral and ethical issues with the way they do business. I would not work for a company that, IMHO, tries to swindle companies out of more money -- like what is going to happen with
Another one of my friends here did apply and has since procured a job with MS. I say, good for him. I certainly don't hold any hard feelings against people who work there; its just not the kind of company *I* would like to work for.
Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
The interesting part is how preachy some of the profs get. The prof for my programming (C) class this semester went into a little speech on the first day about how Linux was far more technically advanced than windows and most anyone (except perhaps BSD fanatics ;-) would agree that linux is what should be used if you're doing something important.
Furthermore, one of the engineering profs one day got into a talk about how he runs VMWare in his machine which allows him to run linux, because linux is 'good.' (This was in a mathematical, not computers course, btw.) If we (students) tried to do some sort of major design project at my school using windows as the platform to run it, we would be fried to a crisp by the profs for it. This prof often talked about how he avoids MS products like the plague because of unreliability and bugs.
Yes, the conversion away from Microsoft has started, and the people to thank are the folks with the Ph.D's who get the idea that linux is better into students' heads, and choose linux as the platform for the course, thereby causing many students to install it on their own machines so they don't have to use the public labs to do their work. Yes, where I come from, linux has become both cool and elite among undergrads while microsoft OSs have become connected with cluelessness and a lack of technical competence.
I am sure that Microsoft's SIT (slashdot infiltration team) will read this and immediately alert the top brass about this grassroots subversion away from MS software, and try to initiate a whole new marketing campaing aimed at college/university students and well as Profs. It's only a matter of time...
Re:Comp Sci. Students & MSFT (Score:2, Interesting)
When you get out of school most companies worth anything will stick you with someone as a 'mentor'. You will be what we in the industry call 'GREEN'. You think you know your stuff. Well you dont. You know the theory. But you dont know a 8000 line function is hard to work with unless you have tried to maintain it. Your theory tells you this, your profs told you this. But most people are hard headed and dont learn untill they have tried to FIX something like this. You will spend the first few months out of colege learning how to program in VC++ or VB, unless you find a company that is using unix for something. If you end up with unix you will relize after a few years that your skills are 'degrading'. As more than likely you will be maintince coding. You will start looking at windows as a way out. But your boss will not let you get better pay or help you move because you were suckered into the position. Other companies will be reluctent to hire you into a windows coding position as you do not have any experiance in it, you will again be 'green'.
I cut my teeth on those systems. What do I use now? MS NT/XP/9x. Almost exclusivly. Why? because in the real world companies in the past 10 years or so went BONKERS with MS. Almost everyone has it. You dont have to buy 10 differnt products from 10 differnt companies and pray and HOPE that the crap works together. MS stuff works VERY well with other MS stuff. Its wonderfully integrated. Why becase MS listen to their customers. At the time they were saying they want everything to work together. All the way from the OS to the web browser to the word processor. Now MS is getting sued because basicly they listened to what their custorms DEMANDED they do?
You want to make software for the real world. Not the fairy tail land of Open Source. You make MS software. Most companies dont care that the software is open source or free or whatever. They just want the damn thing to work and give them a good ROI (return on investment). If you forget that your doomed. If you can not show ROI and they still buy the software that company will not be around in a few years. Even if you install that 'free' software. You still have to train people to use it. You still have to test it. You still have to support it. All those things are what really cost money. The OS+compiler are almost neglegable in comparison to those costs. I have 50 people that are used to pushing the button V to bring up a 'view'. Then I change that they have to go to a menu and pick 'view'. I now have created something every single one of those people will have to learn. That cost time and money. When its 1 or 2 times the cost is almost invisable. When its multiplied by 4000 its VERY visable.
As for the 'free' dev tools they are in the freeking stone age compaired to Visual studio. I have used and still to use both. Can you change your code in mid-execution on gcc+gde? Does gcc come with integrated help (dont give me that man page crap as they SUCK ASS). Im not saying MSDN is perfect, but it SMOKES those man pages. MS bigortry has very little room to stand on when it comes to the tools as the tools are far and above MUCH better than what I have seen in Open source. At one time it was the other way around, but now MS is trouncing you guys and you call them bullies. Well build tools that blow away Visual studio and you would have ALOT more devs working with it. And why is the best word processors for making code in the unix world still VI and Emacs? Those bad boys are out and out dificult to use. If you dont know the arcane syntax of those editors your screwed. While in Visual studio the word process or is in the IDE, and helps you code.
'free' comes at a cost....
Story isn't really about Computer Science programs (Score:2, Interesting)
Many universities (even the ones that supply a lot of future MS employees) have only recently started to partially "switch" from *nix to MS - not the other way around. In my experience, I'd say that MS actually has the least penetration into CS programs vs. other undergraduate and Master's programs like English or Business, where the dominant use is Word for Word Processing (and file swapping in the dorm, of course). I've actually seen more than one occasion where a first year student has had to show a graduate student in CS how to start a Powerpoint Presentation etc. and my profs hated attempts at GUI, bloatwarish solutions to assignments that really called for an efficient text based solution.
Anyway, these were the thoughts running through my head when I first saw the posting, and a lot of the comments are along these lines. But once I had read the article, I realized it really had little to do with all this. It doesn't really refer to CS and university use of MS. It's actually a decent mainstream article on the general penetration of Linux and its popularity amongst future programmers and business - it just happened to quote a Columbia student to make a point.
Sorry about the rant, the discussion about how the use of SW in school may (or may not) affect adoption has been really interesting, but I thought the strength of the story was about the general adoption of Linux and the recognition in the mainstream media that MS is feeling increasingly threatened.
The impact that more articles like this will have on popular perception (that viable alternatives to MS exist) should not be missed in an otherwise great discussion.
University vs. College in Canada (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm in a University CS program, and we do a lot of theoretical stuff - algorithm designs and effieciency, abstract principles, stuff that relates to computers as a science. In first year, our two CS courses are based on java. I did all my coding under Linux, most students did theirs under windows. Because of the portability of java, there's no reason for anyone to switch to another operating system. My TA for CS last semester was on his final semester and was, from what I could tell, a hardcore Windows user. He's used java for his entire career at this school. Also, the systems in all the labs here run NT. My CS prof actually runs Linux, and says he'd prefer if the systems here ran unix, mostly because it'd make things run easier and more smooth. What I'm trying to point out is that the way the program is structured at this university (and for most universities in Canada), a student would have no motivation to change to another OS. The same applies across Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Eng, and Electrical Eng.
In a College, things are a little different. The programs are more hands on than they are theoretical, and as such, the colleges keep up with what the industry is doing. The students will be applying what they've learned in school as soon as they leave. From what I've seen at the colleges I've looked into, a lot of them are running Linux and teaching Linux. Things like systems administration, network admin. Integrating non-homogenous networks and systems. Anyone can tell you that Linux is being used for these kinds of applications, so that's what is being taught.
I can't comment much on how the university programs work and wether or not they would motivate a student to use Linux, because I don't attend a college. I'm trying to outline the difference between Universities and Colleges in Canada, to demonstrate the type of CS student you'd find at each type of institution, and the factors that would affect their choice of OS.
Basically it comes down to this:
A university student has no motivation to change OSes, because they are taught 'higher-level' theory (?). For example, we don't learn about individual OSen, but we do learn about OS design.
A college student learns about all the various tools they have at their disposal to design a system or make a system work (whether that system be a network, an individual computer, etc.) Because Linux is being adopted at an increasing pace to make systems work, this is what a college student would be taught. Because they are exposed to all the different systems available, and taught how to use them, they may come to make an educated preference of Linux over Windows.
Anyone in a Canadian college or university please feel free to correct me (especially those of you in 2nd year or higher.)
Industry Standard (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a little thing called "Industry Standard". Whether it's the best way, the right way, the cheapest way, or the most effective way doesn't really mean dick when you hit the corporate level. They want the stuff that everybody else is using. Talking someone into using a new product that isn't very compatible with everyone else is rather difficult.
Example:
Quark Inc [quark.com] makes a layout program called QuarkXpress [quark.com]. It's the industry standard. It costs over $800. Adobe Systems Inc [adobe.com] makes a competetive (some say better ) layout program called InDesign [adobe.com]. It costs $700. The really big difference is that Adobe GIVES its software to design classes to be taught to the students, Quark requires the school to purchase their software.
This has been happening (PageMaker before InDesign) for about six years. Quark is still the industry standard and I don't see it changing for another year. Fortunately Quark screwed the pooch and didn't make Xpress native for OS X, and everyone is dumping them. It'll take time to filter through the entire graphic arts arena.
The same thing is going to happen with Microsoft. Their products are industry standard. They're going to have to make a MAJOR mistake before anyone else comes along to take the lead.
~LoudMusic
Re:what they learn in school (Score:2, Interesting)
Nobody liked the Macs at my high school (big ol' beige paperweights that went into fits whenever you tried to do anything with them) and they tended to gravitate towards the admittedly lackluster Dells running Windows95.
However, I was talking to my friend's little sister, in ninth grade at the junior high where the new iMacs totally outclass said lackluster Dells. Not surprisingly, there, the Macs go first and are generally regarded as the "real computers."
Like at least 95% of life, it all depends.
Meghan
I already have (Score:3, Interesting)
The thing that kept me using it for as long as I did, was the support for my sound, the cs4281, which was finally handled last year in a kernel update. Quite frankly, I love the switch. All our lower division programming projects are done in java here at OSU, so linux works just as well as windows. If they tell me I have to have codewarrior, I use gvim, it's as simple as that.
There was one more thing that kept me on windows for so long, the game engine, Half-Life. I used transgamming's winex to get it to work on RH 7.2, and it runs better than in winbloze.
I look at it this way, when I get a job doing real programming, I'm going to be using Unix/Solaris. In fact, both my intern jobs, where I did things with computers, went to Linux/Solaris. The fact that I had as much experince, with not only windows, linux, but also Macintosh made my work that much better.
My Macintosh experince has shown me that user design can make or break a product.
My Windows experince has shown ease of use of databases through odbc, and the importance of flat files.
My Unix/Linux/Solaris experince has shown me the power of using small programs to take on a big problem, thus making each part work together to complete a common goal.
I think all three are needed by any cs student, but as long as schools continue to cater to M$ products, such as requiring you use code warrior, or visual c++, I think they will stiffle what most cs students really need.
Think about this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Beside from Linux I use WindowsNT and Office 2000. I will never upgrade from there. I don't want to get caught in Microsoft's activation hell. It is only going to get worst.
Just a thought (Score:2, Interesting)
I am about three years through CS and Math undergrad degree at a major Canadian university. And yes, we are being snowed under with MS Visual Studio, W2K, etc.
However, the question has to be asked - is it really going to affect Microsoft's fortunes? This dislike of MS products is hardly a new phenomenon - in my experience, people with a strong interest in computing have ALWAYS held Windows and other M$ products in low regard, and with good cause (they're flaky, limited, bloated, and irritating). However, Microsoft is not making its billions off the backs of computing science students or other demanding users - their target market is precisely that segment of the population that don't know or need any better. They aren't too concerned with how fully-featured the OS they use is, they use it because it's familiar, it's widely available, and it (sort of) performs the tasks they need. And seeing as most software development companies sort of enjoy getting a bit of remuneration for their efforts, as long as MS hangs onto the home market we are going to be stuck with wading through Microsoft garbage in an attempt to produce something for the home market.
Of course, one obvious counter-argument would be that the more developers get driven into the Linux camp, the more feature-rich/easy-to-use Linux will become, which *may* in turn cause Bobby-Joe Punchclock to try out this "new Linux thingy". I suppose to a certain degree this is already happening, but will it be enough to make a real difference?
Feel free to commence screaming about how much you like linux. =) Yes, I like it too... settle down.
Re:Yes (Score:2, Interesting)
Hence I hope your profs also explain _why_ they think Linux is better, run some serious comparative analysis, and let students have their own opinion on the matter.
Re:Of all the flaws... (Score:1, Interesting)
I got all my basic Linux experience from that class. Sadly, they've now switched the class to Win2000 only. But having gotten out of high school, I see how damned lucky I was that I actually got a high school class that taught Linux. My college doesn't even do that.
What????? (Score:2, Interesting)
Who made this fable up? When I went to school - yes it was a long time ago - everyone learned on a VAX or a Unix mainframe.... and we all (well - OK, most of us) went on to become M$ - based developers.
How many Windows hacks first computer at school was a Mac? Many!
That statement is groundless, and in my experience, false.
Re:Well.. what I DO know is this.. (Score:3, Interesting)