Hardware Donations, Anyone?
Among other things, I’m a Computer Science major at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS. If you follow me on Twitter, you also know that I’m a major Mac-head. Now, you’d think the two would fit nicely together, but old prejudices against the Mac platform die hard (and if you’re thinking of a Mac between 1993 and 1998, I might agree with those prejudices). Dark years aside (we all have them: Think Windows ME!), the Mac is a great platform, and it’s now the leading notebook computer on college campuses nationwide. As the world moves closer to a platform agnostic and generally less Windows-centric way of doing things, people all over are embracing Macs and Linux computers, and as all my free market subscribers know, competition is the key to a better product.
Now, most of you who are used to my political blathering are probably wondering where in the heck I’m going with this. Hold on, I’m getting there.
While I love my University and truly believe in it, there are a few areas where it needs to play catch up. Platform choice is one of them. For something that is so important to the future, it’s amazing how far behind they’ve fallen. Just as its important for anyone to be exposed to different ways of doing things, its doubly important for the people who will design the applications of the future to have access to as many major platforms as possible. While we having Dell PCs running some form of Windows XP out the wazoo, OS X is nowhere to be found.
That’s why I’m asking for your help.
Do you have an older, Intel-based Mac sitting in a corner gathering dust or barely used? Would you be willing to make (what I think/hope is a) tax-deductible donation to a growing Best in the Midwest University? We’ve also been ranked in Princeton Review‘s Best 290 Business Schools. Your donation would be used to add OS X-based instruction to currently offered computer science classes, giving students a broader worldview than Windows and a sampling of Linux (CentOS).
How are you doing this? How can I be sure my donation will be properly handled?
Right now I’m simply looking for interest. One of my professors made a comment last week in class that the University would offer OS X-based instruction if the hardware was available, specifically, if someone was willing to make a donation. I decided to do my best to take him up on it. If there is sufficient interest, I’ll present my proposal to the University, and we’ll get the ball rolling. This day in age, there’s no excuse for not supporting a platform with an 8+% market share and a 20+% installed base.
I still have questions…
I’d love to chat with you. You can email me [@encode@ email="caleb.hays@gmail.com" display="here"].
