Hi, I’m Cory and I’m a PC.

At least I have been all my life. Lately that has not been so much a decision but the only option that was financially viable. Allow me to explain.

Last Christmas my wife and I decided we needed a computer at home. I had been doing most of my prep work at school and she felt a little isolated with no email and/or Facebook. So we started looking at various options.

I have become interested in producing videos recently after watching both Brittown and Choppertown and speaking with Kyle Randall who produces and host Wilderness Journal for PBS. Side note: Kyle has an amazing life story; if you ever get the opportunity to hear him speak take it!

I asked Kyle what program they use to produce the Wilderness Journal. I also asked James Ford who teaches a multimedia class through CCRESA and runs a video production business called Great Lakes Digital Video what program he suggested. Both told me they use Final Cut Pro from Apple. I really wanted to be able to produce quality video dealing with traditional hot rods and kustoms that was suitable for use in schools or with kids of any age but that still appealed to adults.

Combine that desire with the, literally, days I spent removing an LOP infection from my parents computer after my little brother downloaded Windows Live Messenger and you can understand why I really wanted a MAC. The one thing holding my wife and I back was the price. I could not rationalize spending almost twice as much on a Mac so, dude, we bought a Dell.

The computer required a bunch of software updates when we connected it to the internet as well as activating the McAfee security suite. It came with a cool Bluetooth mouse and keyboard that worked great, except for the right arrow key which would sometimes not work or stick on causing you to scroll through all the dropdown menus at warp speed. Also, occasionally you would have to resynchronize the mouse and the keyboard. One time the mouse and the keyboard stop working so I had to run the store and pickup a cheap USB mouse to get the system working.

Then my wife got tired of the right arrow button sticking so she called Dell tech support in India. The guy she spoke with had no idea what to do and was apparently just using a flow chart that he really could not understand. By the time he was done “helping” the mouse was not working and the little Bluetooth light on the keyboard had turned purple. After I went to the store and bought a new keyboard I was able to find out that particular problem was known as The Purple Light of Death and seems to mean the end of the line for the keyboard.

We spent almost a grand on a nice Studio Dell and I still had to go out and spend $35.00 on a mouse and a keyboard. Add that to the massive amount of extra stuff slowing down any new Dell and the constant threat of a nasty virus and it is easy to see why I am questioning the schools’ choice of staying all PC.

I did some searching and found that Mac is at roughly 10% of the market share and it is growing. Our students are bound to come across an Apple at some point, whether it is a job or college. Should we start to buy a few Macs when we replace some of the old PCs? Does your school have any Apples? If we did invest in Macs could we save money with fewer tech employees? What do you think?