Ask Slashdot: What are the Costs of Switching Between Windows, MacOS, and Chrome?
- Reference: 0184913450
- News link: https://ask.slashdot.org/story/26/08/09/1941202/ask-slashdot-what-are-the-costs-of-switching-between-windows-macos-and-chrome
- Source link:
> Champions of the switch often insist workers will be able to hit the ground running and get the same or even more work done from the get-go in the new unfamiliar environment because it's 'more productive', a conclusion often shaped by conventional wisdom or their 'gut' feeling. Decision makers may also mistake their own 'light-user experience' for universal experience and believe all platforms are fungible.
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> And while it's one thing for a business to delay their delivery dates and increase costs of by introducing a switch in computing environments that's of unquantified and possibly dubious value, how about when a switch in computing environments is made that affects schoolchildren's ability to learn for a period of time?
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> While a MacBook Neo is indeed cute, what might be the possible consequences of a decision to [2]move 25,000 students off Windows and onto MacBook Neos ...? Or even the impact on a single kid who moves from a MacBook school to a Windows or Chrome school (or whose home computing environment isn't aligned with their school). Or students whose teachers decide learning in their classrooms should now additionally require an understanding of the [3]Minecraft computing platform/UI (used in over 40,000 school systems.). Learning Management Systems and now various AI Edtech tools used by schoolkids are also subject to change.
"Even if students and schools eventually benefit from a new platform, one wonders how much learning is lost during the switch," [4]theodp asks, "and what the financial and educational ROI and payback period look like." Are there bigger problems than we realize? Share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.
What are the costs of switching between Windows, MacOS, and Chrome?
[1] https://slashdot.org/~theodp
[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/08/03/2115259/schools-are-ditching-chromebooks-for-macbooks-by-the-thousands
[3] https://education.minecraft.net/en-us
[4] https://slashdot.org/~theodp
CLI (Score:2)
When in Windows I work with WSL to get a proper terminal. When in MacOS I work in terminal. When in Linux I work in terminal. If I have to use a Chromebook, idk, Iâ(TM)ll probably ssh to my jumpbox so I can work in terminal.
Never really thought about the cost of switching because I never switch
Re: (Score:2)
Add to this that all of the applications I use on macOS or Windows are either open source or at least cross-platform anyway. As long as the apps don't change, neither does the way I work; not really.
Re: (Score:1)
What a super helpful comment, I'm sure elementary school children all work exactly like you do.
Reimplementation costs (Score:4, Insightful)
For companies with a complete set of supporting infrastructure, you must include the costs of standing up the whole structure, less licensing costs of the current ecosystem.
- Automated distribution and patching tools
- Standardized software
- Imaging tools for provisioning
Not to say it's still not worth it. It could be. But the larger the org, the greater the inertia, and the longer you live with both ecosystems.
Re: (Score:2)
> Not to say it's still not worth it. It could be. But the larger the org, the greater the inertia, and the longer you live with both ecosystems.
Microsoft has done a pretty thorough job of locking companies in like this, particularly through authentication and authorization systems (Active Directory) and the locked-down IT management infrastructure around them.
Windows to Linux to MacOS (Score:3)
I switched from Windows to Linux in 1998. Took about a day (kind of ignoring the time I spent modifying drivers to work on my notebook.) I switched to Mac in 2006 and that probably took a week. It was mainly the GUI that slowed down the transition. Have pretty studiously ignored Windows since then.
Give them the right tool (Score:2)
Give them the computer they are already the most productive on, be it Windows, Mac OSX, Linux.
The most expensive thing for most situations is the idiot at the keyboard.
Where the required use case means there is only one option, not matter what OS, then that person will need to "up skill"
Computers are like golf clubs, you are either left handed or right handed and a few ambidextrous.
Right handed clubs are cheaper because more people use them, but trying to force left handed people to use them "becau
This advertisement brought to you by Microsoft (Score:3)
Please dont switch from our horrible OS to something better
Switching is unavoidable (Score:4, Informative)
He kind of answered his own question. Kids move between schools all the time. People move between companies all the time. Either you dictate that everyone in the world must use the same environment, or else people will sometimes have to change environments.
Sure there's a cost to switching. You shouldn't do it without a good reason. You also shouldn't be afraid to do it when there is a good reason. You're trading a short term cost for a long term benefit.
There also is value in knowing multiple platforms. I didn't like it when I was at a company that had standardized on Windows for everything, but there have been lots of times since then when it was useful to have learned Windows. There's educational value in occasionally being forced to learn a new platform.
Re: (Score:2)
+1, I see switching as a net positive. If people learn that there really isnt a huge difference in these UIs, and how things work in general, they start to understand things more in patterns and less in wrote memorization of how to do something, which is what school should be teaching in the first place.
I.e. as a very bad example, I need to use a new printer. If you memorize how to do it in one OS then you just think things are hopeless when you move to another. However if you understand the concept that an
Re: Switching is unavoidable (Score:3)
> There's educational value in occasionally being forced to learn a new platform
I came here tonsay the same thing. especially in an educational setting, exposing students to multiple environments should be part of the goal. Not just computing environments, but cultural, social, language and pedagogical environments should be as varied as possible to bring forth flourishing humans. Of course this small-l liberal pipe dream is completely anathema to modern neoliberal hyper capitalism; such education is onl
Switching from Windows 7 to 8, 10, 11 (Score:3)
Huge loss in productivity because everything is moved around. No Linux or Mac required in order to have a bad time!
It really depends what people are doing (Score:2)
In our department, the vast majority of our staff do 90% of their work in a web browser. A handful use a separate email program (Outlook, unfortunately), but most are in Gmail. They also occasionally use MS Office, but that software's crappy interface is equally bad regardless of platform. So I have a hard time believing switching them to Macs or Linux boxes would have any deleterious impact on their productivity, except perhaps in the very short term as they learn the OS' interface.
And, since we do have a
Bit of a Seinfeld thread (Score:2)
Children have flexible brains. The OS's mentioned are fairly similar so far as UX. To be honest how much time does a child interact with the OS directly rather than apps?
Potentially infinite (Score:2)
... if the software you need doesn't run on other platforms.
While it's true that most of the stuff the general public does can be done on any OS, there is LOTS of very useful, often very expensive, software that only runs on one OS. There are scientific instruments, lab equipment and machine tools that still run on DOS. The software will never be updated, but the machines are still useful.
Of course, the word "never" may be wrong if AI can reverse engineer the old code and port it to a modern OS.
8yo (Score:2)
I upgraded my friend's old Win machine with Mint to give to their 8yo girl. It took her minutes to figure out how to change the wallpaper etc.
I find that adults are a bigger problem: most unwilling to even try Firefox, never mind install from the Mozilla website. One of my friends hates her Samsung UI but won't change because that's all she's bought for 10+ years.
First step (Score:2)
Before changing the OS try changing any apps they will use first, one at a time, so they get used to them and they are one less new thing when the actual OS is changed.
For example back in the Windows XP/8 days I changed my elderly parents to Mint by first changing them to use Firefox and Thunderbird on their Windows machine. The actual OS change was pretty painless for them as the programs they used the most were then unchanged from what they had already learnt.
What about the benefits? (Score:2)
That "lost time" isn't lost, it's spent learning a new system.
I would venture that compelling kids to use different systems would encourage understanding and abstraction as opposed to rote memory when it comes to using technology.
Kids already have phones and computers and tablets and TVs at home that may or may not each other or the school. Quit fretting.
As for work productivity, whichever OS allows IT to block minesweeper is probably the best choice. Metaphorically.
Linux? (Score:2)
Switching to Linux from any of those would likely save a lot of costs, in terms of both hardware and software licensing.
Re: (Score:1)
And probably eat it all up in downtime and support costs, because most schools do not have anyone capable of managing a Linux install.
Re: Linux? (Score:2)
Install Ubuntu, it has a GUI package manager and work very well, if you buy a system that is designed to run it. I gave my nephew one and he uses codex now to make apps in Linux. It teaches him what to do. Kids have enormously plastic minds and can learn a new system very quickly. Just ask anyone who ever went from an Xbox to a play station or even from one gaming hud to another. They will be fine
Re: (Score:2)
What does it mean to design a system to run a GUI package manager? What systems are designed to "run it" and which ones aren't?
"...and can learn a new system very quickly."
That system is not merely an OS and package manager that you want to make up claims for, it's EVERYTHING that must be used to get an assignment done, and it's NOT merely a kid that needs to do it, it's all the teachers as well, plus the parents to some extent. Then next year you'll change your mind and there's a new piece of the OS that
Re: (Score:3)
The costs of switching to Linux are indeed low, and switching away are comparably low as you don't have to pay the entrance fee to Linux or the exit fee from it.
Switching between the other platforms will obviously have a cost.
If you don't scrap your hardware for an upgrade cycle, you can probably start a migration/trial plan.
Obviously, what would likely be worthwhile would be self-hosting the cloud services that go along with Windows/Mac/Chrome.
Re: (Score:1)
"The costs of switching to Linux are indeed low, and switching away are comparably low as you don't have to pay the entrance fee to Linux or the exit fee from it."
As long as the value of time is zero, that may be true. If only entry and exit fees are all that matter. I guess hardware is free too.
Re: (Score:3)
Don't forget the most important reason, freedom.