Looks like it's aimed squarely at students.

Apple used to own the space. I don't think they do, anymore.

They also had a lot of school IT stuff, like charging carts.

jimmydddd 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My son went to college with his Mac. But a bunch of the courses required running Windows software. So we had to get him a PC as well.

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JKCalhoun 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Everything, as I understand it, is moving to the Web. Google Docs, Canvas…

	▲	bilbo0s 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah. I'd be curious to know what school HN User jimmydddd's son goes to that it uses windows only software instead of the web? It just seems like something out of time. Like an engineering school that only teaches those building techniques that are predicated on load bearing masonry. Oh and by the way, here are the 5 drafting classes you need to take.

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ezfe 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's crazy, must be a specific field? The overwhelming majority of college degrees don't require Windows.

	▲	hobofan 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You can nowadays do fine with macOS or Linux in most college degrees I've seen, since nowadays there are decent open source alternatives for the most prolific software that's on the level of popularity that it will be used in teaching. However by default almost every college curriculum I've seen (unless it's in CS or IT combined field like bioinformatics) is still taught Windows-first, be it sociology, biochemistry or economics. In many you also have strong presence of MS Office suite, which is probably the first software that any university will buy license packs for for their students.

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danaris 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What software being taught in colleges today (outside of highly specialised niches) requires Windows?

Stats software is cross-platform or open-source.

Art programs are cross-platform or open-source.

Office suites are cross-platform or browser-based.

Unless you're specifically trying to learn Windows development, dev tools are cross-platform and open source.

15 years ago, what you describe was probably quite common. Today, it's almost completely disappeared.

	▲	daemonologist 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		When I was in college the exam nanny software required Windows, and not in a VM. (I had a Windows desktop at home, so I just remoted into that to take exams.) This was a few years ago but much less than 15. Also most "professional" CAD software is Windows-only, which is going to affect a big chunk of engineering majors.

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DauntingPear7 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Student at a US Uni here. They still do very much own the space for both tablets and laptops, especially in CS

	▲	suobset 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		CompSci grad in the US as well, it is genuinely a sea of either Macs or ThinkPads with $INSERT_FAV_LINUX_DISTRO here, and even then 66% of that are Macs.

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robinhood 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Have you seen classes in universities? In schools? My daughter is in secondary school - they all have mandatory iPads.

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ChrisMarshallNY 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not in some time (retired). I have seen lots of iPads in medical facilities. In fact, just this morning, I was looking at one, with a badly-designed app for checking in patients.

Many of the patients are older folks. They tend to press long and hard on the big buttons.

A sensible app developer traps tap and long-touch, and sends them both to the same handler. This developer only catches the tap event, and ignores long-touch. The attendant was getting grumpy, because she had to keep telling patients "tap 'gently'."

It's just me, I know, but I get salty, when I see this kind of careless UI design (it was the app's fault -not the iPad's). I know that the medical group paid big bucks for the app.

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snowwrestler 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My local school district is 100% Chromebooks, first issued in 4th grade and through high school.

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jimmydddd 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Our middle schools started out with iPads. But they switched to Chromebooks because they were a lot more useful. Also, apparently, middle school boys aren't that good at caring for iPads. :-)

	▲	bilbo0s 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		apparently, middle school boys aren't that good at caring for iPads. :-) Your district is liable to be unpleasantly surprised. Like ours, they will likely find middle school-ers are worse at caring for Chromebooks. The rate of broken Chromebooks for us was staggeringly high.

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organsnyder 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My kids' district gives them iPads in middle school (5th through 8th) and MacBook Airs in high school.

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DaSHacka 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

My old Highschool, as well as many other schools I've seen since, mandate Chromebooks.

I think it tends to be the more well-off schools with the iPads, the chromebooks are definitely a lot cheaper over the long run for the district.

	▲	bigC5560 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This. I went to a broke, small school and we were assigned Chromebooks. When I was younger some teachers had a few iPads, but they were old and mostly used for games when we got our assignments done. We didn't do work on them the way we did the Chromebooks in middle/high school.
	▲	happyopossum 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> the chromebooks are definitely a lot cheaper over the long run for the district. I'd need to seem some evidence for that - cheap chromebooks break very easily. Talk to any school IT person who handles device repair/replacement and you will hear nightmares of 50+% loss rates...