If you involve even more fresh fish on the differences between Macs and personal computer , look no further than two very different public reactions to a pair of hardware giveaways .
You ’ve probably already hear about the effort to get rid of some aging iBooks in Henrico County . That ’s the Virginia school territory that inked a stack with Apple back in 2001 to append its student with laptops . When the school dominion opt to knock down Apple earlier this yr in favor of fetch its laptops from Dell , functionary take some of the four - year - old iBooks and offered them to local resident for $ 50 .
The sell - off createda mob scene , quite literally — residents showed up at a local subspecies track where the machines were to be sold off , hours before the William Henry Gates spread out . When the sales event in the end began , there was a stampede as people jockeyed for a place in line . Punches and lawn furniture were thrown , and multitude were smart as they were tread down upon by others . There was a study of one woman bemire herself rather than losing her place in line of business ; another individual even drove into the crowd with a car . Complete bedlam , obviously .
As the director for general services for Henrico County excogitate to reporters after the fact , it was strange that people should have had such a reaction to laptop computers that have seen four yr of hard use and ill-usage at the hands of school - kids—“computers with less than desirable attributes ” is how he put it . But we all know what sort of trigger-happy loyalty Apple engenders in some masses , and , well , $ 50 for a working laptop computer that ’s still useful is a steal .
By comparing , Pittsburgh Public School official have close down a program to mete out thousands of five- to seven - year - old Dell PCs to local residents that were renovate at taxpayer expense for city school baby , according to thePittsburgh Post - Gazette . They ’re not contain the broadcast because of irrational enthusiasm on the part of the receiver , but because of irregularity involved in the school dominion ’s inventory and accounting procedure .
Apparently several dozen of the reckoner ended up on eBay , and local officials are trying to figure out how that happened . job is , no one at the school can state them , since the systems have n’t been very well accounted for since they ’ve been take out of committee . yard of the Dell PCs are boxed up and quick to go , but until shoal officials can get a better handgrip on the inventory , they ’re not going anywhere .
What does this have to do with the Henrico iBook stampede ? Nothing on the surface , but one scuttlebutt from Richard Fellers , the schoolhouse territory ’s boss of operation , catch my eye :
Four years from now , maybe Henrico County resident will feel the same way about the machine that replaced those iBooks , and there wo n’t be another stampede .
