Most Useful OS For High-School Science Education? 434
Clayperion writes "I teach at a high school program for gifted students which emphasizes math, science, and technology. Currently we have two computer labs for the students: A new programming lab (all Dell PCs running XP, MS Visual C++, Eclipse, and SolidWorks for programming and CAD) and an old general-purpose lab (all Macs running OS X 10.3, with software ranging from some legacy OS 9 science applications to MathCad). Most of our students eventually pursue graduate degrees in science and engineering, and we would like them to have experience with the tools they will find out in industry. As we look to replace the old machines, there has been a push to switch to PCs with XP so that there is only a single platform to support. There are over 5000 machines on the district's network and the IT department is very small (fewer than 10 people), so the fewer hardware and software differences between the machines, the better. Without opening a flame war as to which one is 'better,' I'd like to know what those of you in the science and engineering fields actually use more in your labs (hardware, OS, software), so that we can decide which platform to support. It will most likely have to be either XP or OS 10.6, with very restricted permissions to students and teachers, as that is the comfort level of IT and administration, but I'll push for whatever would benefit the students the most."
Windows, Of Course (Score:2, Funny)
Since they are going to spend most of their life justifying their budgets with PowerPoint, might as well get them used to windows ;-)
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:5, Funny)
A mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, and a civil engineer are discussing God. They all agree He must be an engineer, but what kind? The mechanical engineer says, look at the human body, its skeleton, joints and musculature, mechanical genius! God must be a mechanical engineer. The electrical engineer says, Nonsense! Look at the brain, the nerves, God is an electrical engineer. The civil engineer says, "Nope. God is a civil engineer, who else would put the sewer outflow in the middle of the entertainment district?
But we all know donuts belong in the realm of theoretical physics. I quote the great Stephen Hawking, who said, "Your theory of a donut shaped universe is intriguing Homer, I may have to steal it."
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe it's me, but 5,000 Dell computers all running XP suggests Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering.
Why do I always hear circus music when anyone mentions them?
DOOT doot doodle oodle OOT doot doot doot, DOOT doot doodle oodle OOT doot doot doot, DOOT doodle oot doot, DOOT doodle oot doot, doodle oodle oodle oodle doodle oodle oot doot.
You know, the music they play when the clown car comes out, and the clowns start getting out, and you're all like, "Can there BE any more clowns?" But there are, there are always more clowns, and they just keep piling out of that car while the music plays.
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:3, Funny)
My coffee mug has a handle that's only attached at the top, therefore, my coffee mug is more cow-in-a-vacuum shaped than donut shaped.
Re:For chemistry, biology and physics. . . (Score:3, Funny)
I could not agree more, the less anyone knows about unix / linux the better.
Yes I am a contract Linux Administrator
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:4, Funny)
I hope you aren't a mechanical engineer. Oh, the stress concentration!
Re:Technically real world use.... OSX (Score:3, Funny)
Amiga?
LOL - You actually asked slashdot what OS to use!? (Score:5, Funny)
You say you want to choose the OS for your HIGH SCHOOL science lab based on what your engineer wanabe students may actually use when they make it to industry. Good Grief!
XP is already EOL and DISCON. They won't be using that in 6 years.
Win7 will have been replaced by at least 2 subsequent versions and will probably be DISCON.
OSX 10.6 will be replaced and DISCON, will be actively unsupported by Apple.
Whatever version of Linux you choose will have forked 600 times by the time they get out of college. Whichever one you pick now will be wrong.
The (wrong) choice you make today will have absolutely no impact on your students' preparedness for real-work in 6+ years.
SO:
Find the applications you want to use. Choose an OS that runs them all.
OR
Ask the IT guys where you work to choose. They have to support it, they know what they know how to support best.
OR
Load an old Slackware Distro and make the IT guys hate you. Make your students write the software they'll need. Then they'll really be prepared.
Protip: When you ask SLASHDOT what OS to use for ANYTHING, the consensus answer is going to be "well, you could use linux..."
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe it's me, but 5,000 Dell computers all running XP suggests Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering.
Just what the world needs, another 5000 node botnet.
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:2, Funny)
If they are all just going to continue on to grad school why not just get a bunch of NeXT cubes. No other system was ever more divorced from the real world out there. Don't pick Mac. There are real world business uses for a Mac.
Re:Science or Engineering, huh? (Score:3, Funny)
Homer: "Ah, Ballet..." [youtube.com]