this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Ironically, the US is practically already off MS in schools and has been for a while but it's Mac and Google Suite that took over. I literally had a college student in my class ask "What is Excel?" as it was listed as an option to conduct calculations.
It's not better, but I thought that was funny. Big reason that happened, btw, Apple gifted whole computer labs to schools back when it was trying to get market share in the 90s, and now Google does likewise with Chromebook. Too bad there isn't a Linux organization with enough money to do something like that, as it's much more effective than banning something.
This and banning Windows is silly... Ban the functions you don't want... That way other OSs are lumped in or the OS can be configured appropriately.
Chromebooks and iPads for kids here just made better (brain rot) consumers that know less about computers than their parents and even grandparents.
I'm all for pushing to Linux or de-shittified systems, but "banning Windows" doesn't suffice and the bigger alternatives have the same problems and/or worse.
It will at least help getting rid of Windows dominance. It is not just about pushing Linux itself, but creating a market with many operating systems. While not ideal for the school, because its preferable to have Linux as the default, still better than everyone using Windows.
I work in edtech, and the current landscape is something like 55% ChromeOS, 25% iPad, 15% Windows, 5% Mac. I might have the exact percentages wrong, but I'm pretty sure about the order. The old Mac advantage from the gifted computers is basically gone, and though a lot of primary schools do give students iPads, Windows isn't really gone gone; a lot of edtech apps are either web-based or built for Windows. You're right about Google undercutting the market with ChromeOS, though.
Yeah, I figured Chromebook is just the next generation of this stuff and the mac gifting is probably on decline now that they've got their market share. It's good to hear an edtech perspective though. It's all about cost at this point, I imagine...
With their budgets as they are, absolutely.