One key thing - who will be paying for the new computers. That has always
been an issue in the institutions I have been in. If a central body is
paying, most people will take them. We have found the best way to get them
used is to focus on providing functionality that people need via the PC,
rather than making an edict.

Unless you have some very specific things you want everyone to use, Macs can
now use many of the standard business programs that PCs can. In addition we
have begun to develop all new applications on the web which means that the
client machine is not as important. The one big whole in the market seems to
be an entry-level database programming environment that will work on both -
although this can be achieved using technologies such as ODBC, OLEDB, and
programs like PowerBuilder.

The policy in our institution is that no one is going to rule against Macs
(and we don't feel the need to), but we do not provide the same level of
hardware support as for PCs. Generally we make sure all software standards
will work with a PC, and its a bonus if it works on the Mac.

My personal feeling as a software developer is to leverage the power of
computers to as many people as possible given limited resources (time!).
Sometimes that means that it's just not cost effective to rewrite an entire
application for the 3% of Mac users we have - regardless of my opinion of
the computer itself. The web is such a nice solution because it makes the
PC/Mac argument go away.

I try to keep my primary focus on the things people need to do with their
computers, rather than getting bogged down with the technology itself. Just
my 2 cents.

-David
David A Higginson, ACMA
Vice President
Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute
1120 Marshall Street
Little Rock, AR 72202
Tel : (501) 320-3757
Fax: (501) 320-3547
Email : xxxxxx@exchange.uams.edu
Web : http://achri.ach.uams.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter J. Dolce [mailto:xxxxxx@CCVAX.MMC.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 1998 2:46 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Standardizing hardware

Our school is considering standardizing computer hardware, including the
computers used by faculty members.  One proposal is that we go entirely
to PCs and eliminate all Macs.  Has anyone tried to standardize faculty
computers?  Did it work?  What was the response from faculty?   What
would happen if you restricted or forbid the purchase of Macs?  Would
like to hear especially from medical schools or research-intensive
institutions.
--
Peter J. Dolce, Ph.D., Director
Office of Research Support Services
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, TN  37208
P (615) 327 6703
F (615) 327 6716