Come September, for the first time ever, a majority of members of the incoming class will use a Windows machine rather than a Macintosh one -- with the overall percentage approximately 60 percent to 40 percent in favor of PCs.
According to Dartmouth's computing store manager, Theresa Woodward, 100 more members of the Class of 2004 have ordered a PC rather than a Mac. In addition, another 70 incoming freshmen are bringing their own Windows machine to campus while only eight '04s have said they will bring their own Macs.
"This is the first year more people are ordering PCs," Woodward said, adding that the store has already received most of the purchase requests for the class.
The change in proportions may be due to last year's change in the College's official recommendation. Starting last year, computing services stopped recommending the Apple Macintosh package to incoming students -- a recommendation made to members of previous incoming classes.
"We didn't make a really strong stance to bring Macs versus Windows machines," said Spokesman for Computing Services Bill Brawley, adding that incoming freshmen were encouraged to order or bring to campus whatever machine they were more comfortable with.
Although the computer information package mailed to all '04s did not strongly recommend any specific machine, it did tell the incoming freshmen, "If you're not sure what kind of computer to buy, we suggest you select the basic desktop Apple iMac."
Brawley said Dartmouth's computing system has changed a lot in the last two years and has become a lot more Windows compatible.
"We had a lot of uncertainty regarding Windows at that time," Brawley said of two years ago. However, "it is much easier [now] for Windows users to be on our network," he added.
The basic desktop computer package for the '04s is either a Mac or PC desktop. The Mac package is an 450 MHz Apple iMac and costs $1,359, a substantial increase from last year's price of $1,196; the PC is a Dell OptiPlex GX110 with a 15 inch monitor and costs $1,372, also up from last year's cost of $1,261.
Besides the basic packages, the computing store also offered members of the Class of 2004 another six computer deals to choose from that included both high-end desktops and PC and Mac laptops.
