Going back to school? Don't bring a Mac

In an open letter from Yale University, students buying new computers are "strongly encouraged to select a Windows PC" and not a Macintosh. Why? Theuniversity says that software for administrative activities such as theschool libraries and class scheduling is being designed only for Windows.Yale University "cannot guarantee support for Macintoshes beyond June, 2000," according to the letter.

This wouldn't be considered news if it was only Yale, but they're not alone. Dartmouth, exclusively Macintosh since 1983, has hired its first Windows specialist to assist students.  The University of Pennsylvania has been buying software designed solely for Windows as well, shutting out Macsystems. At Brown, half of the students use Windows-based PCs, compared to25% only five years ago. Princeton's Windows penetration is up to 65%. And Columbia is planning to suggest Windows NT to students, rather than theMac.

In his keynote address at Macworld last month, Steve Jobs mentioned thateducation, a key area for Apple, was growing at a rate of 20% per year.What he forgot to tell the Apple faithful, of course, was that Apple'sgrasp of this market has fallen dramatically in the same time period. Onestep Apple has taken to regain lost ground in education: keep Newton andsell the eMate as an inexpensive sub-notebook-type computer to students