Just a quickie, here... Macintouch included a link to an interesting Microsoft sales pitch the other day. This page is a targeted hard-sell of Windows NT servers to K-12 schools who are running Macintosh clients, whether in a mixed-platform environment, or in a Mac-exclusive setting.

The ad copy really makes a strong case for buying an NT server for your school network, even though it contains some half-truths and even some outright lies (they're still claiming that NT is certified for C-2 security? Yeah... until you plug it into a network!), but hey, it's marketing material, and that's to be expected. The one thing that's missing from the list of features, though, is technical support.

And that's why the lure seems particularly evil to us. K-12 schools, as a general rule, do not have tons of cash sitting around, ready to be poured into hidden costs like technical support. Many teachers we know double as makeshift network administrators, with no formal training, and often very little idea of what they're doing. On a Mac network, that kind of scenario (while less than optimal) can work out fine. But throw an NT server in there, and the same fifth-grade Social Studies teacher who managed the Appleshare server may run into a few problems. And as far as we know, Microsoft still charges $195 per incident for NT Server support. (If there's a special price for education customrs, please let us know.)

The K-12 teachers have enough on their hands without having to learn yet another job. If this little NT marketing scheme starts to consume even more time from the schedules of those teachers (who, despite having to support the computers, rarely seem to have any choice in which ones actually get purchased), and the kids suffer as a result, well, that's pretty low in our book.