14 DAY TRIAL // If you're asking Microsoft, Windows 8 is the most advanced, the fastest, and the most secure operating system to date, being clearly superior not only to its predecessors, but also to the other platforms on the market. Starting today, pretty much the same thing is being said by Leon County Schools, as they recently signed an agreement with Microsoft to switch to Windows 8 and Office 365.
In a statement published today, Bill Nimmons, IT Director of Leon County Schools, Tallahassee, Florida, said in a statement that no less than 34,000 students will thus be provided with access to Windows 8 and Office 365 as part of the deal, thus lending them a hand when it comes to "preparing them for the competitive, global workforce of tomorrow."
In case you're wondering how come t schools decided to use Windows 8, here is the answer provided by Nimmons to this question:
"When Leon County Schools set out to become a 1:1 school district, we did so with our teachers as our number-one focus. What will they teach? How can we minimize any disruptions to teachers and students in the classroom? For us, it was about the curriculum, not the technology.
"Key to this approach was choosing an operating system that minimized the need for additional training by our teachers and students, allowed us to use existing curriculum and applications without limitations and minimized the need to retrain technical staff on additional software to support our 1:1 environment -- all things that Windows 8 allows us to do."
Yes, you've read it right, Windows 8 was selected as the next operating system for Leon County Schools because there's no need for additional training and all apps work just fine on it.
Paradoxically, Windows 8 was severely criticized after the October 2012 launch because of the interface changes that it brings, with many users claiming that additional training is needed to make sure that productivity is not affected.
Organizations and large companies across the world confirmed this and instead of moving to Windows 8, they decided to stay on Windows 7, pointing to the familiar user interface as the main reason.
Microsoft, however, fixed some of the reported problems in Windows 8.1 and 8.1 Update, and plans to fix even more in the coming months with new updates called 8.1 Update 2 and Update 3. The Start menu will also be brought back at some point, thus restoring the full functionality of the classic Windows desktop.