I'm reading this thread and coming at it from two places: first, an ex-technology director who had the responsibility/pleasure of making technology decisions regarding platforms and applications for schools; and second, from the perspective of an open source developer --
The argument about "preparing students for the real world" falls a little flat when it comes to many technology issues, especially when it comes to productivity suites like office. The basic skills required are common among *any* platform; employers also offer training for new employees; and besides, many entry-level tasks are moving to the browser as companies find they can save money by moving to web-based tools.
I argue that we do students more of a service by teaching critical thinking skills that can be applied cross-platform, cross-tool. More importantly, we do students a disservice by tethering their problem-solving abilities to the options presented within one software package. If all you have is a hammer, every problem's a nail.
And with that said, I do understand one piece of the argument that identifies Macs as the tool of choice for video editing.
But still, using tools as the basis of our technological decisions will not serve us well in all cases. The choice of tools should start with a clear analysis of educational outcomes, and we should select the tools that best support those outcomes -- and, as TCO relates to access to computers, which relates to ability to achieve some educational outcomes, Open Source has a role to play in these discussions.
Cheers,
Bill
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