The Council on Computing will recommend that incoming freshmen purchase a Macintosh Performa Model 636 computer instead of the Power Macintosh.
Chemistry professor John Winn, who chairs the council, said the College just finalized the deal with Apple Computers late Tuesday evening.
Previously this spring the Council on Computing reported that they would recommend that incoming members of the Class of 1999 purchase a Power Macintosh.
"We negotiated with Apple over about four different versions of Apple Macintoshes, but Apple could not guarantee any of them in sufficient quantity," Winn said. "We felt it was important for the '99s to all have a fully functional machine right from the start rather than waiting until perhaps October or later."
Apple could not furnish the number of computers necessary because "Apple's manufacturers did not produce as many as they hoped," Director of Computing Lawrence Levine said.
The cost of the Performa will be $1,370. Levine said the Power Macintosh would cost "at least $400-$450 more than the Performa."
However, Winn said the Performa is only the recommended package for '99s and incoming students can still purchase the Power Macintosh computers.
Both Winn and Levine are pleased with the choice.
"It's hard to make a bad choice," Levine said. "The Power Macintosh doesn't do anything too much different than the Performa, but when the '99s are in their third or fourth year, they might not be able to take advantage of software that could be used only with Power Macintoshes."
Winn said that the Performa is different in three ways from the Quadra 605.
The Performa will have a 500 MB hard drive, which can hold many more files than past machines.
Performas also have CD-ROM for course material to be distributed to students.
The Performas include an Ethernet network card.
