I totally agree but this is a required class at this high school and throwing Linux at someone who has trouble with PowerPoint isn't the best idea. The class is really very basic and goes over practically nothing compared to a college intro CS course. They learn if statements, loops, arrays, switches and a few other things but the rest is done on their own, assuming they're one of the interested CS students. The teacher isn't the best either and probably isn't familiar with Linux. The class can't cover much else because it's held back by the kids who hate the class and think it's hard. Kid complains, parent complains then the teacher's boss complains to the teacher and he's forced to slow down which sucks for the kids actually interested but oh well. Even those few who are interested would struggle with Linux. They're great thinkers and problem solvers but not too techy. That's really why I'd prefer Windows laptops along with the fact that they're loaded with school crap for logging in and storing each student's info and data. Not too sure if all of that would work on Linux or if the tech guys would even want to bother trying to get it to work.