"I'm thinking that maybe the analogy is not Betamax vs. VHS but Wintel vs. Mac vs. Linux. "

Quit possibly. IIRC, Apple was pretty aggressive in courting the education market. I have no idea what Daz/Sm are doing in that regard. I'd certainly be looking at developing a free, multi-level 3D animation curriculum that I could hawk to schools. if I didn't have one.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken