5 replies to this topic

[fanatic]

w000t. I'm laying up here in my bed, listening to the 40mph winds with 60mph gusts outside, and listening to rfa 81. Very nice.

I would go completely open source, but I think I'd rather go halfway with Apple's OS X. Darwin and the ability to install most distros (powerpc) make macs a great tool. I'm personally waiting until I get accepted into the college I want, and then use the educational discount to buy a Powerbook.

Macs have it all:

• Power
• Unix Backbone
• Style
• Ease of use
• Purrdddyy
• Awesome media (video, graphical design, etc) capibilities
• Cheap compared to x86 machines at the same (relative) speed

[bland_inquisitor]

you know, that is a fair point. In my love of linux, i completely dissed all the fine mac folk we have. So to you, Paracord, and all the other apple-heads out there... We're sorry. The only thing i don't like about Macs is the face that every little connection has to be propritary. You cant run down to wal-mart at 3am and pick up a new cord for your i-pod when you dog shreds it. Your best bet is to go to the apple store... that is if youre lucky enough to be around one of the 5 of them. It's a fact that at least at the home use level, there are more nix users that apple users. I wonder if it has to do with people not wanting to get on the "cant-get-it-at-fry's hardware bandwagon

[djmollusk]

Awesome media (video, graphical design, etc) capibilities

I agree but, I'm finding more and more that places are switching over to PC because its cheaper for them. I'm talking about places that deal with multimedia and or publishing. This last summer I was working for a major publishing compnay and they were switching over to PCs. People were using Photoshop and InDesign on PCs.

The reason was that when the Macs go down they take longer to fix or get replacement parts for since everything is propritary. Through Dell they were able to get a much better sale and service contract.

[fanatic]

Yeah, that is true. If you have dozens of macs running, and something breaks, it would be hard to find the cables and parts at any time of day. Most anything would have to be ordered. Luckally, Apples don't break as often as PCs do.

btw: Your sig is spelled wrong. It is "Halon", not "Haylon". =)

[logan5]

The only thing i don't like about Macs is the face that every little connection has to be propritary. 

No disrespect, but that's not quite right, and is a BIG myth that I tried to dispell on Biv Rev Radio Ep 10. True, up till '97 or so, there were still propritary connections, but by '98 everything for external connections was USB and FireWire. And they have always used standard SCSI or IDE hard drives. The VGA, USB, FireWire and IDE connections on Macs you buy today are not proprotetary. I can go to anyplace that sells PC parts, and generally get what I need, be it RAM, an optical or hard drive, a cable and in many cases, PCI cards (provided the appropriate drives are available). The only proprietary connectors they really have anymore are the ADC ports to connect the LCD Cinema Displays, and even then when you buy a new machine, it comes with an ADC/VGA adapter right in the box.

As for having to go to Apple to get a power cord fo the iPod, that's true, but you can blame improving Windoze compatibility for that. Up until the latest iPod rev you could power and connect it to a machine with a standard 6-pin FireWire cable. But, since Apple wanted to incorprate USB 2.0 compatibility for Windoze users, they came up with the "Dock Adapter" so Windoze folks could use ONE cable that comes with both Firewire and USB 2.0 connections.

Don't mean to nitpick, just want to set the record straight.

[logan5]

I agree but,  I'm finding more and more that places are switching over to PC because its cheaper for them. 

I guess that depends on your definition of "cheaper". Over many years, I've used both Macs and PCs and have found the return on investment over the long term to be far greater with Macs then any PC would ever dream of having.

True, you can buy an el-cheapo PC for $500 or less, but you get what you pay for, and no machine like that is ever going to be a good graphics or video workstation. To make one of those cheap machines what I consider "usable", you'd have max out the RAM, get a larger, faster 7200 RPM drive, get a new graphics card, add a FireWire card, and THEN you still have to add software to do anythign with it. Sure, they look cheaper from the start, but when you start adding things like "basic" software (apps like word processing/database/spradsheet suite, DV editing, DVD burning, CD burning) that a Mac comes with installed out of the box) you're way over your $500 starting point.

Long term service and support costs (from my experience anyway) are far greater on the PC side, simply cuz shit breaks alot more often, in hardware, usage and networking. Every design office I've worked in that was PC based added extra time to a project deadline to take into account "computer issues". I've never heard of such nonsesne! The last place I worked in that had any PCs was pretty much split down the middle 50/50 with the PCs running the business, and the Macs doing the design work. The IT dept had 5 people: 4 for the PCs, and one for the Macs. Why? Cuz even with the same amount of Macs as PCs running the firm, the Mac tech had far less to do to keep things working. Granted, this is one isolated case. But, there is somethign to be said $$$-wise when a company pays one guy to maintain 30 Macs, and four to do the same work with 30 PCs.

One more thing, is that on the whole, a Mac will hold it's resale value far longer than a PC, which means that when it comes time to upgrade, you can sell your old machine and still get a good price for it, which then can be used towards a new machine. How much is a $500 PC going to be worth in 3 years.....or 3 weeks?

Honestly though , I see the long term real world, life and death, black and white operating costs to be about the same for each platform. It's just a question of if you want to pay now, or pay later. Pay now, and spend what seems like more money up from for an "overpriced" Mac that you'll be able to recoup much of your investment from down the road, or pay later to upgrade, maintain and fix a peice o' shit cheapie PC...if it lasts that long.

But as will all else, your mileage may vary.