brad's Experience - PC versus Mac
Aug 17 '04
The Bottom Line If you-have $2,500 to spend, and it's really-not an issue, I think the Mac might-be the way to go. If money-is an issue, the-PC is your machine.
Hello I'm back. I'm back. I'm back to tell you more about my experiences using a Macintosh computer and a Windows computer. I use them both. Rather, I used them both. See, just this past week, I sold my iMac on eBay for $1,225.00. Ah geez, how could I do that!? Well, because $1,225 is a good return on a $1994.00 investment and Apple is introducing new iMacs next month. That was my logic.
But anyhow, how's a Mac compared to a PC and vice versa?
Well, until Apple souped up the G4 and then later came out with the G5 processor, its machines didn't stand a chance against PCs. They weren't fast enough. It was pretty ridiculous. There really wasn't an argument, even though you would always get the hogwash from the Mac zealots in the rest of these editorials here.
Still, I think it'll take a dual 2.5 gigahertz G5 machine to effectively run Virtual PC with Windows XP or Windows 2000 going at the same time as OS X. I think that's the benchmark. Can you run OS X nice and clean and also run Virtual PC with Windows XP/2000 nice and clean? I'd like to see that happen. Until I do, I won't buy into the hype that Apple has cranked out some big time chips like the high flying P4 extremes or Athlon 64s.
But in my last editorial I spent a fair amount of time on the GUI. The graphical user interface. How are the GUIs different and how are they used and how are they productive, relatively speaking?
To each his own, for starters. You have to be willing to learn a new system. I was willing to learn OS X. I became proficient with the mousing around and effectively using the dock and so forth. I don't use keyboard shortcuts and some Macheads might stuff my comment box here that that's my problem, but that cuts both ways - on the PC side too. Getting back to using OS X, it's a fine GUI. It's a beautiful GUI. In many ways, Apple has made its GUI more productive and easier to use than Windows' GUI. In many ways, yes. But in the most productive ways? I'm not so sure.
I still think the taskbar in Windows is the key to this whole thing. I brought this point forward in my first editorial on this subject and I'll bring it back because it remains firmly my strongest point. The taskbar keeps everything "on top." In Windows, if you want to move around, work on a Word document, multitask and surf a webpage, keep a game of chess open, and have the MP3 jukebox open, all of those applications are in the taskbar. It takes one click to get to the active application.
The same approach can be a headache with the Mac. These applications indeed may be sitting in the dock, but if the windows are open, you'll need to minimize all open windows that are in front of that active application that you're looking for, before you get to it and can do what you want. It's a process of minimizing, maximizing, and so on. The dock helps, and I've said that before. The dock was a tremendous innovation with OS X. Without it, I wouldn't consider using a Mac.
How about some other issues?
Early on I said I sold my iMac for $1,225. For $769.00, over the course of two years, I used that iMac. That's all it cost me. It's amazing to me the resale value of Mac computers. Imagine trying to sell a two year old Windows PC. You'd be lucking to get ANYTHING! I think one of the reasons that resale value for Macs remains so high is because retail prices for new Macs is always so high. I'm looking at replacing my iMac and a decent Power Mac is going to cost me over $2,000. I'll wait for the new iMacs to come out, but I'm sure they'll be pricey too.
Still, it's nice to know that you're making an investment, and not paying a "technology fee." Because the latter is really what you're doing when buying a PC. You really can't expect to get anything out of it when you're thru with it. Who's going to buy it from you? Maybe your brother or sister for $100? Maybe?
I never had a problem with my iMac. The machine never blinked. I could tell it was made of quality components. It just seemed like a sturdy machine.
The operating system ran so smoothly. It never crashed. Any error message I ever received was my fault. Maybe I stuck the wrong media in or I downloaded the wrong application or whatever. Never some bogus error message from Apple telling me that I have my application has a fatal error and must be shut down immediately...would I like to send a report? What a joke.
I'm going to wrap this one up. I may write another on this subject. But from this editorial I would like to stress that even though Macs are expensive, I would say that they're worth it. I don't know that I would have said that a couple of years ago. The new Macs with the 1.25 gigahertz chips in them and the Power Macs with the G5 chips in them are fast enough. I've used those machines and tested them. My iMac WAS NOT fast enough. That's one of the reasons I sold it. I still can't believe I got $1225 for it.
And I also wish to stress that I still think that Windows is the operating system for multitasking. It remains the case. The taskbar remains a killer function of its GUI. The dock and Expose of OS X have not leveled the playing field. Sorry Apple, you still have a ways to go.
Cheers, brad.
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Member: Brad Engelmann
Location: Helen Township, MN
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 95 members
About Me:
brad@engelmann.us (email address)
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