[ale] mac v pc

[D. Alan Stewart]

I've always bought Macs just because I liked them. While I'm a technically 
minded person, I prefer a computer that just works out of the box with 
minimum hassle in setup. In my opinion Apple has always done a better job 
at that than anyone else.

When I bought my first Mac in 1986, a Mac Plus, the operating system was 
clearly better  than DOS! It could accept and use up to 4MB of RAM without 
the limitations of EMS or LIMS. The Plus came standard with a SCSI 
interface, something unheard of in the Intel world. I could generate a 
significant list of hardware and software innovations that Apple brought to the 
mass market before they were adopted by the Wintel world.

Today I use a Win98 750Mhz Pentium III at work. It's clearly not twice as 
fast in real world use as my 400Mhz G4 at home or the 500Mhz G3 iBook. I 
would say that it is no faster, but I've never tried to benchmark them. Speed 
just isn't that important to me, as long as it's fast enough.

The Intel machine doesn't have Ethernet or Firewire built-in, the Macs does. 
One thing I've learned in 16+ years of using Intel machines is that 
compatability is a real issue, and having to add additional boards to a 
system raises the risks of incompatability. This is an area where Apple has 
done better than anyone else.

> I believe you get less speed for more buck.  I'm not sure.  The only
> thing that has kept me and most of the intel world out of Mac is cost
> of entry.  When I can pay $300 for 1GHz machine I just can't see paying
> 2,000 for
> a mac.  Someone here could prove me wrong.


D. Alan Stewart
Senior Software Developer
Layton Graphics, Inc.
155 Woolco Dr.
Marietta, GA 30062
Voice: 770/973-4312
Fax: 800/367-8192
FTP: ftp.layton-graphics.com
WWW: www.layton-graphics.com


"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they
are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do
not refer to reality." - Albert Einstein

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