Macintosh

[DarkAngel]

Quote From: Mac vs. PC III: Mac Slaughtered Again.
After looking at these startling benchmark results, we have to gaze over at our beautifully-designed Macs and ask, "Is it worth it?"

-Charlie White

Taking those benchmark results, the $629 price diffrence and if you want to use your Mac for other things(daily computing) facture in the other draw backs mentioned by others in this thread- expensive parts, lack of support, limited # of games designed for that platform, etc i would ask the same question too, "Is the Mac worth it?"

[pigeonflight]

Seems to me, that most persons in this forum don't use a mac. I don't either, so the less I say the better.
A couple good things about macs.

• The new OSX is based on Unix (FreeBSD) so is rock solid.
• They have married the stability of Unix to a beautiful and userfriendly interface (use it for a week and you'll wonder why Windows is so unintuitive)
• They have a powerful architecture in the G4 but they lag on speed. x86 architecture, though inferior kills them due to sheer megahertz.
• The new mac OSX can run XFree86 and hence KDE and GNOME veeeeeeery important, this opens up a world of free software to mac users.
• Mac does support DHCP and most of the typical TCP/IP protocols.
• Finally, for at least a few years, the hardware has been fairly standard, AGP for graphics cards, PCI for internal network cards etc and SDRAM for memory (they really pioneered in the USB and Firewire). So you can get most of what you need at the local computer store.
• Same is true for peripherals, it doesn't take 5 minutes to research whether the printer you're considering is mac compatible anyway.

My biggest problem with Mac is the cost of ownership, The machines are relatively expensive and the software is too (I suppose that's true for Windows as well)

Wish there were mac persons around in the forum so that they could defend their platform, they're probably busy creating incredibly expensive artwork on their macs as we speak.

<non-sequitur>
conclusion
=========
Use Linux
</non-sequitur>

[jamrock]

Wish there were mac persons around in the forum so that they could defend their platform

I have seen the quality of the work done on the Mac, so I have no problem with it in specific environments. I would use one in those environments.

I need to see if anyone uses DHCP in the Mac world. I can think of 3 places where they keep their little book of I.P. addresses. Maybe there is a way and these guys aren't aware of it.

I don't think I would run an all Mac environment. I would need some other O/S as the server and have Windows 2000 Professional in the other departments.

[Xenocrates]

Greed killed the Mac. It was greed and the need to monopolise that caused the Mac to shoot itself in the foot.

Sure they got a bashy OS, but a long time ago, the Mac had the chance to dominate.

Back in the day when Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Corp) and Billy G. (former CEO of Microsoft) were knocking head to head in the still infant PC market, Jobs had a far superior system than the then IBM standard.

He made his own OS and Hardware. Billy G couldn't compete with that. Or could he?

Microsoft dominated the Mac market because:

1) Billy G was willing to license out the MS DOS platform to third parties

2) Billy G was willing to license out the GW-BASIC language to BIOS
creators for IBM based motherboards.

3) Billy G created a licensing system for ALL of his software and made it available to other parties (for further improvement etc.) so that MANY companies could contribute to the IBM/Microsoft standard.

4) It is this that made Billy G incredibly rich. With all the royalties he was being paid for licensing out MS DOS and later Windows to so many software and hardware manufacturers, he amassed a fortune and a formidabble empire with millions of supporting companies.

5) Few companies realised this until it was too late.

Mac included.

The Mac people had their chance to destroy Microsoft then. They had better software AND hardware. But....

Their greed killed them.

They wanted to control EVERYTHING that had ANYTHING to do with the Mac. No licensing, no royalties. Nothing.

They made their Mac/Apple specs available to no one, unless they were willing to join the company or be owned by Mac corp.

That's what killed the Mac. They've now opened their gates to third parties. But it is too late now. Bill Gates is already king. The IBM standard (which every PC we now use is based on) is the dominant type.

That place on Red Hills Road specialises in the IBM standard (as does everyone else). But can the Mac bounce back?

Even though Macs have pioneered new technology, those technologies will be re-developed for the PC platform and that will only add to the already bulging PC empire.

Mac isn't dead, but they will always be second rate. Steve Jobs was a fool. If he was smart 20 years ago, Bill Gates would be cleaning his shoes today.

[Chris]

Points well made Xenocrates, greed was one of the factors that stiffled the growth of the Mac. I think that another factor was naivity. Steve Jobs and company probably believed that "if you build it they will come" meaning that if they built a good machine that the word will spread and that would be enough to fuel consumer demand. History proved this wrong, marketing is what will fuel demand. I once heard that Microsoft is a better marketing company than a software developing company .

[Xenocrates]

That is a well known fact Chris. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has developed a (rather annoying) strategy for getting their software out to the market.

They build this bashy new system and rush it out by the date they promise. The problem is that it is usually bug ridden. They then release a series of patches and service packs to cover up the holes.

Anyone skilled with C++ or Java will know how easy it is to hack/crack/smack Windows. Take Windows 95 & NT and IE 4.0 for example. If I had a dollar for every security patch that came out for those systems, I'd buy a yacht, a BMW M5, a Mansion, a trailer load a gals and start big pimpin'. ;D

[Collin]

[quote author=Chris link=board=3;threadid=441;start=0#msg3667 date=1047323102]
I once heard that Microsoft is a better marketing company than a software developing company .
[/quote]

Chris, when you are that fat in the middle... you can afford to do the vast PR job that Microsoft does....

Most persons who purchase a computer today all want MS Office on it!! if it ain't MS Office then its no good... that's thier view? can you argue with them when all the "PR Dollars" are paying off eh?
MS made sure that their product got out their and that people know of their product.....

I knew of Microsoft long long before I even heard the name Apple.... what more can I say?

[Ropy]

I'm not a Mac person but I know a bit about it, not that I've used one. One of the reasons why the Mac's best for graphics is that most of the best graphics softwares are released one the Mac first. Take Photoshop for instance, this was first created for the Mac. Another plus (+) for the Mac has been their dominance in multimedia (digital audio creation and movie) creation, not that the PC should be left out. But you got to recognize the role of the Mac in the 21st century. Not because we don't use Mac's here in Jamaica means that the PC is better. I think one of the reason why I don't use a Mac instead of a PC is simply because we were brought up on a PC, and can't bother with learning a New OS or don't want to. Just like The Unix line, allot of people don't switch because they just get too attached to the feel of a Windows based system.

Just like a PC Mac's can be custom built, www.TheScreenSavers.com the website for the TV show shows how to build one and have the tut. in their archive. That's my 10cents... ;D

Speaking about games, have you guys seen the drunk gamer commercial for the Mac, that’s dope.

[sicholas]

anybody wana guess Y I would wont buy a mac over a pc? well I would love to have an apple computer but.... ppl in JA hardly own macs & I'd have problems getting software. with our windows machines we get alot of "bandoloo" and cracked software. PC parts are affordable and common (dat mean yu can teef parts out a machine at di office) you cant really do that with macs.
gaming is another problem on the mac platform.
But if you have the cash to spare, buy a mac and use windows emulating software!

[Collin]

[quote author=sicholas link=board=3;threadid=441;start=15#msg3845 date=1048195047]
anybody wana guess Y I would wont buy a mac over a pc? well I would love to have an apple computer but.... ppl in JA hardly own macs & I'd have problems getting software. with our windows machines we get alot of "bandoloo" and cracked software. PC parts are affordable and common (dat mean yu can teef parts out a machine at di office) you cant really do that with macs.
gaming is another problem on the mac platform.
But if you have the cash to spare, buy a mac and use windows emulating software!
[/quote]

Might I point out that the practices you oultined above are not promoted on this forum? :-X

The use of OPEN SOURCE Software is surely promoted but not "bandoloo"

To your other point yes, there's not that wide availability of software for the MAC in Jamaica, and surely replacement hardware is even worse.