Extending your computer...

Why most people should buy a Macintosh rather than a Windows PC

Written and compiled April 2000

Updated February 2002

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Extending your computer

The Mac computer has true "Plug-and-Play" capabilities: the ability to add something to your computer and have it work straight away.
PC's have Plug and Play but it often does not work properly. (Remember the system crash at the launch of Windows 98 when a technician tried to plug in a scanner? (scroll to bottom of the page). Windows users are often heard to use the term: "plug and pray"! Recently the Windows' device manager has been improved and now will indicate when a device is present.

The Mac's built-in and easily accessible SCSI/USB/Firewire ports makes it easy to add peripherals (such as scanners, external hard disk drives, and recordable CD-ROM drives). SCSI was a standard feature on Mac computers for many years. The average PC did not come with a SCSI port, so the PC user had to add devices by installing complex SCSI cards. Many Wintel peripherals still use a parallel interface which is much slower than SCSI. Windows also has a plethora of drivers (software which operates different parts of the computer) 16-bit, 32-bit,Windows 95 and NT specific drivers making driver management difficult. There are Windows 95 drivers that will not work with Windows NT, and vice versa.

USB is becoming the standard way to add peripherals. The USB bus in Windows 98/2000 allows Wintel users the ease of adding peripherals that Mac users took for granted for many years and still enjoy with USB (although it is much slower than SCSI it is easier to use). However Apple has made the USB ports very accessible by putting them on the keyboard/monitor (or at the side of the iMac) while on PCs they are almost inaccessible (on the back of the CPU) for plug and play . Some PC manufacturers are now copying the Mac by putting these ports on the front and side of the CPU!

Macintosh computers offer easier, more versatile, built-in networking. AppleTalk allows you to connect a network of multiple Macintosh computers and printers together in just a few minutes. All new Macintosh computers include Ethernet, as well as TCP/IP¹¹ , allowing them to connect to any other computer using the same protocol and a modem. Networking in Windows, however, can be difficult and confusing. For example, in Windows you might see the "Network Neighbourhood" icon even if you aren't connected to a network or if you don't have a network card installed. And, though Windows 98/NT includes networking capability and USB connectivity, it cannot be setup for networking as quickly as the Mac.

Netboot is an excellent tool for network administrators. It allows one person to boot up all computers connected to a network and perform maintenance on them. It's built-in to the current Mac OS X Server. NetBoot works with anything from the original bondi iMac(1998), and you can even run diskless workstations using NetBoot. Another good tool is the Disk Image: by creating a disk image a user can fix standard problem situations with AppleÕs free DiskCopy program. You create an image of the hard drive (including software), and then burn it into a single "Repair CD". Using this CD, any Mac on a network can be reformatted remotely and have everything properly reinstalled within15 minutes. Windows doesn't have the concept of a disk image and takes much, much longer to reinstall!

Apple has developed FireWire, for moving data at high speeds (400mb/sec) to and from peripherals such as digital video cameras. It has been standard on most Macs made since mid 1999. FireWire is still NOT standard on PCs. (see also above under USB provision for PCs)

Apple to Get Emmy Award for Firewire (NY Times August 22, 2001 - registration required, free)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/22/technology/22APPL.html?todaysheadlines