Why most people should buy a Macintosh rather than a Windows
PC
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Installation and troubleshooting Laptops and Working across platforms |
Why this site....?
There are many Mac advocacy sites around. Here are two of the best...
What this one aims to do is to explain the advantages of the Mac OS over Windows for the ordinary user. Some experience of computers is assumed - this site is not for beginners. It is meant to counter the widespread ignorance and prejudice about computers! Here are a few examples...
Yes the Mac/PC debate has gone on for years and will never go away, thanks to those of us who are conversant with both platforms. I have used Macs for over 10 years and owned them since 1993. I am now up to owning my fifth Mac and four of them are still in good working order. I have also used PCs for many years - in 1997 I nearly bought one! I spent the period April 1999 to May 2000 working almost exclusively on PCs and had continual problems with the brand new PC I was given. I spent hours and hours trying to fix these problems but with little success. Moreover, the techies/help desk staff where I worked also had trouble fixing this new PC - an IBM brand name with the latest Celeron processor. I have used Macs since about 1990 and PCs since 1995. In 1999-2000 I used, at work, a WinNT 4 (service pack 4) machine. Between April 1999 and February 2000 I recorded over 140 software and hardware crashes/hangs/freezes; had the computer looked at by three separate technicians and eventually had the box was reimaged. I lost approximately three working days when the PC was out of action, including the time it took to be reimaged. In addition to that the PC's speakers and mouse had to be replaced. During the same period my two Macs at home(6 and 3 years old) - in an unsupported environment - needed no outside maintenance beyond periodic low level attention: routine defragmentation. Without any training and at the first attempt, I completely erased the hard disk of a Mac, reinstalled all software and data taking only 45 minutes. In a fully supported PC environment I had to wait 24 hours for trained technicians to do the same on my PC. This is neither a reflection on me or on the technicians, merely on the relative complexity and simplicity of the computers in question. It shouldn't take this long to fix a PC. This experience turned me into a strong advocate for the Mac, when I realised that much of what the experts had been telling me was just plain wrong. That's when my research led me to the compelling conclusion that Macs
Yes these stories are anecdotal evidence and the plural of "anecdote" is not "data" but this site contains plenty of data: hundreds of references, which have been included (where possible) and I would be happy to hear of any omissions or errors. Some references are dated and more recent studies are available only by purchase. This can involve thousands of dollars which I cannot afford. Please notify any errors of fact (or even if you just disagree). If you think I'm wrong I offer this challenge: PROVE IT!
Remember the 80/20 "law": eighty per cent of users only use twenty per cent of the functions of a piece of software. Microsoft Corporation is renowned for producing bloated, over-featured and over-priced software (ie. they produce software which takes up a lot of space on your hard disk, requires a lot of memory to run, contains a whole range of features which the ordinary user will never need and charges $500US for it). Do you really need to use Word
and Office?
Did you know that a free version of WordPerfect is available? Most of these programs are compatibile with Word, Excel and PowerPoint and they are much, much cheaper! Some of them are FREE!! Mac
OS Better than XP, Linux for Home Use (Computerworld 2001)
Have you tried firefox, Camino, Firebird, iCab
Mozilla, Opera and Safari web browsers? Have you tried Access (Microsoft database software)? An incredibly steep learning curve required. More difficult than Photoshop or Dreamweaver and so much more difficult than Filemaker Pro. Yet people use it and throw good money after bad with CBT (computer based training). Graeme Philipson, independent IT commentator for the Sydney Morning
Herald had this to say FileMaker Now Used by More Than 120 of U.S.'s Top Doctoral, and 49 of the Top 50 Undergraduate Colleges September 2003
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Why this site....? | Design | Cost | Ease of use | Installation and troubleshooting | Extending your computer | Reliability and Security | Laptops and Working across platforms | What schools should do | Where Windows is better than the Mac | Price watch | References
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