Re: CMYK or RGB? Macintosh or Windows? How's a poor guy to upgrade?

[larry.kollar@xxxxxxxxxx]

[followups trimmed to groups I'm subscribed to]

Others have laid out the relative merits of both
platforms for publishing & graphics support, so I'll
address the cost issue.

If you compare a major brand Windows machine, decked
out with the same hardware that comes standard with
most Macs, you'll find that the price difference isn't
all that great. The people who save big on PC hard-
ware are the ones who can build their own systems
from components ("white box"), and the daughter's
partner isn't likely to know how to do that. (I'm
speaking from a US-centric point of view here, of
course -- I've heard that computers & parts of all
kinds are more expensive elsewhere.)

Next, compare the relative lifetime of a typical Mac
versus a typical PC: typically, people replace the
Windows box every 2-3 years (upgrading the CPU along
with the OS). Personally, I'd be disappointed to not
get 5 years out of a Mac. My current home desktop, a
beige G3, hit its fourth birthday last month; it
replaced a IIsi that I used for *SEVEN* years and is
still in use keeping the books for my in-laws' farm.
So if you think long-term, the Mac may well be a
better choice since you won't be replacing it so often.

Since the current crop of Macs use the same types of
peripherals as PCs (ATA hard drives, USB gadgets,
standard RAM), upgrading a Mac has no price penalty.
Desktops are ridiculously easy to upgrade; pull a
latch on the side of the box & the side opens up with
the motherboard right in front of you, ready to add
more RAM or a second hard drive. Indeed, you might
save money on upgrades compared to a PC since the
Mac is easier to work on (allowing you to do it
yourself instead of paying someone else). Replacing
a hard drive in a (CRT-style) iMac is a bit more
difficult, but adding RAM is as easy as in a desktop.

Then there are software upgrades. IT people here
were amazed to learn that OSX upgrades are about
$70 (US) less than Windows upgrades, and there are
no product activation hassles. (For people like me,
you can pay a bit extra and get a license to install
up to 5 copies on your home network. It's cheaper
to upgrade two computers with the "family license,"
and I have three.)

Finally, there's the issue of what will work better
for someone unfamiliar with computers. While Windows
has made great strides here, I think MacOS still has
an edge (even if OSX is a temporary step backward, but
my kids took to it without a single complaint). If you
look at the management facilities, you'll see that
Windows is designed to work well in large offices,
with a professional IT staff to maintain everything.
Macs, in contrast, are popular in SOHO environments
for a good reason: they're designed for it. Don't
forget to consider virus & worm hassles as well; the
Mac currently doesn't see much action there. (That
could change, and likely will if Macs start getting
some serious market share, but for now it's not
something that Mac users need to worry about much.)

So I would recommend spending the (initial) extra
money on a new Mac. You may not notice the payback,
but it's there.

--
Larry Kollar, Senior Technical Writer, ARRIS
"Content creators are the engine that drives
value in the information life cycle."
    -- Barry Schaeffer, on XML-Doc



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