Why this site....?

Why this site....?

There are many Mac advocacy sites around. Here are two of the best...

Should Our Schools
(or Anybody Else) Have Macs or PCs? by John Droz.
If there is a Mac-PC issue it will be covered here. Regularly updated.

MacKido
by David K. Every - the classic Mac advocacy site;
no longer updated;
David is now with The Working Mac and http://www.igeek.com/

Shouldn't I get the same type of computer (and software) as my friends or people I am likely to share files with?

Not at all!

It is fairly easy to share files with people using different OSs and applications. Word, for example, seems to be used by many people. Word shares the same format across platforms, but matching versions can be a problem even if people sharing a Word file both use Windows (or Macs for that matter). There are also programs available which allow people who don't have Word to open and manipulate such documents. Saving text files as RTF - Rich Text Format, which retains most formatting - is a quick and easy way to share word processing documents whether by email or by disk!

Software is the key not hardware!

You can do the same with most file types used by ordinary computer users; some are easier than others to share and some may need special translators. The only Windows "file" that a Mac can't open is an "*.exe" which is actually a Windows application / program (executable).

The latest versions of AppleWorks (6.2), OpenOffice and StarOffice will open Word and Excel documents (and can save in Word / Excel readable format too!)

See also Working across platforms

Compatibility "problems" is a reason often given by salespeople (and technicians) to encourage people to buy Windows PCs. This author has worked across platforms for years and knows that it is - largely - a non-issue. Beware advice from people who may have a vested interest!!

This author regularly shares files between Windows, Mac and Linux.

What this site 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.

Remember the80/20 "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?
Have you considered the alternatives?

Most of these programs are compatibile with Word, Excel and PowerPoint and they are much, much cheaper!

Have you tried Firefox, Camino, iCab, Mozilla, Opera and Safari web browsers?
Have you tried Eudora or Firebird(email)?

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
"... the worst piece of software currently inflicted on the user community is Access, Microsoft's poorly named (because it's well nigh inaccessible) database program. I can only believe that Access is the work of the devil, it is so poorly structured and hard to use. ... Access is a nightmare. ... Microsoft's software is well known in the industry for being poorly written and inelegantly designed, and Access takes the cake."
(IT section p.1, 6 March 2001 archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20010322042644/http://it.hiscareer.com.au/columns/philipson/20010306/A27049-2001Mar6.html)
also available at [.doc] http://www.philipson.info/files/f010306bloatware.doc