(OT) laptop incident

[Jason McBrien]

>From: chris <cb at mythtech.net>
>Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic 
>Posts"<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts " 
><cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>Subject: Re: laptop incident
>Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 10:46:30 -0400
<SNIP>
>Then a year later, when they ask me what the best way is to deal with all
>the popups, spyware, viri and other junk... I tell them to buy a Mac! :-)

This is the thought process of my IT friends (Disclaimer: I used to do IT as 
well, now I'm just a lowly programmer :)

I don't want to start a Mac/PC flamewar, I just want to relay my own and my 
friend's experiences to those who may have no exposure to a Mac.

I've personally set up and maintained three seperate computer networks for 
three different campus departments, back when I was doing IT for the 
university. One was a Mac department, the other two were PC and Mac/PC 
mixed. The Mac-only department I had to revisit maybe twice to install new 
printer hardware and upgrade some machines. I was at the PC and Mac/PC 
departments a few times a month for viruses, crashed hardware, CD-ROM's 
failing, hard disks dying, etc... The Mac/PC department only ever had these 
problems with their PC's, their Mac-based server ran and ran and ran. (I 
also ran a Netware 4 based Compaq server that also ran and ran and ran. I 
also ran a Windows NT based Dell that ran maybe nine days out of ten :)

This could mean that the Mac-only group didn't use their machines as much, 
which is unlikely as it was as close to a "Paperless office" as you could 
get.

It could mean that they Mac-only office was more computer savvy and fixed 
their own problems, which is unlikey as it was a humanities department whose 
staff was just introduced to computers a couple years before (They picked up 
on the Mac's pretty quick and used them a LOT).

It could mean the PC-only office didn't know what they were doing and broke 
hardware, which is unlikely as they were a sociology department who spent 
most of their time on SPSS crunching numbers, and had been for years.

My friend's experiences mimic my own. Mac users show up at their door less 
often than PC users, even adjusted for installed platforms. Most Mac users 
coming in for help have machines that are 10 years old and they can't get to 
a website 'cause they are using a dirt old version of Netscape or IE.

Most office/university users use Office, E-Mail and the Web, all of which 
are available on the Mac platform. If you need more esoteric stuff you can 
install fink and grab just about any package that can run on Linux.

Disclaimer:
I run a Gentoo linux server, a Linux based development server, a Windows XP 
machine for games, and a MacOS X machine for general use. I also have a 
laundry list of OSes running in the basement :)

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