ALL: This is what I posted in response to a question about why someone who needs a new laptop should get a Mac. She uses a PC. If anyone has any corrections or additions to what I said, please let me know and I'll post an addendum:
What's better, or worse, on the Mac than PC:
Advantages:
1. Speed. The G3 292mHz is faster than any PC you can buy. Faster saves time in all operations, such as startup, launching apps, being able to type faster, move from page to page faster on the net, move from window to window faster. So you can read faster on line. The processor speed actually makes the online connection faster, no matter how fast your modem might be. So anyone get everything done faster and with more ease.
The same processor "number" is faster on the Mac, so a 300MHz on the PC is slower than a 300MHz processor on the Mac, due to the use of a different technology.
2. Productivity. Professional studies have shown repeatedly that people are more productive on the Mac. I personally think it's because it's more fun to use, so you can sit there longer, and it has less glitches, so you're less involved with the process of making it do things and more involved with the creation and doing. Whyever it's so, the studies on this have been statistically significant in the difference in productivity.
3. Ease of Use or Learning Curve. The original Mac Operating System set certain standards which have never changed on the Mac. These include the concept of "intuitively obvious" which means you can figure out how to do most anything on a Mac by doing what's obvious; you don't have to read a manual.
All software on the Mac has been based on the principles of the first two programs: MacWrite and MacPaint. Learning those programs, and the later addition of MacDraw, prepared one to use any new program on a Mac. And vice versa. Learn one program and you know all programs on the Mac. There's almost no learning curve and almost no manuals to read because there is a consistency of design of the menus, keyboard commands, how to do what you want to do and a simplicity, but still the power is there.
You will already know how to use the Mac from having used Windows, since Windows was a rather awkward, less lovely, copy of the earlier Mac Operating Systems. But the Mac design is far more thoughtful of the user, so the Mac prevents certain mistakes.
For example, I tried to install Windows 95 on my PC a few years ago and it let me do a lot before it said "no room" and then it didn't tell me how much room I needed. I had to throw out stuff and test each time and finally the installer allowed me to continue past the "no room" part, and THEN told me I had the wrong version of Windows 95 to upgrade from whatever version I was using. The Mac installers, when first launched would have given a dialog saying that it can't be used on that computer and if that hadn't been a problem and there was not enough room, the first dialog would have told you how much more room you need. I wasted a few hours on trying to install a version that a Mac would have told me in ONE SECOND I can't install. That's just one example of many of a user-friendly, thoughtful, caring, feeling one gets from using a Mac, which one never gets on a PC.
One doesn't have to memorize commands: they're indicated on the menus. In that the Mac was always visually oriented, you can basically look and see what you need to do.
4. Plug and Play. One can buy a Mac, attach the cables, and use everything right out of the box. New periperals are simple plugged into the SCSI chain. ID's are changed in a dial on the back in most peripherals, so they just have to each be set to different numbers on that dial (1-6), a terminator attached to the end of the SCSI chain, and they all work. No struggling with IRQs. No tears.
5. Fun. There's something about using a Mac that makes you happier. It's fun to use. It makes you feel good. It probably has to do with the user-friendliness and ease of use. Kids love it more and can use it from shockingly early ages.
6. Love. People have always made fun of the fact that Mac users love their computers and the company that made them, and you might want to think you don't want to love your computer. You have a family and cats and friends to love. There is a romance and an affection that develops between the Mac and its users. It touches the heart (if one has a heart, of course). The passion that Mac users feel about their computer, in my opinion, is unsurpassed by responses to any other technology.
7. Creativity. More creative people use the Mac because it frees one from the drudgery of focussing on how to get something done. The Macintosh computer becomes an extension of one's mind, gives one a longer reach with ones arms, and more dextrous fingers on one's hands. There is a merger between the mind and machine like with no other, so rather than get in the way of expression, the Macintosh enhances expression.
Drawbacks:
1. Convert Hardware Peripherals. While most of your PC peripherals will work, you may have to obtain Mac drivers for them and you will have to obtain Mac cables for them.
This isn't as hard as it sounds, since installing a Mac driver is usually done by a double mouse click. (Double-click opens or launches on a Mac.) Mac SCSI cables are standard, and you just plug them into the only place they fit and that's that.
Things like modems will work on both platforms with a cable and a "driver" and anyway, yours would be built into the laptop.
2. Replace Hardware Peripherals. If there are any PC peripherals that don't have SCSI, SCSI II, Ethernet or Appletalk they MIGHT have to be replaced to be used with the new laptop. This isn't likely to be very expensive these days.
3. Replace Software. Software will have to be purchased or downloaded. Much of the software you're using on the PC is free, since it's Internet software. That's free on the Mac, too. The software that's commercial, not free, and doesn't come with the new Mac, has to be bought in the Mac version for the new Mac. If you don't use much more than a Word Processor and Spreadsheet, so Microsoft Office would do for the only new software package you need. This package is a prize winning easy to use one, not available on the PC at all. You might also want Quicken if you use it on the PC. So you'll have some software expense to get you started if you do other things than online things.
4. Expense. The Macintosh laptop will cost more than the closest equivalent PC laptop (nothing is fully equivalent).
If I forget anything I'll post an addition.
Linda |
