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by Adam C. Engst ace@tidbits.com
We at TidBITS generally try to avoid becoming entangled in the morass
of computer religious wars, in particular the long-running battle between
the Mac and Windows. We're more or less functional in Windows, but we
prefer using Macs, mostly because we find using the Mac to be both more
enjoyable and more productive.
Due to our obvious and long-standing
preference for the Macintosh, and despite our trying to stay above the
fray, people often ask us to help them argue for why their school, business,
or family member should buy Macs instead of PCs.
It's a tricky problem, because we like to help those in need, and we
generally agree with the sentiment that the Mac is almost always just
as good of a choice, if not a better one, than a comparable PC. But
at the same time, we hate being dragged into the whole sordid discussion:
we're not zealots, and we simply don't have the energy to participate
in numerous individual efforts to establish Mac enclaves in a world
dominated by Windows.
Our advice in this respect has long paralleled that of our late friend
and colleague, Cary Lu, who always recommended that you buy the type
of computer used by your closest technical friend, the sort of person
you could call for help late on a Saturday night. Cary also noted that
people concerned about what type of computers students would use after
graduation shouldn't worry about what happens in elementary school,
because the rapid pace of computer evolution ensures radical differences
by the time an elementary school student leaves college. Back in 1995,
we published an article by Cary about the state of the Mac versus PC
holy war; its details are amusingly out-of-date in places, but it's
still a trenchant read.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=01431
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04169
Well-reasoned though Cary's arguments were, many people attempting to
convince others of the advantages of the Macintosh find that they need
more ammunition. Numerous news stories and studies have supported the
pro-Macintosh position over the years, but it has been almost impossible
to track them or find the relevant bits when needed.
Now, however, there's a single site you can visit for a massive conglomeration
of surveys, articles, and factoids relevant to the question of choosing
Macs over PCs. The site was created by John Droz as part of a campaign
he and a group of taxpayers in Carteret County, North Carolina, undertook
to prevent the local Board of Education from switching county schools
from Macs to PCs.
http://macvspc.info/
John fully admits he's not a Web designer, so the individual pages,
each filled with numerous links, can be somewhat daunting. (He welcomes
design assistance, if you would like to help.) Nonetheless, if you're
in the middle of making the case for the Macintosh somewhere in your
life, the more-than 400 referenced reports, studies, and news articles
that John has collected will be helpful. In some cases, the best approach
may be to download the 1 MB PDF version of the entire site, since it's
easier to scan or search for the specific pieces of information that
may help your case. It has numerous internal links and bookmarks, along
with external links to the Web where necessary. In the right circumstance,
it might also be useful to print out the entire 112 pages so you have
a stack of paper bolstering your argument.
http://forgetcomputers.com/~jdroz/websitePDFs/MACvsPCCombined.pdf
The amount of work that John has put into collecting and compiling these
resources is impressive, and it's worth noting that many of the articles
and reports are from 2002, so the information isn't terribly out of
date, like so much else on the Internet. If you find yourself needing
references to support your argument in favor of using a Mac, you'll
find John's efforts extremely welcome.
Reprinted
with permission from TidBITS. TidBITS has offered more than ten years
of thoughtful commentary on Macintosh and Internet topics. For free
email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit
www.tidbits.com.
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