Oct 26, 2001 11:09 AM
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The argument has raged for years. You know the one. In one camp, you've got folks claiming that IBM is better. In the other, you have people making a case for Macintosh. While the computer industry has changed substantially since IBM came out with the Personal Computer and Apple unleased the Mac on us, what hasn't changed is that people are loyal to one machine or another.
Of course, IBM is now a small-time player in the personal computer market, but it's original IBM-PC and subsequent IBM-XT just beat up on poor Apple when released in 1982. Until that time, Apple was flying high with its Apple 2 line, while companies like Tandy/Radio Shack, Atari, Commodore and Texas Instruments were trying to dominate the market.
IBM simply came in and crushed every company that challenged it. While the CP/M operating system was the standard at the time, it was quickly replaced with IBM's PC-DOS as the standard. PC-DOS, of course, was provided to IBM by Microsoft under a licensing agreement and came to be known simply as MS-DOS after a year or two.
Apple was in trouble, so it introduced a radical machine in an attempt to gain some ground on IBM. That machine, of course, was the Macintosh, and it was driven by a graphical user interface rather than forcing users to type in instructions from a DOS command line. Want to activate a program? Slide your mouse over to an icon, double-click on it, and off you go.
While the Mac interface seemed revolutionary at the time, it's very familiar to us now. It was truly a revolution in the computer industry, and now Mac and Microsoft are the major providers of ''user friendly'' operating systems. So, any dispute over the two systems really comes down to whether Mac or Microsoft makes the operating system that's most stable, easiest to use and has plenty of software support.
In terms of stability and ease of use, Mac wins the day and the Apple operating system makes the iMac a breeze to use. Apple has always tried to make computers easy to set up and use, and the iMac is a piece of hardware that reflects that goal very clearly.
Setting up an iMac is simplicity in itself. Just plug the thing in to a wall, attach the keyboard through a USB port, attach the mouse to the USB port on the iMac keyboard, and you're up and running. Internet access is a priority on these machines, and getting connected is simple through the system's built-in modem and ethernet port for fast connections.
And, of course, the iMac is much more stable than a similar machine running Windows. While Windows has a problem juggling several open applications, the iMac doesn't have nearly as much trouble. Sure, you're begging for trouble if you open around five applications, but that just makes sense. I've never had the iMac freeze up as often as the Windows system I have at home. The operating system on the iMac is just better, and there's not much getting around that.
The iMac, too, is s stylish little thing. The one I have at work is a ruby red iMac that is far more attractive than the blasted ''grey box'' Pentium system I have at home.
Now, there are some downsides to the iMac. First of all, they're darn expensive when compared to Pentiums. While you can pick up a perfectly good iMac for around $700-$800, you'll almost cry when you see the hardware specs on what a similar Pentium system will cost.
Also, there are some things about the iMac that are either design flaws of innovations that will make sense one day. The iMac has a wonderfully crisp screen built in to the unit, but what if you want something more than that 15'' monitor? Well, you're kind of stuck with the one that's installed in the system, huh? And, I hate not having a floppy drive on the system. Sure, you can buy an external one, but I'd think things like that would come as standard equipment.
The biggest drawback to the iMac is software. While there's some great software available for the Mac, there's not nearly as much as there is for systems running Windows. That can be a real drag in a business environment. I'm a news reporter and, as such, wind up getting a lot of documents e-mailed to me. Many of those are in the Microsoft Word format, which is a standard throughout the industry.
That format, however, isn't standard in the Mac world, so I often get a document I can't open with my Appleworks office suite and read. Sure, I can run it through a translation program or pick up a copy of Word for Mac, but that costs more money and little expenses like that can add up over time. Such is the price of not getting equipment that's standard in the business world, I suppose.
In spite of the drawbacks of the iMac, I'd say it's a great system. The 400-MHz CPU in it is very efficient and runs faster than Pentiums with a lot more zip to them, and 128 megs of RAM and a 10-gig hard drive handles everything just fine. Plus, it's a darn pretty machine, and you can choose it in all sorts of colors (my 10-month-old daughter was amazed at a purple one on display in a department store).
When it's all said and done, picking up an iMac means a little bit of extra work for you in terms of compatibility with the rest of the world and hunting for software. However, the benefits of the machine will likely make the extra effort pay off in the end.
