OT - Care to share your opinion?

[Eric Dunbar]

On 5/4/05, Cian Duffy <myob87 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hold on now, this "Apples stay functional longer" thing just is not true

Now, *this* is flame bait :-).

> My 1997 Powermac is useless. Totally and utterly useless. Can't be
> upgraded beyond 1 PCI card (has a 10Mbit NIC in it), and the only OS
> it runs well is BeOS

Of course, your 1997 PowerMac is a consumer computer that was at the
*very* end of its life...

> My 1997 Thinkpad is running XP. Its had a lot of RAM added, but it
> runs it well. It can do stuff the Powermac can only dream of, like
> playing videos, running a modern OS (BeOS on PPC is a good 6 years out
> of sync with x86)...

That's quite interesting... my future brother-in-law has a 1997
Thinkpad that is next to worthless. It can barely run Windows 95 and
IE without having a hissy-fit! More than 256 colours? Forget about it.
What were you saying about 1997 Thinkpad?

> The Powermac was more expensive

It was also probably the better computer. Are you sure you're
comparing apples and oranges there ;-).

> Apple gear does not have a longer functional life.

I must completely and utterly disagree with that. My father recently
(last year) retired my very first Mac from service, a 1986 Mac SE
upgraded to 16 MHz 68020 Prodigy accelerator (1987 vintage) running a
20" monster of a monitor. It did duty as my mom's spread sheet & fax
computer.

The other fact that counters your argument is that used Macs retain
their value MUCH longer than i86 counterparts. You couldn't peddle a
1999 vintage i86 for 400 CAD (~300-350 USD) yet you can very easily
sell off a 1999 G3 for that, and then some.

Another reason Macs have a longer functional life is that for the VAST
majority of people, it's easier to upgrade a (professional) Mac than
an i86. A 1999 B&W G3 has a defined upgrade path. Plunk in a decent
speed G4 and you have a *much* faster computer. Your i86 will require
you to do a hell of a lot more research to even determine if your mobo
will accept a faster CPU, and, even if it can, you'll need to figure
out what type and what brand.

The other thing to remember is you need to compare your apples to
oranges. Consumer Macs are no better or worse than their i86
counterparts, but, even they have long lifespans (provided the
hardware doesn't outright fail). Pro Macs are definitely the cream of
the crop as far as computers go -- you can expect your pro machine to
keep chugging away, LONG after your i86 IBM has given up the ghost.

I know enough people who still use their IIfxs, Quadra 950s and 8500s
for every-day tasks using plain-Jane Mac OS-based software (and, there
are lots of people here who do but they don't count since no one here
is your "average" computer user... you can find enough "hobbyists"
(ahem, geeks) on i86 hardware who are also keeping their 486s and 586s
alive through Linux/BSD).

Eric.