Wall Street Journal: Mac vs. PC 142
cpk0 writes "Walt Mossberg is taking a few days to discuss the differences between Mac and PCs, and which is suitable for whom. He begins by saying the tides have definitely turned in regards to Apple's state as a computer which he will recommend. This is the first in a miniature series of articles by Mossberg touching base on the Apple vs. PC situation (but don't worry, it's not at all about bashing one side)."
Macs as a.... Fileserver? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have serveral clients with too much money on their hands that have wanted a fileserver for home - Usually I take an older ATX box of theirs, put it in a decent case with a good and quite powersupply (Antec/PC Power And Cooling) and replace the processor fan. Plop in FreeBSD, Samba and hide it in the closet.
Last week, we used an IMac for filserving and as a novelty - the machine sits in the den, where the kids can play DVDs and listen to MP3, and the Samba filserver keeps on ticking. It's the first time that I've felt confortable having little kids play games with on a computer that, at the same time, is serving files. So far, there have been no lockups or crashes.
There are several benefits that I like with this situation - the customer gets a fun toy to play with, the "fileserver" is quiet and can nativly RSync it's precious files back to my servers for an offsite backup, and best of all - I get a reliable computer thats good for my reputation.
Really, the fullfilment of dream for an easy to use Unix has snuck up on us in the form of a Luxo Jr. lamp.
Hardware compliant, software future (Score:5, Interesting)
I just love plugging in a piece of hardware and having it work the first time. Bring home some new hardware, connect it all up, pop in software, and everything works the first time. I have equal horror stories from the PC support that I did for many years of having to wrestle with hardware and drivers that just didn't work or weren't compatible with other pieces of hardware. Oh, The Pain, The Pain!!
Apple has embraced unix which, last time I checked, leaves M$ Windows as the only non-unix home computer OS. To me, that makes me even more skittish of learning anything Windows related. I can't help but think that it would be a skill that won't transfer nicely to other computer platforms. In fact, I'm even starting for forget some PC-specific skills.
The old M$/Mac war has never been an issue for me. I won't argue with people for more than 5 minutes. I just grin and say "I'm an IT person. I have several computers at home and at work. I prefer Mac over Windows." They're usual the ones who press the issue. At which point I just smile and ask them why they're being so defensive?
The author missed an opportunity... (Score:4, Interesting)
While the WSJ author made a point of criticizing Mac interaction with corporate VPNs, he failed to mention that Macs are quite often easier to integrate into Windows networks than PCs running Windows are.
If for network interface card configuration issues alone, the Mac shines in this area, and it deserves praise for this.