Why Macintosh Computers are the Best
By Adam Knee
| As the world enters the 21st
century, society relies on technology more and more. Computers are
becoming the most rapidly developing technology today. A computer
is a tool that people use everyday. If they are not using them, they
are at least being exposed to them. Computers are being put in control
of everyday activities. People are coming in constant contact with computers
without even knowing about it. All cars come with microcomputers
in them that control more things in the car than can be imagined.
There are computers that control the rate at which the cars slow down,
computers that sense when to deploy the air bags, and even computers that
know when to put the lights on. New technology is no longer coming
out every year; it is coming out every day. As the amount of technology
increases, so do the number of choices people have to make about those
technologies.
The more technology that comes out, the cheaper it is to buy. As the price of computers gets lower, more people are able to buy them for their home. The more people that have a computer, the more practical computers become for everyday activities that they were not previously required for. The first thing that people do in the morning is no longer making a cup of coffee, it?s checking their email. The question to ask colleges is not how big are the dorm rooms, but do they have Internet access. The companies that make computers are constantly coming out with new technology faster and faster. As soon as a new computer is bought, a better one comes out. Computer companies are sprouting up left and right and people are under a constant barrage of television advertisements and store clerks telling them what they need to buy. With all of this technology on the market, it would make sense that people would look into and try to understand what they are spending a couple thousand dollars on. But instead, as people become exposed to computers more frequently, they no longer get the chance to stop and look at what they are using. When a standard takes over, that is what people seem to follow. There are many different brands of computers and operating systems on the market today, and that makes it very difficult for the consumer to chose the right product. The competition between the major computer companies is very close, but there is one company that is making the best computer on the market. Apple Computer has been at the top of the market ever since the personal computer boom started, and they have managed to develop the best computer system on the market. But it is other companies like International Business Machines and other PC clones running Microsoft Windows that have taken over the computer market. But that does not mean that they are the better computer. Companies like IBM and Microsoft rely on the consumers to recognize a brand name and buy that product. But Apple users are educated enough to look at all of the possible choices on the market and then pick the best one. Because Apple computers are easier to use, have the most advanced components, and a more stable operating system, they are the superior personal computing platform. The computer industry took off in 1982 when the personal computer started to be sold. A computer that was small and affordable enough to be owned by an ordinary person had never been seen on the market. Before 1982, computers were too large and expensive for the average person to own. The first computer that was sold cost a million dollars and filled an entire room. The invention of the microprocessor is what really opened the doors for the personal computer. The microprocessor is what allowed computers to become smaller and more affordable. Before the microprocessor was invented, computers relied on a system of transistors and vacuum tubes (Sanford). In 1973, Xerox developed the first personal computer that had a Graphical User Interface (GUI). It was called the Alto. The Alto used bit-mapped graphics, a mouse, menus, icons and other features that are the basic technologies behind the PC?s of today (Gould). Unfortunately, Xerox was facing competition problems with its copier business and decided against marketing the Alto. Xerox had been sitting on this technology for quite some time before Steve Jobs came along and brought the technology behind the Alto to his company, Apple. Eventually, the technology that Jobs got from Xerox enabled him to build the easiest to use computer of its time. He called it the Macintosh. It was pleasing to the eye, easy to use, and it did not rely on the base command functions that MS-DOS did (Sanford). Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in 1971 when they released the Apple I. But it was not until 1983 that Steve Jobs use the technology he got from Xerox to create a computer he called Lisa. As more and more computers began to show up on the market with lower prices and more compatibility, Jobs realized that needed to have more software developed for his computer to be able to compete with the other companies. Jobs already had a superior computer; he just needed more programs that would run on it. It was then that he got in touch with Bill Gates, the head of Apple?s rival company Microsoft. Steve Job?s invited Gates to work for Apple to develop software for the Macintosh. Being able to design new software for the Macintosh gave Gates access to its operating system, which was more advanced and user-friendly than his own MS-DOS operating system. Steve Jobs released the GUI in his computers in 1984 along side the release of his most powerful computer, the Macintosh. The GUI he released became the standard OS on all of the Macintoshes. It had a desktop and everything worked like sheets of paper and pop up windows instead of the lines of code that DOS ran on. It was the first personal computer to come with a keyboard, mouse, and a floppy drive that took 3.5-inch disks. Bill Gates saw the power and potential that the Mac had and he commented that, ?The next generation of interesting software will be done on the Macintosh not the IBM PC? (CZORE). He felt that the Macintosh operating system was so much more advanced than anything that was on the market at that time and that it was worthy of his company?s software (Gould 36). Gates wanted to be sure that he had software that would run on this new platform. Before other companies began to develop software for the Mac platform, Apple used to ship all of its computers with its own software that was for word processing, spreadsheet, and drawing. All of that software came preinstalled on the computer at no extra cost to the consumer. Now Gates was working with Jobs to create Microsoft software that was compatible with the Macintosh platform. But that proved to be a mistake on Steve Jobs part. Two years after the first GUI on the Mac was released, Gates began to sell Windows 3.1, the first GUI for PCs. While working at Apple, Gates was able to get a closer look at how the Mac GUI worked and then he copied it for the use on the PC computer platform. Although Gates made Windows look like the Mac GUI, it was still just a layer on top of his original DOS code. Instead of building a new operating system that was independent from the old lines of DOS code like Apple did, Gates just used DOS to power Widows in the background. This made Windows much slower and more prone to crashes and conflicts, but never the less, Windows 3.1 soon took over the market. ?In 1986, Microsoft introduced Windows, built to run on the IBM PC and clones. It quickly became the industry standard. Apple still produced superior computers, but they were not compatible with the other PCs and could not run Windows? (Gould 37). PC users had to purchase a copy of the operating system for their computers or buy it installed at an extra cost, but for Apple users, the OS came preinstalled on all Macintoshes. This was and still is a big plus for the average consumers because they are getting a superior operating system standard on all of the Apple computers for a lot less money than Windows is sold for. The two major companies at the time were IBM and Apple. The Apple computer was overwhelmed with popularity from the beginning because it was a very user-friendly computer and it was the IBM computer that was less popular. ?In 1984, Apple introduced its most famous product, the Macintosh. With its bright, graphic screen display, complete with windows, icons, menus, and mouse pointer, it completely changed the way people could work with computers? (Gould 7). As the computer industry grew, Apple computers fell out of favor. People began to believe that the Apple computers were less powerful than their PC counter parts made by IBM. This was not true, but because more than one company could make IBM compatible computers, they spread faster than Macs. ?IBM chose to license the operating system from Microsoft. Apple?s decision not to license its superior operating system also played into the Microsoft?s hands? (Gould 36). Apple decided not to license its operating system to other companies and that made it less accessible to the public. The competition between the companies that made PCs lowered the computers cost. And as always, people buy things that are cheaper without looking at the consequences (Linzmayer). Apple is a company that has been on top of the newest technologies since the very beginning. ?Before Apple came along, a GUI was nowhere to be seen outside the laboratories of a small group of California computer scientists. Apple brought GUIs into the commercial world and introduced affordable, creative computing to its customers? (Gould 9). Apple was one of the first companies in 1981 to release a mass storage hard disk and in 1982 they released their first dot matrix printer (Sanford). Apple has always been ahead of the competition when it comes to having new innovative ideas and products. Apple computers had multiple monitor capability in 1987, but Windows did not get that capability until 1998. Apple had the Apple menu in 1994, Windows put in a start menu in 1995. Apple used a trashcan in 1991, Windows put in a recycling bin in 1995. Macintosh computers have been able to make aliases since 1991, but Windows did not get shortcuts until 1995 (Walter). ?In 1995, Microsoft introduced Windows ?95, an updated version of its GUI. Though superior to the old Windows, most of its features had been familiar to Mac users since 1984? (Gould 38). Apple?s OS was more advanced than Widows for four years until Windows copied what Apple did to its OS and upgraded everything to Windows ?95. This was still not a good product because Windows ?95 was still just another layer top of the Windows 3.1 system. Instead of upgrading the entire operating system, it was just a cosmetic makeover. Windows ?95 had more glitches than the first windows and it ran slower, but people still bought it because it was compatible with the PC and that was the majority of the computers. Universal Serial Bus (USB) computer connections are all the rage now on PCs, but Apple computers have had that capability for at least three years now. ?Plug ?n? Play is a reality on Macs, and it has been for quite a while, but the same cannot be said for PCs. While Microsoft has made progress, and installations often do work, installing new components on a PC can easily turn into a hideous nightmare? (Walter). And recently, Firewire ports have been added to today?s new digital video cameras because of its fast data transfer speeds. Apple released this technology on its computers about a year ago because they realized its superiority over the older outdated types of connections. The amount of software that is made for the Macintosh platform has always been a question, but that not currently a problem because software companies are developing their programs for both the Macintosh and Windows. The newest version of Microsoft Office 2001 is made to run Mac and that version is not even made for the PC at all. ?After being ?a little annoyed that Microsoft is making better software for the Mac than Windows? PC user Charles Herold of Time Magazine call Office 2001 for ?Macintosh an excellent reason to go to Mac? (?Hotnews"). Microsoft has added a few new features to Office 2001 for the Mac as well as an entirely new piece of software called Entourage. It handles email, a calendar, a to do list, an address book, and it is completely compatible with a handheld Personal Data Assistant (PDA). An agreement between Apple and Microsoft in 1984 gave the PowerMac the capability to run both Macintosh and IBM compatible software and share information between the two operating systems (Gould 41). Adobe, the premier graphic designs company, started out making its software for the Mac because it was the only platform that could run its programs efficiently. ?Software developers are finding the Mac to be a superior platform for developing and introducing new software? (?Fairy Tales?). Although, PCs have made great strides in their technology since 1984, the Macintosh is still the superior computer for graphic software. Much of the new software that is now being made is coming out first for the Mac. There are emulators available that enable a person to use Playstation games on a Mac. When running an actual game like Star Wars Racer, the Mac came in first in tests done by Popular Mechanics Magazine (Komandok). There is even an emulator for the Mac that will allow it run Windows. Virtual PC is a program that allows you to run Windows in a ?virtual? environment. The Macintosh platform does a very good job at emulating the Windows operating system considering it is running two operating systems at the same time. Running Windows on a Mac may seem a bit like a paradox, but some people are forced to use Windows software on their Mac to be compatible with their work or school. But this is still a good thing because it opens up even more things that a Mac can do. It also shows the power of the Macintosh processor because it can run two operating systems at the same time. Apple computers may be a little more expensive to buy than their PC counterparts, but in the long run people are getting more out of machine they are paying for. A survey done by the International Data Corporation showed that companies that use Macintosh computers experience an average of 12.2 downtime incidents in one year, while PC platforms had fifty percent more failures. If the server goes down, it means that the school is wasting money because it has to pay for the technical support people to fix the problem. The survey also indicated that the average time it took to recover a Mac server was 5.7 hours and it took 8.5 hours on a PC platform (?Understanding?). This means that if the server does go down, it takes less money to get it back up and running. Mr. Allan Hall, who teaches Commercial Art at Pinkerton Academy said, ? I called IBM once and asked them what it would cost to get a PC to equal a Mac and the lady on the phone said ?Why don?t you just get a Mac?? (Hall). Having the Mac platform will saves money because it does not crash as often. ?I have over ten Apple computers in here and I have never had a repair man in here, even though they are being used more intensively than the PCs because the kids are scanning graphics and using Photoshop? (Hall). Mr. Hall has never had a problem with the G4 Macs that he cannot fix, but the computer technicians who work on PCs often have trouble finding the problem with the computer. The parts that come with a Mac are more advanced than the parts come with a PC. Motorola is the company that makes all of the processors for Apple. PC computers have parts that are made by a lot of different companies. Because the consumers have so many choices to pick from, they do not always know if they are getting the highest quality parts. Intel makes two different processors, the Pentium and the Celeron. Most of the cheaper PCs have the Celeron processor in them. People think that they are getting the same thing as the Pentium, just for less money. But the Celeron processor runs at a much slower rate than the Pentium and cannot do even close to the same number of calculations as the Pentium can. ?Low end PCs are unreliable for networking. Also, low end Macs are more than twice as fast as low end PCs? (?Mac Vs. PC?). With the Mac platform, people always get the same components from model to model. ?Apple's main advantage is that we control the hardware and the OS development, no other computer company can do that? (Parekh). Because Apple controls the hardware and the operating system, Macs are easier to use, easier to expand, and less prone to configuration glitches, than a Windows system (Ryan 15). Because Apple is the company that makes the operating system and the hardware, the two work elegantly together. Many companies make PC components with varying degrees of reliability (Mac Vs. PC). Avid PC user Jamie Scott has experienced this first hand: My three year old, $3300 PC's CD drive is falling off. It opens and randomly slams shut on its own accord whenever it feels like it and sometimes for fifteen minutes. It uninstalled itself from Windows ?98 and its DVD player can only play CDs or used at least it used to be able to. It says it's out of memory when I have 200 plus megabytes left. It randomly crashes and I've spent an accumulative 30 hours on the technical support phone line just in the year 2000 alone. (Scott) Granted that no computer is perfect, but those are just some of the normal problems that most PC users experience on a regular basis. But since there are so many PC manufacturers and operating system options, standards are inconsistent and special software is often needed (?Mac Vs. PC?). When comparing operating systems, the Mac costs a significantly less amount than Windows does for a PC. The Mac OS costs about $70, while the Windows operating system costs $170. The Mac OS is a better system than Windows because it is much easier to use and because it is more stable. The Mac OS is more stable because it was not built up layer by layer like Widows. Every time Microsoft changes something in Windows, the new systems code is just put over the old code (Gould). Because the Mac OS does not rely on DOS, it is less prone to crashes. Macs are also more stable because they have over 100 times fewer viruses than a PC does and the viruses that are out there are less infectious than PC Viruses (Mac Vs. PC). The ease of use on a Mac has also always been the focus point of the argument and rightfully so. The Mac OS is easier to use because of the way that its system of ?windows? are set up, but when all the PC guys use it, they get confused. They are used to the endless scroll bars and hidden folders that plague the Windows OS. The Mac operating system is set up so you can easily find your files in the right folder. When things are installed they are automatically put in the right folder so they are not lost. The Mac OS is much more of a visual environment than Windows is. The color schemes are better and the icons have a three dimensional appearance to them. The whole system is just more pleasing to look at and that makes the entire experience more comfortable and fun (Linzmayer). Apple was able to do all of this with their OS without sacrificing any power or speed and that is a common misconception. If anything at all, the Mac OS runs better than Windows does even though it is simpler. If PC users just took the time to sit down and experience the operating system, they would find that it is easy to use and very powerful. They have gotten used to what Windows is like and most of them are not willing to try something new. I use both operating systems, Windows and the Mac OS, and I have had a lot more technical trouble when I use the Windows system. I use my Mac at home by choice, and I am forced to use PCs at school. I am constantly running into problems with getting Windows to recognize what software to use, and I spend more time trying to find the right file than I do working on it. I even have trouble when I type a document in the library and try to bring it to the writing center to work on later. Sometimes Windows freezes because it cannot recognize the file. This happens a lot to people who are not using the same version of Windows at school as they are at home. But with the Mac, I can recognize any kind of file with ease. I have no trouble opening a Word document, ClarisWorks document, or an AppleWorks document. Some people have said that the Macintosh is the most compatible computer on the market and rightfully so because it has to be to be able to compete (?Fairy Tales?). ?The Mac OS can run PC disks and translate PC files. PCs need special software to read Mac disks and translate Mac files? (Mac Vs. PC?). This makes it very easy to transfer files from a PC to a Mac. With the Mac OS, everything is laid out and simple to find. ?The graphical and audio interface of the Mac OS was designed to be less intimidating? (Mac Vs. PC). Files all go in a certain spot and they are easy to hunt down with the Find command. Although Apple computers are very reliable, they are still not perfect. Apple computers are the best computer system for technical support. If there is a problem with a computer, the manual or the extensive help section built into the OS can be a place to look. But even better than that is the Apple website. There is an entire section dedicated to technical support. Questions can be posted and answered by other Mac users or certified Apple technicians. The Mac OS is usually upgradeable several times a year for free with a patch that is available to download from the Internet. Windows is usually only upgraded every few years as was with Windows ?95, Windows ?98, and Windows 2000. Because Apple is the company that sends out all of its computers, it is the company that services them. It is not necessary to hunt down the manufacturer to get the computer fixed. Apple simplifies the whole process because people can look for help with their technical and software problems at the same place. This makes it easier and faster to fix the problem and get working again. The processing speed and the number of megahertz a computer runs at is a topic that always comes up with the PC versus Mac argument, but it is not always a simple answer. ?PowerMacs use the PowerPC chip created by IBM, Motorola, and Apple. This processor is much faster, smaller, and consumes less power than Pentium processors? (Walter). There are two different processor models that are available for the Mac now, the Generation 3 (G3) and the Generation 4 (G4). The G3 is a good processor, but the G4 is the most powerful processor on the market today. ?The fastest Macintosh ever, the PowerMac G4 may be the fastest graphics PC period? (?Technology?). A G4 Macintosh is the fastest computer for a few reasons. One of the ways that computer speed is measured is by the number of calculations it can perform in a second. Inside of the G4 Processor is something called the Velocity Engine. It is part of the chip architecture that allows the computer to run at 3.6 gigaflops. A gigaflop is one billion calculations a second. Because the PowerMac G4s can perform at this speed, it makes them the fastest personal computer on the market. They are so fast in fact that the US government classified them as a Supercomputer (?Velocity?). The G4 processor is also very fast because it processes information in chunks of 128 bits instead of the traditional 32 or 64 bits that PC processors are running at (?PowerPC?). This gives the G4 chip a speed advantage even though it has a lower Megahertz speed. The amount of megahertz that a computer runs at is also a way to compare computers speeds, but that is also not a perfect way of telling the speed of the computer. ?The MHz number is not always an apples to apples comparison. For most purposes, a 350 MHz G3 iMac would perform the same as a 500MHz Windows system? (Ryan 15). And a 500MHz G4 PowerMac is equal to a 1.2GHz Pentium 3 processor (Jobs). It is impossible to accurately tell the speed of the computer by the MHz alone. Apple computers are faster even though they have less megahertz is because of Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC). ?In 1991, Apple and IBM had finalized an agreement to jointly develop a computer technology called RISC, which greatly increased computer speed. The first fruit of the cooperation between Apple, IBM, and Motorola was the Power Macintosh, introduced in March 1994? (Gould 40). PC computers still have not fully transformed over to RISC. Pentium processors are a combination of Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) and RISC and that is a reason that they are slower. Although The G4 is the first computer to be able to complete one billion calculations in a second, the MHz needs to be scaled to equal a Pentium processor, and the way the computer reads the instruction sets is more advanced, it is not anyone of these things that make a Mac the best computer (Linzmayer). It is way that Apple?s operating system and its hardware work together that make Macintoshes the best personal computers. People say that 90 percent of the business world is made up of PC clone computers, but just because something is popular does not mean that it is better than something that is not. ?DOS computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and millions of other are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use world wide. Macintosh fans on the other hand, may note that cockroaches are by far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form? (CZORE). That is a perfect metaphor that defeats the ?PCs are superior because they are more popular? theory. When people take a chance to look at what the computers are actually being used for, popularity does not matter. The Mac is the number one computer used in graphic intensive fields. Any graphic arts studio that is big uses Macs to compose their works. ?I have not seen a high end graphics company run on anything but a Mac? (Hall). FHA, the company that designed all of the promotions stuff for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, used Macintosh computers to do their work. Almost all of the special effects that are seen in the movie theaters now are done on a Mac using a piece of software called Maya. Maya was the software that was used to create the special effects in movies such as the Matrix, Star Wars Episode One, and Mighty Joe Young (?Maya?). ?More speed, superior software, and better color matching make Macs better for desktop design, web page design, video rendering and other graphic applications? (Mac Vs. PC). But the power of the Mac does not stop with graphics, the Macintosh platform is optimized for audio also. The Blueman Group in Las Vegas uses a Macintosh server to control its sound during the performances (?Blueman Group?). They need a computer that is going to be able to handle the transfer of a lot of information so they use a Mac. When Apple was just starting out as a company, it realized the importance of education to the computer market. Apple Seed was the program that Apple created to get Macintosh computers into schools. Apple Seed made Apple products available to secondary schools and university students for reduced prices and it also offered training scholarships to teachers (Gould 35). A lot of the top-notch schools, such as the University of Connecticut, Stanford University, and Dartmouth College run mainly on Macintosh computers. ?Which computer you choose is your decision, but Dartmouth has been a predominately Macintosh campus since 1984? (?Dartmouth?). Stanford University said, ?More classes require or recommend Mac use than PC use. The Computer Science Department, for example, runs most classes using Mac software? (?Mac Vs. PC?). Tulane University School of Medicine, Ridley College, and Grossmont High are some schools that make full use the Macintosh platform. They believe that just because the PCs are the standard in most of the business world, it does not mean that they are the best. As more and more people become familiar with the products that Apple has to offer, the more people will realize that the Mac platform is far superior to that of the PCs that run Windows. The computer industry exploded in the late 1980?s and has been growing exponentially ever since. Through the years Apple computer has lost its popularity, but the easy to use interface and power behind Apple has remained the same. When Apple released their Power Macintosh computer in 1994, it developed a computer that outperformed all others, but it was not as popular as the machines that were running Windows 3. Recently, Apple Computer has been in the spotlight because it has won a few awards. Popular Science Magazine gave the Power Mac G4 Cube the Grand Award for computers and technology for the year 2000. ?Words like ?striking? and ?inspiring are rarely used to describe desktop computers, but they seem almost insufficient to describe Apple?s rapturous Power Mac G4 Cube, a shiny, silvery, and silent (there is no fan) box that looks more like a stunningly designed toaster for the Star Trek generation, than simply a next generation Power Mac? (?Technology?). Because Apple computers have an easier to use operating system, better hardware, and are more reliable, they should be the top choice for personal computers. The PC computer may have a larger share of the market, but just because something is more popular than something else does not mean that it is better. Most PC users think that Macintosh computers are inferior because they are so simple to use. It is time for people to open their eyes and consider Macs as a possibility when they are buying a computer. If people would just take a non-biased approach when comparing Macs to PCs, using all the facts, they would definitely say the Macintosh computer platform is the best. After all, as Francis Bacon said many years ago, ?Knowledge itself is power? (Komandok). Now all people have to do is use the knowledge that they have gained and use the power they get from it to break free of the PC mold and venture onto the Mac side of things. |
| © Adam Knee 2001 |