Re: planned obsolescence rules

  Hi Keith,
  I too got an ASUS- it is a fine laptop except I still don't know how to use a computer... maybe; some day...
  Susan
  www.susanhuber.com
  PS; are you going to be teaching next year at the Formulary?

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Keith Gerling
    To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
    Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 1:23 PM
    Subject: RE: planned obsolescence rules

    Tom. Chill. I was just kidding. I use my friend's dual cpu Mac and it is very very sweet. The OS and hardware is engineered like a BMW as compared to my Mustang GT which is fast but clunky.

    You might be surprised at how easy it is to build a PC these days. The motherboard manufatureres supply glossy well-illustrated fold out instructions that are very simple to follow. No setting jumpers and tweaking the BIOS anymore. Anyone that can follow instruction to make a platinum print (or, god forbid, a gum) can put one together these days.

    The other day I put together a system for my wife: 1 gig of memory on a 2.6 ghz processor for $315. Asus motherboard: $50. Two strips 512 strips of DDR: $160. AMD 2600 processor: $105. It took me twenty minutes, and I'm no wiz at this stuff. She's got a very fast system with 1280 screen resolution, 6 USB slots, firewire, Serial ATA, RAID , and great sound and there's not a single card in it.

    Yes, I love Macs. I've got a PowerBook on my Christmas wish list (oh pleeeese, Santa..), and I love my iPod. But I'm curious as to what a Mac system comparable to the one above would cost. Any idea?

     -----Original Message-----
    From: Tom Ferguson [mailto:tomf2468@pipeline.com]
    Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 8:41 AM
    To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
    Subject: Re: planned obsolescence rules

      Now, Now, Stop That!... platform wars came be soooooo unpleasant. I've had to work with and maintain a few PCs for clients.

      Cheaper, well yes you can buy poor quality PCs very cheaply. Apple has resisted the temptation to put out low quality cheap boxes (a good thing in my mind). Buy a well made PC with equal to Mac quality components and the price difference is small (yes, PCs are slightly cheaper). Build it yourself PC, you will easily beat the Apple price (assuming you don't add a value for your time). But, that is something most folks don't want to (or can't) do. I think it could be fun. I wish it was more do-able on the Mac side!

      Drivers for everything, yes they are "available" for PC but with too many conflicts. The PC side is a far more "open" hardware system than Mac. That leads to far more hardware/driver conflicts than I've ever seen on a Mac. Of course that can be argued as an "advantage". One could try and convince folks that the number of conflicts are higher primarily because the number of options are higher (more "stuff" is made for PC than Mac).

      We won't go into PC worms, viruses, spyware, endless security updates issued after problems have already been exploited........

      Could I be biased, yep. I've never gotten to buy and set up a PC on my own. I've always gotten "thrown at" a problem PC by a client ("hey Tom knows computers, let see if Tom can fix it").

      Me, I will happily stay with the Mac. I like it, I know it, it works. I like the interface better, I like color management being part of the OS. I'll live with some limited choices being the "minority" market.

      Others, know and like the PC. They will work with add on color management (just how difficult is Adobe Gamma?), they will guard against viruses, they will enjoy more hardware and software choices than I have.

      Set up and maintained correctly, we will do the same computer work :-)

      Anyone want to argue Nikon versus Canon?

      On Sunday, November 21, 2004, at 12:25 AM, Keith Gerling wrote:

        It saddens me to hear grumbling in the Apple community. Maybe it's time for
        you to consider Windows? The hardware is dirt cheap and lightning fast.
        There are drivers for everything. Stable, too: I've got one machine that
        hasn't been rebooted in months.

      --------------
      Tom Ferguson
      http://www.ferguson-photo-design.com

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Received on Mon Nov 22 07:33:01 2004