“The key to [Apple’s Power Mac G5’s] success will be throughput. The specs of all of the interconnects — between the two CPUs, between CPUs and memory, to and from the support chip set, and between the chip set and I/O busses — scream by desktop PC standards. Each processor has its own 1GHz bus. Memory bandwidth is 6.4GB per second. The 64-bit expansion bus runs at 133MHz and conforms to the PCI-X standard commonly reserved for servers. The graphics accelerator is fed by an 8X AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) Pro bus for maximum speed and an ample supply of electrical power. In the Power Mac G5, data does not spend much time on the bench waiting for the bus,” writes Tom Yager for InfoWorld.
Yager writes, “IBM handed Apple the gift of a lifetime with its PowerPC 970 (dubbed G5 by Apple as a follow-on to its current G4) processor. Based on the potent Power4 core used in IBM’s high-performance computers, the 970 is the first PowerPC chip capable of running 64-bit software. By extension, the Power Mac G5 is Apple’s first 64-bit computer, and the first 64-bit desktop machine to hit the market. It can address more memory (the first G5 holds up to 8GB of RAM) and store more and larger floating-point numbers in the CPU. The processor’s internal capacity for data storage (small data blocks called registers) has been markedly expanded, as has the pipeline for instructions awaiting execution.”
Full article here.
Will the G5 be the turning point for Apple presence in a religiously kept Windows-only IT world?
Certainly the G5 makes it more difficult for an IT staff now to explain an informed CIO why it is not a good choice.
Too bad there are too many blissfully ignorant CIO out there who will still confound Apple with Oranges.
The famous last words:
Bill Gates – “The only lead Apple has now is in fruitfull colors. I do not think we will have problems in catching up with that”
PS
not verbatim
err, CEO
You know, I find it funny that PeeCee foks and IT “Pros” dismiss Mac users as some kind of cult. The real cult movement is trying to squeeze every UNIX/LINUX/Mac system out of their M$ environment. There is a real BIAS against Macs among the so-called IT pros out there. Either they are afraid to show they don’t know much other than M$, or they are afraid of looking stupid after pimping Micro$oftopoly crap for the last 10 years.
Yeah, it annoys the heck out of me to encounter IT guys who are working really hard to rid their company of every last Mac to make THEIR lives easier…when they were HIRED to make everyone ELSES lives easier!! I have even seen them try to convert a graphics department over to PC…I think a person who isn’t skilled or trained in YOUR field, should not be able to tell YOU what computer to use to get your work done…but somehow the big corporations let it happen.
Not only, there is still the “Macs cannot fully integrate our network” and “They are not fully compatible with Office” silly arguments.
OS X, G5, XServe, XServe RAID more and more makes IT staff to resort to these kind of arguments only in order to try blocking the road to Macs.
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Which makes everything much more easier
IT personel have a real advantage running Windows. It’s common knowledge that things will often go wrong running the “standard” MS crap. This fact translates into the IT workers THREE AMIGOS:
1) “THE SCAPE-GOAT” (i.e. ‘I think I have things under control again sir, just have to double check to see if all the bleeding MS patches are administered etc.);
2) “THE FLUNKY” (i.e. ‘I’m not the only one making mistakes around here. Just look at MS, a company that we will never get rid of makes ’em almost everyday’) and;
3) “THE VIRUS” (i.e. ‘ayyy, look at what a hero I am people! earlier yesterday and today things were v-e-r-y–s-c-a-r-y… but now since I spent the last 48 hours with no sleep administering patches and putting out related fires… well, let me just say *you’re welcome* –just one small part of the job maam…’)
Think about it. If the only errors down in ye olde IT dept were due to employee error (with hardware error being very rare and viral emergencies even more so)… An IT guy wouldn’t feel quite as smug about his/her position… Not without THE THREE AMIGOS (read: Windows).
You know, I find it funny that PeeCee foks and IT “Pros” dismiss Mac users as some kind of cult. The real cult movement is trying to squeeze every UNIX/LINUX/Mac system out of their M$ environment. There is a real BIAS against Macs among the so-called IT pros out there. Either they are afraid to show they don’t know much other than M$, or they are afraid of looking stupid after pimping Micro$oftopoly crap for the last 10 years.
Well, as there is atleast an equal ammount of bias amongst macdailynews people here against IT pros, so I guess that evens the bias out
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Th G5 and Panther will provide a convenient excuse for IT folks to finally look at Mac and save some face: “Macs used to be worthless crap, but they’ve got some halfway decent UNIX systems now, it’s worth seeing how they might fit in.”
“Well, as there is atleast an equal ammount of bias amongst macdailynews people here against IT pros, so I guess that evens the bias out
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Hardly!
The difference is that the IT bozos are standing in the way of a large percentage of their company’s employees getting more work done with less hassle and downtime.
The problem Macs present to an IT department is a reduction in the need for their services. Talk to any company that uses both and you will hear the same thing over and over again. It takes double to triple the amount of IT personnel to support a Windows network as it does a comparably sized Mac network.
Mac users are labeled as cultists simply because they are behaving as any SANE person would. When you find something that truly makes your life easier and less stressful, you want other people to know about it.
When you are called a Fanboy or worse by people who you know are living in computer hell and refuse to admit it, you tend to get a little annoyed after awhile. ;o)
(NoPC Zone: afraid of looking stupid after pimping Micro$oftopoly crap for the last -’23’- years. – sorry, minor correction)
[Hakles: Well, as there is atleast an equal am(m)ount of bias among(st) m(M)acd(D)ailyn(N)ews people here against IT ‘pros’, so I guess that evens the bias out 🙁 ] GKY
Your so-called theory is easily dismissed by the incredibly obvious fact that 89% of ‘IT pros’ pimp M$ to the exclusion of ANY other OS that is on Planet Earth. Yet can’t explain why they do – other than ‘it’s from M$ – to ALL the folks that need a fscking computer that works for them instead of a social retard perpetually working on their computer.
You know software classes might take up as much of their ‘wizard’ skills as patching 100s of machines. How ’bout spending less time futzing and more time training. People still don’t get the concept of email, yet they are left to their own to figure it out – ‘cuz PCGuru is too busy fixing the computer to pry himself away long enough to TEACH you how to do basic stuff.
Whatever!
–
Imagine a world where plumbers tell you what kind of toilets your staff should use because they ‘know’ American Standard. Imagine that your toilet paper costs run higher than all company ‘perks’ because they come ‘free’ with the toilets. Imagine if the flusher breaks before you’ve flushed and you must wait for the Toilet Wizard. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
Sorry ’bout the swearin’, folks.
Cha-clink.
That was a quarter falling in the SwearJar!
Oh, wait. I didn’t swear
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Keep it anyway.
I believe that R.V. hit the nail on the head. IT dweebs would lose their jobs if a smart corporation migrated to a all Mac environment. No worky – No money – we’ll stop there because they got no Honey anyway.
Rock on Bill Gate$. Produce more clones and you will definately rule the world.
“IT bozos” “89% of IT pros pimp M$”, “IT dweebs”, IT staff has some grand conspiracy against Apple because they don’t want to lose there jobs,…
How is this *not* bias from typical macdailynews readers against people who work in IT?
Hakles:
Don’t play dumb with us. You know what we’re talking about here. We’re generalizing –nuthin’ wrong with that. If you are an intelligent and open minded IT professional then you are NOT the norm. If you want to perpetuate the stereo-type that IT personel are socially inept, empty-headed, mouth-breathing morons, just keep it coming.
“intelligent and open minded it professional is not the norm”, one more to add to the list. I’ll just skip the socially inept, empty-headed, mouth-breathing morons part.
I’ll give you this: a good system administrator is someone you barely notice. After all, a good system administrator is someone who prevents any problems, and keeps everything working. Bad system administrators that don’t do their job right, get more in contact with users for obvious reasons.
Are you really going to argue that the majority of systems, services and networks work unreliable? Because that the only way you will be able to backup your statement that most it professionals are not intelligent and closed minded.
(Are you really going to argue that the majority of systems, services and networks work unreliable?)
Are you implying that they are reliable? Completely? Are you implying that there’s NO basis for these so-called unfair ‘biases’ against the poor (w)I(n)T(el) wizards?
–
Dentist: Don’t forget to get a check-up every six months.
Notgullible: Why? My teeth are fine.
Dentist: But, I’ve got BMW payments. How am I going to get to work?
–
CarBuyer: What’s the best car to buy?
ChevyMechanic: Well, I know how to fix Chevys. And there’s lots of cheap parts. You can even use parts from other GM cars.
CarBuyer: Well, what about them BMWs? I here that they rarely break down, and they drive nice.
ChevyMechanic: Yeah, but if they ever do. Ouch! And you can go places in a Chevy, too. But, if you breakdown in the middle of nowhere chances are they’ll know how to fix it.
CarBuyer: But, aren’t BMW parts similar to Chevy parts?
ChevyMechanic: No. There’s way more Chevy parts!
–
You know software classes might take up as much of their ‘wizard’ skills as patching 100s of machines. How ’bout spending less time futzing and more time training. People still don’t get the concept of email, yet they are left to their own to figure it out – ‘cuz PCGuru is too busy fixing the computer to pry himself away long enough to TEACH you how to do basic stuff.
Are you implying that they are reliable? Completely?
I’m saying that most of them work pretty reliable. If they didn’t, the society would barely function. Big blackouts in the US and Canada are an exception, not a rule. Getting money from your bank, calling your friends on the phone, checking into a hospital, it all works reliably 99.9999% of the time.
To do this, you need an intelligent and open minded IT staff. So either, there is somewhere an intelligent and open minded IT person extremely stressed by making sure the whole damn world keeps running, or the phrase intelligent and open minded IT pros are not the norm is utter bullshit.
(Getting money from your bank, calling your friends on the phone, checking into a hospital…)
Given the correct software could Macs do any of those things?
Then, why aren’t they?
If there is a bus that can run without driver, do you think driver union will support it? It goes the same with computer and their IT
(Getting money from your bank, calling your friends on the phone, checking into a hospital…)
Given the correct software could Macs do any of those things?
No. Those are mission critical tasks typically done by a Sun Solaris and an Oracle server. Primarily because that combination has proven itself for many many years to be stable and secure. That doesn’t mean the admin is some kind of Sun zealot. He will probably use a FreeBSD or Linux server for webhosting, a SAN and Veritas for fileserving,.. All of them have proven themselves in the real world.
Do you really expect a sysadmin will believe any marketing bullshit or fans yelling but it looks so pretty? If the marketing and the claimed reliability turn out to be a lie, they might very well loose the company millions of dollars.
Bezier: go to [url=http://www.macosxlabs.org]http://www.macosxlabs.org,[/url] view all the webcasts and presentations. Now ask yourself, is that the kind of thing 1 person will do in their spare time? The IT staff will do different things (wether it is setting up an intrusion detection system, or writing applescripts for their users). IT staff will not become obsolete, not in the next 20 to 30 years. Software and hardware are still just stupid tools, even the one from Apple.
hakles, we are diverging here. IT staff will(!) get a reduction in number for what concerns the end users support. You do not need 1 tech every 10 users if those 10 users have an Apple computer with OS X.
We have 4 for some ~2000 and they are doing just fine, thank you. Other IT tasks will not get affected by having Macs or not on the network but the nitty-gritty ‘save-the-user-ass-daily’ little tasks will.
What others here are trying to say is that IT managers nowadays are simply blocking (in some businesses) end users from having a Mac claiming all possible unrealistic reasons. The last crazy thing I have heard is “Macs don’t do TCP/IP”. Now any informed Mac user will scream MORON immediately and cannot keep in high respect any IT staff coming out with that. This is the problem in general.
Now there are IT who are not zealots and try to keep themselves informed and are actually looking at Apple XServe and OS X at least to try it out and do not put on weird faces when a users say “I am going to get a G4”. They simply say “fine, what configuration?”.
Sorry though: those are extremely rare. Where I am now the Mac community had to mobilize to debunk all myths the IT department tried to put up in order to eliminate Mac presence on the site. We had a 6~7 months long battle and now OS X is instead being officially supported and listed as ‘recommended’. How about that?
Luckily IT knowledge of today’s Macs and OS X were null. Most of their oppositions were valid arguments for – say – System 7 or 8 but it has been a hard fight nonetheless in that those myths are ingrained in the minds of the executives. The IT Division still has an internal rule prohibiting the use of Macs for IT staff. Sounds like reasonable and professional IT staff to you?????
If you want to see a template for IT’s love affair with sick computers look no further than the Medical Proffesion. Please don’t bother them with facts about simple cures for apparently intractible diseases. There is the orginal “Virus” scam that sends pateints running into thier arms for medicine that does more harm than good. Medicine wants nothing to do with health — it makes no money. They are only interested in disease and the the expensive and ridiculously complicated “cures.” There is a 2000 year history of “Doctors” obfuscating the truth in order to create a cult like following that distorts information to create wealth for the high priests of the followers of the one true science. Apple will only ever suceed as a high end solution for those who respect facts, quality and overall computer health. The invisible hand does not always push the market economy toward efficiency. If there is a complex body of knowlege that must be mastered to provide a service there will always be an overwhelming temptation to standardize a system that claims to have complicated solutions that you should not question.
If you think apple is a cool machine, try niacin —the 10 cent per pill miracle drug with no side effects that outperforms most other prescription drugs for arteriosclerosis. Or ask you doctor about Lithium orotate for depression. Magnesium orotate instead of bypass surgery? Blashemy. Are you aware that for the later half of the 19th Centery the AMA outlawed the washing of hands before surgery because a belief in microscopic bacteria was deemed voodoo.
(proven itself for many many years to be stable and secure.)
2003 – Apple has 6 patches, M$ has more than 30.
(All of them have proven themselves in the real world.)
NeXT had been around for 10 years, it just wasn’t ‘popular’.
(Do you really expect a sysadmin will believe any marketing bullshit or fans yelling but it looks so pretty)
When are they going to find out for ‘themselves’ if a 2003 Mac G4/G5 and MacOSX are ‘suitable’ for ‘mission critical tasks’? Sometime between never and Hell freezing over is my guess. There’s absolutely no logical reason to be so resistant to looking at what today’s Apple is putting out there. And launching MacOSX solutions where applicable. It’s unix fer chrissakes.
Quote from Hackles:
**********
“I’m saying that most of them work pretty reliable… it all works reliably 99.9999% of the time.
To do this, you need an intelligent and open minded IT staff… is utter bullshit.”
**********
I don’t really know what to say. What is Hackles trying to communicate here? He says things, but to what end… why; is he trying to prove my point or his?
There are many situations and processes that exist today that don’t necessarily work well and that are riddled with hypocrisy, intransigence and inefficiency.
At the end of the day things get done/If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Right? Depends on your opinion I guess.
EXAMPLES:
taxes
racism
the middle east
human rights
banking
phone systems
us central intelligence agency
hospital admittance
education
organized religion
insurance laws
drive-thru audio quality
health care
Windows
abortion laws
gun control/Ted Nugent
All most of us are trying to say here is that sometimes people resist change even when a clear and better path is presented. Who knows why? Fear? Ignorance? Prejudice? Probably a bit of each in there somewhere. Just because something is being done today doesn’t mean it couldn’t/shouldn’t be done better tomorrow. (…I have a dream that one day this nation and all it’s IT personel will rise up and… oh forget it.)