“About a month ago, I compared the cost for Apple’s desktop, server and laptop products to their nearest Dell equivalents and discovered that Macs generally cost less than comparable PC products,” Paul Murphy writes for LinuxInsider. “That was a bit of surprise, but the truly astonishing thing that came out of the comparison was that Dell’s product line extends marginally below Apple’s at the low end, but has nothing to stack up against Apple’s 17-inch Powerbook, XServe G5/XServe RAID combination, or Cinema displays at the high end.”
Murphy writes, “Bottom line: when you upgrade the PCs enough to allow an approximately apples to apples comparison, Apple turns out to offer both lower prices and a broader range than Dell. The PC community response is, first, that the multimedia features distinguishing the Mac aren’t necessary and, secondly, that the PC is so far ahead of the Mac on speed that the comparisons are pointless anyway. Personally I think they’re begging the question on stuff like firewire: that they don’t see the value of Apple’s multimedia capabilities only because they’ve never had them, but that’s an argument for another day. In this column I want to focus on the performance part of their response.”
“So are PCs faster than Macs? The real answer is that relative performance depends entirely on the software and is both hard to define and hard to measure,” Murphy writes. “The short answer, however, can be based entirely on raw hardware capabilities, and that answer is pretty simple: the Mac wins hands down.”
Murphy concludes, “I think the intuitive bottom line on the Macintosh versus PC productivity debate is actually pretty simple: I’ve never met a PC user whose focus on the job he or she was supposed to be doing wasn’t significantly diluted by the need to accommodate the PC and its software, but I’ve never met a business Mac user who considered the machine anything other than a tool, like a telephone or typewriter, for getting the job done.”
Full article here.
I hope a lot of winblows users read this article.
mr.angry…
Why not send the article to all the PeeCeers you know ??
ya might want to say something like …
“Once you go Mac, you never go back !”
LOL
I can’t I converted them all already.
i’m reading it right now, machole.
I’ve been saying this for years on the forums. Dell and Gateway and the others quote low ball prices, but by the time you get finished configuring a machine you can reasonably use in an office they invariably cost more than Macs. Not to mention, you get much higher quality product from Mac hardware and operating systems.
That last statement is so true…
I work for a PC software company that makes synchronization and encryption applications for Windows, and we are constantly doing shit to keep these Dells running.Then every once in awhile we buy an even bigger piece of shit like an Emachine and have huge problems trying to keep that running. And NONE of them seem to be as efficient as my 3.5 year old 500mhz iBook. But none of the assholes here have ever even used OSX, and they don’t believe that anything could top Windows, so I just sit quietly, and let them pretend they are superior…
My Macintosh productivity is severely diluted by spending time during the day reading Macintosh websites.
My Windows productivity is severely diluted by the fact that my SysAdmin did something stupid that is preventing me from seeing my network drives and thus billing my jobs out.
Sadly, the only people who will read this article are Linux users, who have already made the jump away from Microsoft, so are far more open minded about other OSes. Apple taking users away from other alternative platforms, especially open-source ones that are so helpful in providing new features into OSX itself, just doesn’t have the same appeal as getting people off Windows.
It is, however, nice to see a non-Mac related site admit that Macs are not expensive.
Tommy Boy wrote:
“My Macintosh productivity is severely diluted by spending time during the day reading Macintosh websites.”
Too true! And hilarious.
Very true. I also reported that on-site Macs are cheaper than PCs and offer more bang for the bucks: Which – invariably – makes some Wintel user honestly wonder… and sometimes switch.
The thing folks don’t consider with the “speed” issue is how much better OS X is at memory management, swap space management, and task/thread scheduling. i have the 1ghz PB G4 from Jan. 2003, and my system runs far more apps all at one time with 12 virtual desktops, faster than my co-workers’ Dells with 3ghz processors. by “fast” i mean swapping and response time is just far superior. Certainly speed is both relative and subjective but come on, anyone who understands hardware architecture and OS architecture knows that CPU speed means almost nothing. the OS on top of the hardware makes a world of difference, and clearly OS X is a better designed OS than most on the market.
Well, two days ago I became totally free of Windows. The final piece for home & work (a 20″ iMac for home) was delivered and the Dull has been sold.
For me, the easiest way to see someone on a Mac is to use both for a while and compare the differences. It’s that simple.
Damn… I wanted the argument about “extras” like firewire commented upon as my ignorant brother put together a cheap-ass Wintelblows system for my cousin. I said he should have gotten firewire, my bro countered that he had nothing to plug into it. At the least, they should have gotten a motherboard with firewire on it for an extra few bucks.
Paul’s article was good… and funny to boot – calling Windows “middleware”… hehehehe.
The article tries to prove that Macs are faster than PCs by comparing 1U supercomputer nodes – a questionable technique. And the article is so riddled with technical and nomenclature errors that its credibility is strained.
I agree, This article is very biased. No wonder the wintel box lost..its a Dell. Im sorry people, but if you compare a real custom built system to a Mac..The Mac gets smoked in every test……Intel Sucks…Try comparing AMD Cpu’s..Thats a much better test.
As for the price…Macs may win for apps considering Apple has released pro edition software for a tenth of the cost to its windows counterparts (Final Cut, Motion, etc..) but from a pure performance standpoint, Athlons win Hands down..
“As for the price…Macs may win for apps considering Apple has released pro edition software for a tenth of the cost to its windows counterparts (Final Cut, Motion, etc..) but from a pure performance standpoint, Athlons win Hands down..”
Tell that to my Dual 2.4Ghz Athlon from Boxx… my G5 Dualy 2 beats it handily.
And what exactly is “pure performnace”?
Anim8r: maybe it is the new buzzword for “MHz”.
For what we can see the G5 is faster or slower depending strongly on what you run. Also, tuning the G5 is not that straightforward.
We have seen applications compiled with -fast (which supposedly should provide the fastest results) actually generating code that runs slower than when using other compilation flags.
Some tests that were then slower on the G5 became marginally faster than on the AMD or the dual Xeon.
The only thing I could say is that the G5 fear no comparison. It is in the same ball park without questions.
Marty, you should read the ENTIRE article.
He did compare with the 64s from AMD, in a very general, “pure processor speed” way. just thoroughput, instaed of trusting photoshop tests which are always tainted.
It’s a lie! All lies!!! Windoes PCs are cheaper and less problems!! And I’m a jerk!!!
We all know that the MHz myth was for real and that’s why AMD markets their chips by 3200+ and etc… and that Intel finally decided to drop the clockspeed from their marketing propaganda once and for all.
yay, someone in the press finally said it! Its true, how often can you find a Wintel laptop with nVidia or ATi graphics that is priced against an iBook or 12in PB? Most of the Wintel computers priced against the low end Macs, like the imac, iBook, and even the eMac, all have components that fall way below what you get with Apple. And all the namebrand stuff tends to be on the high end Wintel machines. Those one’s have to compete with the PowerMac and the PowerBooks, and in those cases the PowerMacs are Dual 64bit Porcessors and really thin and light laptops, respectively. So once you spec a Wintel machine to what Apple offers, Mac’s tend to be ther better choice in price and just because they are better.
I keep hearing PC’ers talk about how maybe Macs are better than the PCs the general public can buy in the stores, but a “custom built system” will smoke any Apple.
Talk about comparing Apples to oranges…
I’ve noticed that the prototypes driven at Le Mans are faster than the cars at my local dealership, too.
What’s your point? It’s not the same. If cost is no concern, then build your custom Windows system and I’ll cluster just a few dual G5s and we’ll see how long it takes you to catch up.
The important thing to remember is that the racing prototypes are so far and away above an average car in performance, that they hardly resemble each other anymore.
If your “system” could beat an off-the-shelf Mac, it would be very close. And figure in your down time for loading patches, removing adware, fighting virus attacks, and futzing with the insides of your “system”, and you’ll see the Mac will be much more productive not to mention easier to use and nicer to look at (not important to everyone, but it is to some).
It’s amazing to me that the author hit on something very basic and ironic about Apples.
He said he “never met a business Mac user who considered the machine anything other than a tool, like a telephone or typewriter, for getting the job done.”
This strikes chord with me because I noticed soon after switching (earlier this year) that the Mac is a great tool allowing you to do what you need to do without getting in the way and calling attention to itself.
This is ironic because it behaves like an appliance, but users can tell you that they don’t think of their Macs that way.
I know I don’t have any great love for my stove, or toaster, but I really feel that my Mac is something special.
I guess that’s why “they” call us a cult. “They” just don’t see how someone could feel so strongly about a computer, of all things.
Don’t we know that computers are supposed to be a pain to operate? Don’t we understand that only the IT and Programmer Gods are supposed to know how to handle and fix our mistakes?
No thanks. I’d rather just have a machine that works and does what I want it to do, surely and securely.
~M
Good point Mozfan
I hate the “I can build one faster for cheaper”
Do you have some insider knowledge on components that Dell does not? Can you get dual P4s in your custom case that HP doest have access to? Cheaper yes, better, no.
Apple maybe should take the VW marketing 101, “Drivers Wanted” or in other words, dont bother spending your day fixing, troubleshooting, and reinstalling; spend your time working, or playing.