[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: Mac vs. PC (no flames please!)

[Pamela Gay <pgay@FAS.HARVARD.EDU>]

I think there may be a platform change in progress. At this year's
American Astronomical Society Meeting in San Diego, several of us noted
the sudden proliferation of iBooks and other Apple laptops. Apple
laptops seemed to dominate. Just two years ago, at the Seattle meeting,
this was not the case.

The reason is simple - IRAF, one of the primary data reduction packages
for astronomers, only runs on UNIX/Linux/ and OS X systems. OS X lets
you use Word and IRAF side by side. It took me 20 minutes to install
IRAF on my Mac, and significantly longer to do the same on my Linux
book. Labview runs just fine under OS X, and there are many compilers
built into the shell. I program in PHP all the time on OS X systems. I
haven't had any problems taking code from my RH 9 system to OS X.

I've been a PC person since '88, but I'm getting ready to purchase my
first personal Mac and I'm writing this from an iBook I use for work.
I'm sold. We use Macs in most of our introductory and intermediate
physics labs at Harvard, and I'm hoping to switch our Astro Lab from
duel boot PCs to Macs. Our advanced lab has mostly PCs.

Two things to take into consideration: Do you use any specialized
hardware that does not have drivers for Mac? Do you use any software
that is only available for windows (remember, linux stuff can generally
- if painfully - be recompiled for OS X).

(If you watch the video of the night Huygens landed on Titan, you'll
see the scientists using Macs :) )

Cheers,
Pamela

On Jan 24, 2005, at 10:07 PM, John SOHL wrote:

> Hi All:
>
> We are discussing what type of computers to install in a modest
> computer teaching/research room. The obvious question is Mac vs. PC.
>
> Nature of the room as envisioned:
> 1. Five to ten computers.
> 2. First priority goes to undergrad research (mostly astrophysics).
> 3. Second priority goes to classes such as computational physics ( C++,
> FORTRAN) and data acquisition (LabVIEW mostly).
> 4. Third priority goes to physics majors needing to do homework, email,
> etc.
>
> Here are the questions that I need data for:
> 1. What platform is used the most (percentages??) in industry?
> 2. What platform is used the most (percentages??) in grad school by
> theorists?
> 3. What platform is used the most (percentages??) in grad school by
> experimentalists?
>
> I tried a few searches with Google but clearly didn't have the search
> terms that I needed to get useful hits. Seems to me that someone on
> this
> list has likely faced the same question as to what platform they wanted
> to train their physics majors on. Opinions may be interesting but what
> I
> really need is some solid estimates of percentage of use.
>
> One faculty member is saying that, "EVERYONE in astrophysics uses
> Macs." Another faculty member is saying, "NO ONE in industry uses PCs."
> Both of these statements seem biased to me, but I don't actually know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> John
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> John E. Sohl, Ph.D., Professor of Physics
> Weber State University, 2508 University Circle
> Ogden, UT 84408-2508
> voice: (801) 626-7907, fax: (801) 626-7445
> e-mail: jsohl@weber.edu
> web: http://physics.weber.edu/sohl/
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