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

[James Frysinger <frysingerj@COFC.EDU>]

On Tuesday 25 January 2005 13:17, Rick Tarara wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stephen Murray" <murray8@LLNL.GOV>
....
> 3)  Cost (may or may not be a concern).

        I note that HP now sells nx5000 laptops starting at $999 on which one can get
either Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000, or SuSE 9.1 Linux. Except for commercial
applications  such as Mathematica, IDE, and LabView, all the software is then
free. Hard to beat for a laptop with credible real estate and speed; should
make a decent teaching lab computer.

        Someone else mentioned the footprint taken up by iMacs. Those are what we now
have in our "fixed" computer lab. The new Dells in the new Library have the
same footprint. But if a display goes out on a Dell, one replaces just the
display; it's not integral to the computer box.

        Some of us here have discussed turning our HP laptops in the MCLs that  I
discussed in my earlier message into dual boot machines. About all that stops
me is (1) time and (2) figuring out how that would affect my ability to use
Symantec Ghost for configuration management. (Ghost can do either linux or
Windows but I don't know how it will do trying to a disk with two OSes in two
different filesystem formats.)

> 4)  Student comfort--more students will be familiar with and own their own
> PCs that run Windows, but REALLY, if you can run Windows you can run a Mac
> and vice-versa.  [IMO the hardest thing to get used to, going from Windows
> to Mac (I have both) is going from the 2-button, scroll wheel mouse to a
> one button mouse.  The former is much more efficient.]  Student are NOT
> going to be familiar with Unix/Linnux but as long as the GUI closely
> resembles the common Windows/Mac environment this isn't a big thing.

        I have been using KDE desktop on my SuSE linux installations (on PCs) and it
is very much like Windows, but minus a lot of the clutter. I have put people
at the keyboard to operate it, unaware that it is linux, and they think it's
a "flavor" of Windows.  One feature I like about linux is that one can have
multiple desktops per user open simultaneously, but that may not be
particularly useful for teaching computers. Some folks like the Gnome or even
the Novell desktops on linux and say that they are quite intuitive and easy
to use as well.

> 5)  Upgrading and customizing.  Perhaps less of a concern today than in the
> past when the technology was changing rapidly, but video technology is
> still developing at a rapid pace.  IF this is important (and it is probably
> less so for physics labs) then be sure that video cards can be upgraded.
> Some cheaper, closed box (cute) systems may not accept custom boards that
> you may want for applications.  This goes back to #1 in some respects--can
> you get data in and out of the computer without a lot a stuff hung on the
> outside of the box.

        Upgrading has long been a problem for Macs, in my experience but probably not
an overriding concern. While Macs may "last longer" before needing extensive
repairs, technological and software updates have produced the net result that
over the last dozen years both our Macs and our PCs got replaced about every
three years. Software advances demanded newer OSes and newer OSes drove the
demand for better processors, memory, and storage --- for both kinds of
computers. Our College has a policy now requiring replacement of computers
older than five years. I don't live close enough to the deep thinkers to know
what all is behind that, but maintenance costs and security issues have been
mentioned as rationales.

        My campus desktop is a Dell Dimension 8200 that is nearly three years old and
it shows no sign of giving up the ghost. I leave it on all the time (in linux
mode) and access it remotely from home frequently. It appears that it may
keep on for a couple of more  years, at least. I suppose the newer Macs may
have similar long lives, especially now that OS upgrades don't require
hardware replacement so often.

        I use my home PC heavily; it never gets turned off since I am usually on the
linux side of it and I use it remotely from the campus while at work. Well,
the rusty, trusty cutting edge P3 box finally wore out ---- right at about
the five year point. Santa had to bring me a new computer this year and he
matched my predudices. It's a Dell Dimension 8400.

Jim

--
James R. Frysinger
Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist
Senior Member, IEEE

http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj
frysingerj@cofc.edu
j.frysinger@ieee.org

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