Re: Macs with PC cards

[gregm@magi.com (Greg Marshall)]

> We are in the process of acquiring hardware to equip a multimedia
> platform for classroom use and, of course, the religious question of
> whether to go Mac or PC has arisen. One suggestion is to purchase a
> PowerMac with one of the PC add-in boards and have the best of both
> worlds (or the worst).

I don't know about the new versions, but several schools in our system
purchased PPC 6100 DOS compatibles. I worked with one for a summer and can
report the following:
-they work, but not particularly well
-you need dedicated RAM on the DOS card or the speed is too slow to be
pleasant to use
-they drive the network support people nuts, because you can have only one
protocol active in one environment at a time (ie, TCP-IP support in either
Mac or DOS/Win, not both). New cards may get around this
-things like sound, CD ROM, modems and printers are a pain, as the resident
drivers on the Mac side (for GV modems for example) can block the mapping
of the ports from the DOS side. Again, some newer cards offer you a
parallel port as an option.

Most of the users in our board have ripped the DOS cards out as a result.

With Pentium systems moving into the $1000 price range the argument for a
coprocessor card is not that strong.

Comments are opinion and I may have missed some key stuff in getting them
to work right, but at least I read the instructions before I complain...

Summary: a lot of bother for not much saving in money.
Greg