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

["James R. Frysinger" <frysingerj@COFC.EDU>]

Who-eeee! This ought to start a debate nearly as lively as the ones we saw in
September and October, prior to the national election.

This debate has been going on in our department since January 1993 that I can
attest to. At that time, Macs had the sinecure and were "unanimously"
preferred --- until I opened my big yap. I greatly preferred PCs, though I
migrated to vastly preferring Linux on a PC as opposed to Windows.

Sometime after I arrived on the scene other PC/Linux fans were hired. Nearly
three years ago I took the position of Physics Lab Manager and a year later
we had a decision to make, similar to yours. Our locally procured and
supported computer lab (~16 computers) needed total replacement. I again
opened up and questioned the automatic statements whether those new units
should be Macs or PCs. We tried unsuccessfully to find the answers to the
questions similar to the ones you ask below.

A department vote was taken and Macs won by 1 vote. Folks (especially the Mac
fans) were flabbergasted at the narrow margin. (Sure sounds familiar, doesn't
it!) Our department is roughly split evenly between Astronomers and
non-Astronomers and the vote was secret so I cannot say for sure whether it
split "along party lines". I know of some Astronomers in our department who
detest Macs and work in Linux on PCs or in Unix on SPARCs. I know
non-Astronomers who wouldn't touch a PC without protective gloves. So I doubt
that the decision point depends a whole lot on whether Astronomy is a big
factor. (One of our two big players in the Gamma Ray Burst field uses a Mac
and one uses Linux/PC, for example.)

Well, the vote was so close that the Chair got bold and said that if we ever
got a second computer lab, it could be a PC-lab. Lo and behold, money became
available later that year to set up a Mobile Computing Lab (a MCL = 10
laptops in a secure, wheeled cabinet). I bought HP Compaqs. Now we have a
second MCL and it, too, comprises 10 HP Compaq laptops for ease of
configuration control. Our MCL computers run Windows XP Pro. Those MCLs are
used for **both** Astronomy and non-Astronomy classes and labs, as is our
"fixed" Mac computer lab.

It turns out, especially now that Mac has gone to a linux type of OS, there
does not seem to be a whole lot of difference between Macs and PCs anymore
regarding capabilities. Educational software is usually available for both;
when not, we find that some is available only for Macs and some only for
Windows/PCs.

In my view, Macs are still a more expensive route to go for a comparable
computer. Also, it is fairly clear that students have a longer learning curve
to traverse with Macs --- probably some 90 to 95 % of our students are more
familiar with PCs than they are with Macs when they come to us. (Mac's market
share is sometimes quoted as ~3 % by cnet.com and others.)

Macs are much less likely to be attacked by Unauthorized Users or viruses,
worms, etc. than PCs. That's a reflection of market share. But we have a
robust campus-network-served Symantec AV program that can even be used on
home computers by faculty. On campus computers have the definitions "pushed"
rather than needing to have them manually "pulled" by the users.

Where possible, we use a lot of Open Source stuff: OpenOffice, Mozilla or
FireFox, Xfig, LaTeX editors, etc. And now more of those are available for
the OS X Macs since that is a BSD-based Linux system.

Our College just moved into its new library. I saw 300 brand new computers
there for general use and they were all PCs. There may have been a few Macs
but I didn't see them. (Most of the other computer labs around campus are
PC-based as well.) I know that our IT types greatly prefer to work on PCs
because they see so few Macs that they seem strange to work on and because
the campus network is now better geared and tuned to mesh with PCs; I think
they would like to see our campus standardize on PCs but that will never
happen. Academic Freedom, you know....

John, I didn't answer any of your questions, but I hope that our recent
experiences might provide perspective. The bottom line is that it probably
doesn't make a **lot** of difference due to software. But look at what
software you like to run and see what platforms it can run on. The
distribution of personal opinion (and here I would include the students'
opinions) is probably your best indicator other than, perhaps, price tag.

That's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Jim

On Monday 24 January 2005 22:07, 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/

--
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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