"MAC pc's versus IBM compatible pc's in the office"

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Request for Question Clarification by kriswrite-ga on 24 Jun 2004 08:30 PDT

Some of this might depend upon what you're doing in the office. For
example, are you doing graphic design? Publishing? Or just word
processing, emailing, and the like?

Kriswrite

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Clarification of Question by chet1234-ga on 24 Jun 2004 10:02 PDT

It's for a typical business enviornment. Not for graphic design. Word
processing, email, internet access, spread sheets, database ect. I'm
looking for comparisions to make a decision of the better fit.

PCs win EVERY time!

(But not IBM please ... There are lots of other makes.)

This is an age old debate.  Which is better?  I'm not sure there is a
clear answer to this question.  You have forgot another option however
- IBM compatible running Linux.

In my opinion just choose the cheapest option that can meet all the
requirements you wish to fulfill.

I'm really surprised you even have a choice to ask. Whatever you
choose, it's necessary to be consistent with the choice as well as
understand the learning curve that the users will be needing, if you
choose something with which they are not already familiar.

At this point in life, etc, what factors brought you to your question?
Because of the ubiquitous nature of Word, interoperability with others
who would have Word and send you Word documents is a necessity.

Actually, come to think of it, you're probably OK no matter what. You
might choose OpenOffice.org for your office suite, as that has some
cross platform capabilities, plus is able to open Office 2000
documents, plus it's GPL, which gives you freedom to copy it.

It is, indeed, all a matter of opinion, but while Macs still have a
slight advanatage over non-Macs when it comes to graphic design
applications, film editing, etc., for everyday office work a non-Mac
is, I think, best. Number one, it will be cheaper. And number two, it
will be more compatible with other computers and programs.

Kriswrite

Depends on how big you are. If you're a fairly sizeable organisation
you can use a somewhat less popular, but more suitable solution, eg
Central Scotland Police with StarOffice -
http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/6.0/successstories/CSP.html
- because you can do your own customising and in house training; if
you're a smaller organisation you're probably going to make do with
whatever MS suite is shipped with your new PC.

Owain

I have worked in environments with Windows PCs and in all-Mac
environments. Although Macintosh has its advantages in
graphics-related businesses, I think Windows PCs are a more versatile
choice. I've never worked in a large-scale open-source environment, so
I can't comment on that from a personal standpoint.

Here's a list of arguments with some good statistics, all of them for the Mac:
  http://www.13idol.com/mac/macfacts.html
Hardly ballanced, but interesting reading.

Windows PCs are definitely cheaper initially.  But Macs don't have
running costs; no viruses, no worms, no system reinstalls -- they just
work.  Macs hold their value for years and years.

[I am not a Google researcher.]