[Hidden-tech] Mac vs PC (was: Does this sound like a good computer deal?)

[Michael Muller]

All I can say is both machines have their problems. They're computers, and anyone who says one is fool proof or perfect is in denial.

I am on the board of MCTV in Montague and we purchased a pretty hefty Mac for editing last January. The thing has not worked properly in the year we've had it. We'vre reinstalled the OS four times, re-formatted all the hard drives, both internal and external, three times, upgraded the OS to the very latest, swapped the DVD burner, and still it doesn't work right for video editing.  And every Mac person who comes in shakes their head in bewildered amazement saying "I don't understand... my Mac at home never ever crashes and works like a dream."

Denial.  It's just another computer with millions of lines of code just to turn the thing on, running software someone else wrote that has millions of lines of code, and all that code has to play nice with hardware that was made by four other companies in other countries. The video I linked to explains my entire life's experience with the four or five macs I've come into contact with.

Michael


At 11:57 AM 1/19/2007, Joseph Steig wrote:
>Wow Michael. As a PC user who loves Macs, I know you've just started a
>flame war! I assume you have edited movies on both platforms? People I
>know who do semi-pro movie making all use Macs and for a beginner and
>home user, there isn't a contest with iMovie. And my brother uses macs
>for linux--pretty technical if you ask me. And lots geeks I know have
>switched for the same reason. Just us business users who are stuck!
>
>Joseph
>------
>www.steig.com
>
>On 1/19/07, Michael Muller <michael at mullertech.com> wrote:
>>   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
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>>
>>
>>Well, I have to disagree. You don't know what most people are going to do
>>with their machines. Computers are getting faster and wider and deeper to
>>the point where an average machine is more robust than the machines they
>>used only five years ago to edit and render major motion pictures. Knowing
>>that, and the number of video cameras flying off the shelves every year, and
>>movie editing software being included in both baseline operating systems,
>>some people may start shooting all kinds of footage and editing right on
>>their computer to burn to DVD. Once you start doing video hard drive space
>>becomes quite important. 300gb of space is enough room for three or four
>>finished 1/2 hour projects, and then it starts getting cramped.
>>
>>As for the differences between the Mac and the PC, this video (link below)
>>about sums it up for me. True, the PC has many many more peculiarities, but
>>they're known and, to me, understandable. With the Mac, who knows what
>>lurks? They've made a career of dumbing-down and obfuscating the technical.
>>Sometimes this is good. For me it's very frustrating.
>>
>>(Warning, there is some language in here that may be objectionable to some
>>people, and I'm not just talking about Mac lovers, though in general it's
>>not intentionally offensive.)
>>
>>http://youtube.com/watch?v=RrlW_fgWMR8
>>
>>Michael
>>
>>
>>>I agree here.  *I* have never understood the reason for a putting a
>>>300gb SATA drive on a *PC*.  Unless one is downloading (in a wholesale
>>>manor) complete feature films in digital form (eg pirated DVDs) or
>>>something, what do you really need 300gb for?  I do software
>>>development and have come nowhere near filling up my 36gig disk. The
>>>current breed of iPods have on 30gig, so 300gig would be enough for 10
>>>iPods worth of music. At roughly 1 meg/1 minute, this is about 300*1024
>>>minutes or aboout 300,000 minutes or 5000 hours or 208 *days* of music.
>>>
>>>So, unless one is doing things involving image understanding research (I
>>>worked for awhile at UMass at the Computer Vision Reearch Lab) 300gb is
>>>a truely excesive amount of disk space.  Really.  Sort of like using a
>>>40' tractor trailler to get a week's worth of groceries for a family of
>>>four...
>>>
>>
>>--------
>>Michael Muller
>>Muller Technologies
>>24 3rd Street
>>Turners Falls, MA 01376
>>work:  (413) 863-0030
>>cell:   (413) 320-5336
>>skype: michaelBmuller
>>http://support.MullerTech.com
>>
>>Eschew Obfuscation
>>
>>
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--------
Michael Muller
Muller Technologies
24 3rd Street
Turners Falls, MA 01376
work:  (413) 863-0030
cell:   (413) 320-5336
skype: michaelBmuller
http://support.MullerTech.com

Eschew Obfuscation