[bcab] Re: Are Macs viable for VIs?

MessageI've done Macs since about system 7.0, but had a long gap in between 
rejoined that universe with OS X.  Before going on I should point out that I 
like my Mac mini for what I do with it and I use it every day.  Having said 
which I don't subscribe to the four legs good, two legs bad mentality about 
hardware and software as their fortunes wax and wane.

I would say that the Mac community has a much higher proportion of "fan boys" 
(and "fan girls" too now).  This is partly becuase Apple have a very well oiled 
public relations machinery that project a warm fuzzy side to a business that is 
just as much a big American corporation, Microsoft in contrast just doesn't.  
The difference is Macs have a small but loyal customer base, PCs are everywhere 
and considered utilitiarian because of it.  Steve Jobs is an industry icon and 
very charasmatic when on form and it is in no small measure due to him that 
Apple have turned round the decline of the 90s, and he obviously thinks so too 
given some of the public reports about purchase of stock options in the company 
are to be believed.  Whatever you believe about all of that the Mac is a good 
platform.

Desktop publishers and other graphic arts disciplines have used Macs because 
they were the first to deliver what they needed and it is mostly a question of 
lyalty and what knowledge has been accumilated that means it still floats.  
Similarly it is true that Pro Tools audio systems have run on Macs until quite 
recently but it will run just as well on a properly configure Windows PC 
(usually bundled in) mind you with those don't expect much change out of 
£15,000, so hardly relevant for most people.  Also many of the big graphic and 
desktop publishing titles are vailable in Windows, there is no longer this 
clear gulf between the two camps (especially now they all run on Intel chips).  
Some in the Mac community who started out in the earlier days criticize so of 
new methods used in the newer operating systems I remember die hards bemoaning 
the way OS X handles fonts.

OS X 10.4 looks good but actually is not even as clean as it once was, it also 
now borrows one or two things off Windows, but the traffic goes the other way 
too.  It is a different way of working that some find simple if they come to it 
first, as a primarily PC person some of these were harder to get one's head 
around.  There are one or two producitivit things in Windows I don't have an 
exact equivolent of in Moc OS, for example an equivolent of "Send to" in a 
shortcut menu is not really available, I use this quite a lot in Windows.  One 
thing that will get users quickly who switch and are used to PCs is that the 
commercial at sign is mapped to shift+number row 2 even on a UK keyboard 
whereas on a PC desktop it is the other way around by default.  After a while 
you get used to this but it could drive you nuts.  I find generally I drop into 
Mac mode when on the Macs and back to PCs but I think you do have to be 
adaptable to do this because whilst the differences are quite subtle mostly 
they are real.

Although Apple do their own business software actually Microsoft Office is what 
most people want on their Macs for serious work.  This application suite as of 
Office 2004 is not accessible to VoiceOver however.  I find that the navigation 
seems tedious in VoiceOver and more shaping is needed to make it really fly for 
the averagely commited user, to balance that there are one or two things it 
might be nice to see in a Windows screen reader.  Where the money or drive to 
really push that comes from I cannot tell other than Apple themselves who have 
plenty other things to do and to incorporate it into the price of the entire 
O/S.  The VisioVoice heralds what I have long thought; that third party 
developers will have to get involved to really puch things along, hopefully 
with better success than in the past.

I mainly use my Mac mini as a media centre which it is ideal for housing my 
iTunes library etc.  Apart from that I use it for admin, web and email mainly 
rather than anything specific though I have done a bit of audio, run Cubase and 
other stuff.  I liked my Mac mini because at the time there wasn't anything as 
small and cute as that on the market and I had some Mac knowledge already.  
There is however at this level nothing I can do with the Mac mini that I 
couldn't with a PC and the right software, and if you are into free software 
there is definitely less of that on the Mac platform, choice is nowhere near as 
extensive as on the PC for all its faults.

I suppose what I am saying is, the difference is not as clear cut, what you 
have to remember about the Mac is that as a platform it does not have te user 
base of PCs therefore you don't hear so much nasty stuff about it, its a little 
bit like that any major computing platform or software.  So whilst a small user 
base means it is not so big a target for viruses and worms despite what the 
likes of Norton would have you believe, the downside is that there is sometimes 
less choice and sometimes less freely available knowledge to make use of.

Price wise Apple hardware is still more expensive that anything of a good PC 
variety.  Apple in partly have some fairly steep pricing options for things 
like memory and hard drive sometimes costing double what it should bearing in 
mind that many of the options are the exact same components sourced for a mid 
to high range PC and therefore can easily be brought cheaper.

Some on the anti-Microsoft camp may say well its a done deal VISTA is rubbbish 
OS X 10.5 will walk away with it all, I expect however it will be a mixture 
here once the fuss has died down.  Also if you like downloading music with file 
sharing or BitTorrent, indulge in cracked software you are better off with 
Windows XP there won't be anything for you in the short term with VISTA.  One 
should also bear in mind that Apple is eyeing up the consumer market just as 
keenly as Microsoft apear to be doing with VISTA right now.  Issues of security 
and content protection, interface design verses accessibility therefore are 
likely to rear their ugly heads on all platforms wishing to jump on the 
entetainment bandwagon.

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

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