Eli the Computer Guy

Archive for the ‘Mac’ Category

Now hold on a second.  Before the Mac zealots start giving me knowing nods of approval, and the anti Mac people start asking to see if my tongue is stained purple from Kool Aid let me take a second to explain.

The fact is that 6 months ago I did not believe Macs were the right thing from almost all consumers.  And, I do not believe that within a few years Macs will still be the right thing for most people. But right at this second in time, and for at least a year or two, I do believe that by and large people should buy Macs.

The reason for this is that although Windows XP was a great operating system Windows Vista is an abomination.  I cannot look anyone in the eye and honestly say that they should use Vista.  Windows 7 will be out by the end of the year, but I am less then impressed with what I’m hearing about it.  Basically the reviewers say it’s better then Vista, but arguably so is a Commodore 64.

With the Microsoft’s blunder with Vista there is now more talk then ever about Linux.  Frankly I do believe that Linux is the future. For far more reasons then I can go into here I fully believe that within a decade Linux will be the primary operating system of the world. BUT, it ain’t there yet.  For computer power users Linux might be a good alternative right now.  At the moment though most of my clients don’t really understand what an operating system is so the though of them fully diving into the world of open source is not a pretty one.

On Top of these two things is the fact that the quality of the PC’s produced and warrantees that go with them seems to have greatly diminished.  Once mighty brands like Sony and Toshiba have allowed their products to go to pot.  You would like to think that the name on the PC and the price you pay for that brand name would mean something, but they don’t.  We see just as many manufacturer defects for Sony’s as we do for Dell’s.

So in a world where the major players are producing products that are actually worse then what they are replacing what do you buy?  I would say you should buy a Mac.

I have no love for Macs, and I stated my disgust for their business model many times while I was on the Ed Norris Show.  But the fact is they have a very high quality product.  They manufacture well designed, durable systems and they stand behind their product if there is a defect.  Additionally their operating system really is pretty secure.  You do not have the virus and spyware issues that you do on Windows computers.  This is due to how the operating system is built.  It is simply harder to hack a Mac then it is a PC.

Additionally now that they have Boot Camp built into the Mac operating system, and there are Windows Emulators available,  you can even run your Windows software on a Mac if you need to.

The second worry people have after they feel comfortable with the idea of using a Mac is the price.  What you should look at though is the TCO, or Total Cost of Ownership for a computer.  This means what is the price of the computer from the point you buy it to the point you get rid of it.  If you do the numbers honestly you will find the Mac is cheaper.

First you do not have to spend $50 per year on antivirus software, which means for a 5 year life span you will save $250 with a Mac. Second there are no maintenance fees for a Mac.  For Windows systems we charge $150 for a tuneup and $200 if the computer is infected with viruses and we have to reinstall the operating system.  This is a cost you do not have with Macs.  I sat down with my Mac guys a few months ago to see how to come up with a Mac tuneup like we have for Windows, and found there was just nothing to do. Macs don’t need tuneups.

Generally your Mac will either work, or it will be dead. With Macs there’s  not very much middle ground.

Please take this advice.  Buy a Mac for your next computer.  If you can get over the sticker shock, and the learning curve of something slightly different then you’re used to, then you will be much happier then if you buy a PC.

Once you decide Mac is the way to go there are a couple of things to keep in mind.  The sales staff at the Mac stores can put the Geek Squad to shame on pure arrogance and snottiness.  Every time I have to deal with them I have to fight the urge to remind them that they are retail employees, and not the engineers that created the products they are selling. (I literally walked out of a Mac store once when I was going to buy a test system for our store (credit card in hand)  and  lost my temper with the sales guy.)

Additionally remember that these employees are not the "geniuses" that they make themselves out to be.  If you are looking to implement Macs for a business or an environment larger then your home find a Mac consultant. (In Baltimore Chesapeake Systems is a good example. http://www.chesa.com/)

And you should always buy the Apple Care package if you purchase anything other then a Mac Mini.  This is their extended warranty program.  Macs can be EXTREMELY expensive to fix.  A Mac motherboard is not a $100 item, it can be up to $799 just for the motherboard.

Keep these things in mind and you will be happy with the results.

The Domain is dead.  It, and many technicians, just don’t know it yet.  For years I have built, installed and maintained Windows Servers for my clients.  I have wrestled with CALs, implemented security policies, and tried to explain to my clients why any of this was worth the time and money.  Now as my company fully embraces hosted solutions I find that Windows based servers are an expensive, fault prone, waste of energy.  But even as we move most of my clients services to the cloud the fact remains that they still will need some type of file server on their site.

For this we will start selling our clients Mac Mini’s with just a few add ons.  The reason for this is that the Mac platform is very stable and resistant to viruses and malware.  They have Gigabit and Wireless Networking built in.  They are small and have low power consumption.  And frankly they’re physically built better then just about any windows PC on the market.

The basic setup will include the Mac Mini with Mozy.com installed on it.  Mozy.com is online backup software that is compatible with Macs.  And then we will have an external hard drive connected to the system configured so that Time Machine (Macs built in backup software) will point to it.

This way we have a highly reliable system to host their files.  It will perform daily online backups in case of a major disaster.  And it will perform local backups so that even if the Mac Mini does fail we will just need to buy another one and within an hour they’ll be back up and running.

Additionally with the growing popularity of Macs there is more software being created to perform the tasks that you used to need a Windows Server for.  And if you’re good with a putty knife you can upgrade the internal hard drive to 500GB and give it 2 GB of RAM.

As always please know that I am far from a Mac zealot.  I actually despise many of their business practices, and I don’t really like their systems. BUT… "I did not leave Microsoft.  Microsoft left me."