Mac Lab Report

Mac vs. PC in the Science Lab

Appendix 01. Your Standard Mac vs. PC Flame War

PC: Macs are old tech. PCs are new tech.

Mac: Everything good about Windows - with a few exceptions - was copied from Macs, so why not go with the original instead of an imitation?

PC: There's more software available for PCs.

Mac: Most PC software isn't worth much; the good stuff is cross platform. How much do you need, anyway?

PC: PCs are cheaper.

Mac: Macs last longer.

PC: PCs are used in the real world.

Mac: School is real, too, and lots of graphic design and publishing people use Macs.

PC: Not everyone is going to be a publisher.

Mac: Have you heard of this new thing? It's called the Internet. Everyone is a publisher.

PC: But training students on Windows gets them ready for what they'll use on the job.

Mac: By the time students get to the "real" world, their Windows training will be useless. Windows will change within the academic career of a high school or college student - guaranteed - it's part of the business plan. Why not learn a variety of systems so you can be more adaptable and flexible?

PC: PCs are easier for an administrator to administer over a network.

Mac: Macs are easier for a user to assemble into a network.

PC: AppleTalk is chatty and eats up bandwidth on my network.

Mac: A standard 10Base-T network is hardly taxed by dozens of AppleTalk machines, besides which, I don't need your stinkin' router - gimme a hub and leave me alone.

PC: Macs haven't changed in 16 years.

Mac: PCs have changed - fundamentally - four times in the same span of time. DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 9x to Windows ME/2000/NT represents 4 fundamental changes. Macs have had one fundamental change, to OS X, in 16 years. For each situation, one of these points might be the deciding factor.

Each of these points is debatable, and every Mac vs. PC debate ends with readers flaming each other with such witticisms as "you're an idiot" and "Macs Suck Macs Suck" and "Windows 2000 = Mac 93" and "Two buttons or DIE," so let's just assume that we dedicate a few moments of silence to let that particular spasm pass, and move on. You're here, you're reading this article, and we can guess which side of the fence you're on.

Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.

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More in the Mac Lab Report index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac IIci, introduced 1989.09.20. The fastest Mac to date, the 25 MHz IIci was a real workhorse and a big hit.
February 12 in LEM history: 99: $4,320 for a 'free' iMac - 01: 10 Commandments of Macintosh - High-end word processing for free - 02: 8 OS X gotchas - Working less with my Mac than with my PC - Microsoft Office v. X - 03: New Zealand's Mac mag - 04: Nothing else is a Mac - 07: On Mighty Toaster Wings - Jobs stirs up DRM hornet's nest - OS X 10.2 best for Classic? - 08: Too much software choice is not a blessing - A month with Windows
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