Re: Advice sought re:office setup (fwd)

[Andreas Ramos <andreas -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

> I am in graphics/multimedia/publishing which is virtually a Mac world. People
> don't even think PC in this world because the PC software is generations
> behind the MAC software.

You haven't seen the stats for the numbers of machines in your branch.
It's 50/50 Mac and PC. Really. For every Mac, there are many many more
PC'c. How many Macs are there, total? Microsoft has shipped 50 million
copies of Windows, with more than a million per month.

Generations behind? Most of the stuff is multiplatform, with simultaneous
release.

The point of the PowerPC is a sea change for Apple: until now, it was
"i'm different!" (just read one of their ads). With the PowerPC, it's "me
too!" It's not called the PowerMac. It's the PowerPEECEE. IBM and
Motorola did not join with Apple to limit themselves into a tiny market
that exists mostly on the West Coast (Macs did very poorly in Europe and
elsewhere). They want to go after the gigantic PC market.

Look, folks, I don't care what one uses. Mac or PC. It's basically
irrelevant: both run Word, both run Pagemaker, both run Cottage Cheese
Xpress. (0r is that Subatomic Particle Xpress?) It's the result, not the
engine, that matters. People ask me what kind of car I have, I say "it's
a red one." As the Germans say: The main thing is that it gets me there.

With LAN's, Powerdrives (does everything for the Mac start with Power?),
Mac-in-DOS, and multiplatform products, any project can work on any
machine.

The only remaining issue is costs. Line up all of the items which can
perform a task: The PC, due to terrific competition from manufacturers
around the world, is very cheap. It is easy to get programs, books,
repair, service, parts, products. PC fax/modems are $20. Take your laptop
to Colombia or Indonesia or Denmark: no problem. Anywhere you can find
service and support at low cost. A solid PC machine for a writer, with no
frills such as 100 Mhz chips etc, is very affordable. I just bought a
desktop PC for my wife's legal secretary: 486 50 Mhz 8MB RAM, ideal to run
Word 6.0, for under $995. That's list price. No fake student ID's, etc. To
advise a newbie or low budget writer to buy a machine that costs triple,
with high end prices for every add on, with the promise that it'll run
"just like a PC" with Word or WordPerfect, is unrealistic or unfair.

If anyone cares to get technical, then Amigas blow Macs out of the
graphics water. It's Amigas, not Macs, that do the graphics for Deep
Space Nine, New Star Trek, seaQuest. It's Amigas that are the engines of
virtual reality arcade games. True multitasking, built-in stereo digital
MIDI, high speed graphics. There's also the Archimedes: a parallel
processor based on the 68000 chip, made by a subsidiary of Olivetti, sold
only in Europe, that is far more advanced than a PowerPC. Oh, and it was
available several years ago. Cheaper than Macs, too.

BTW :) If Amigas are the Scientologists and Mac people are evangelists,
then PC people are Catholics? And DOS is The Universal Religion? With His
Holiness, Saint Bill? This has the makings of a good joke...

yrs,
andreas