MacBreak Tech > Myths

18 Responses to “Myths”

1. David on January 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm says:

   Software missing on the Mac. Autocad

2. macbreaktech on January 21st, 2008 at 8:28 pm says:

   There was a version that ran on Mac but it was so crippled and buggy that it was soon dropped.

3. Jeremiah Staes on January 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm says:

   Great segment on “toy mac” and “dummy mac.” I still get that when I go on job sites; it’s so annoying.

   So, therefore, since it just works, it’s a toy? I never got that logic.

   Thing is, there are a lot of IT people who want to perpetuate their existence. I constantly see mac networks implemented with a half or a quarter of the people, because, in general, less stuff breaks.

   The business wisdom of Microsoft isn’t making quality products, it’s making products that require 3rd party support. It’s a self-perpetuating system; you’re going to recommend the hardware that keeps you employed. People rarely recommend something that is contrary to their pocketbook, even if it’s a better solution. If someone is MS certified, they have a direct financial incentive to call a mac a toy.

   I am a firm believer (as it has directly affected my organization) that the TCO of Apple is way less than Windows. Simply why PCs sell is that they get people in the door with the low price, and at the end of the up-sell cycle, you’re paying as much as you would of for a mac.

   It’s a very American way to buy/sell – entice with the basement low price and work the customer up. Not saying it’s bad, it’s just the way it is and it works.

   I’d rather pay the real cost out the door, thank you very much.

4. macbreaktech on January 21st, 2008 at 10:46 pm says:

   We didn’t talk much about the TCO or Total Cost Of. It all depends on the organization. Some are built around “Priesthood” ideals and others just want to have a successful business without drama. If you have the latter it doesn’t really matter if you have Macs, Windows or Linux running because whoever is in charge is running that business in a straight forward no nonsense kind of way. But the organization that gives control to what we’ll call tradition IT is where you have airquotes problems /airquotes.

5. Michael on January 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 am says:

   Great show! I’ll admit…I was not a fan of John Foster…but he certainly knows his stuff and conveys it in a clear, concise and intelligent manner (when he’s not cracking his lame jokes at least His Firewire vs USB was especially insightful.

   I am now a convert…

6. Shash on January 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am says:

   This is such a great episode! It’s a prime example of why Podcasters shouldn’t be afraid to step-up to the Geek Mic.

7. Josh on January 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm says:

   I wish you would have talked a bit more about Marketshare. Lots of people think that marketshare = user base, but in reality these are two very different things. Mac users have longer upgrade cycles which adds to the disparity and I think that this affects many perceptions of the mac install base.

   Nevertheless, GREAT SHOW! Best I’ve heard.

   *nice WP theme btw!

8. macbreaktech on January 22nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm says:

   Market share is a tough thing because it’s stats and stats. that is exact numbers and statistics trying to account for what is actually being used. as we know there are lies, damn lies and statistics. meaning that you can bend things to mean whatever you want the numbers to mean. it’s really tough to argue the numbers from HP and Dell combined that when added up are a really big number. thing is, that is just a big number and doesn’t tell the whole story.

   a better number is “the number of IT professionals that switched to Macs in 2007 as their full time computer.” that’s a big number. or the number of CEOs that now carry a Mac because they are sick of dealing with their IT departments ego. that’s a number that is really small. but what’s the story behind it? that’s big!

   another big problem is attrition. this is used to figure out true market size. Mac’s (or Linux machines) may have a longer use cycle but they are summed the same way that PCs are in terms of life. does anyone really believe that a 1999 G4 is still doing a job for me from a statistics point of view? no…

   it may be damning that the analysts have to rethink the way they measure success. it’s one thing to count home runs, touch downs and numbers sold but it’s missing the bigger picture. Barry Bonds may have surpassed Hank Aaron for all time home runs but did his team go on to win a world series? nope. does that make Bonds a big loser? the way the experts see it, yes, all his work was for nothing. go home they said.

   I don’t have the printed version of the copyright notices that came with OS X 10.0. It was a work of art. It contained all the Open Source projects included with the OS. It was page and pages. It was really cool to see how many people, organizations, universities and corporations were involved to make it happen. That alone should be a measure of success.

   the final thing to think about with market share is to think beyond the big numbers and ask what is success in a market? is annual sales per square foot even a consideration? how about customer satisfaction. what about repeat sales to existing customers. or customers recommending products to their friends. or the number one logo on the back windshield of a car besides the car’s logo for the last 24 years.

9. BrandonMoser on January 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 am says:

   John…I would (and I’m sure most people would) like to read the list of softwares (i.e. Outlook = LookOut mail). Thanks.

10. Bryan Clodfelter on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:19 pm says:

    Greetings!

    I want to take issue with your rebuttal of the “Macs are more expensive” myth. Now, you may be correct that Macs and PCs are fairly equally priced if you go to a well-recognized vendor and spec up a low-end PC to an equivalent Mac. I’ve seen that happen, especially if when you try to add the octuple-core Intel part in an attempt to the Mac Pro.
    However, you’re not looking deep enough, and in so doing indeed, not following your own rules. I can’t remember which one of you said this, but essentially, one rule I’ve heard you use is “buy the computer that you need now” (in reference to the “Should I wait for Macworld?” question). With that in mind, let’s take a look at two different machines for two different users (I’d fill in the gaps, but I don’t have enough time at the moment):

    ~ The “Fairly Tech-Saavy Baby Boomer” Machine ~
    This computer needs to be able to run Office-like applications, do web surfing/email, power through intermediate-level image editing, and have enough horsepower to things like compress a couple of seasons of a TV show down to a size suitable for an iPod.

    If you’re buying from Apple, that’s the low-end iMac with an extra gig of RAM. Here’s what you get:

    20″ iMac + Upgrades
    - 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo
    - ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT (128 MB)
    - 2 GB RAM
    - 250 GB hard drive
    Bottom Line: $1350.

    For the PC, let’s try a Dell with Windows Vista Business Edition:

    Inspiron 530 + the new 20″ Dell SP2008WFP monitor
    - 2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo
    - ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro (128 MB)
    - 2 GB RAM
    - 320 GB hard drive
    - (Added Dell A525 2.1 speakers as well as Firewire, Bluetooth 2.0/13-in-one media reader, and 802.11g modules)
    Bottom Line: $1020 (not counting Dell’s constant stream of rebates)

    Summary: Well, the Dell is cheaper by over $300, is faster, and more capable–a gap that increases as specs go up. Of course, you’re missing Mac OS X, iLife, and Apple’s slick design. This conundrum is the classic Mac vs. PC one, and Boot Camp might help tip the balance slightly.

    ~ The “Power User/Gamer” Machine ~
    This machine is suited for the creative/scientific/gaming community out there. Performance at a reasonable price is the object here, and since technical ability at this level is suitably high, I’ll include a third option: a custom PC. I’ll also skip the whole display/audio thing, since the Mac Pro doesn’t include those and it makes configuration comparison simpler. Let’s go:

    Apple Mac Pro
    - Octuple 2.8 GHz Xeon 5500-series
    - 4 GB RAM (4 x 1 GB)
    - Single nVidia GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB)
    - Dual 500 GB hard drives
    - Dual optical drives
    Bottom Line: $3950 (although you can cut off ~$500 if you go the DIY upgrade route)

    Dell XPS 720 + Vista Business Edition
    - Quadruple 2.93 GHz Core 2 Extreme-series (a waste)
    - 4 GB RAM (4 x 1 GB)
    - Single nVidia GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB)
    - Dual 500 GB hard drives
    - Dual optical drives
    Bottom Line: $3190 (although you can cut off $850 if you get the Q6600 and do your own overclocking)

    Quality, Custom-Built Rig (contact me for the Newegg wishlist)
    - Quadruple 3.5 GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 (3.5 GHz is an easy overclock)
    - 8 GB RAM (4 x 2 GB)
    - Dual nVidia GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB each)
    - Dual 500 GB hard drives
    - Dual optical drives

    Bottom Line: $1700-$1800, depending on your aesthetic tastes (cases vary widely in price).

    Summary: An analysis could merit an entire podcast. Suffice it to say that if you’re going for raw scientific-grade processing power, Apple’s solution wins. If you’re working in 3D, or the applications that you’re using aren’t massively multithreaded, the quad-core Dell is considerably cheaper (especially if you take my hint).

    The custom built system blows the living crap out of both the Dell and the Apple configurations, especially if you’re willing to go the “interesting” route and get OS X working on the machine. In the event that you’re working in 3D and need maximal processing power, you can always eliminate the dual-GPU configuration and supporting power supply (lowering the price to ~$1000), and using QMaster, create a rendering farm of three units for the price of a single Mac Pro.

    Well, I hope you found this interesting. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

    Sincerely,

    Bryan Clodfelter
    Senior Hardware Editor
    InsideMacGames.com

11. Bryan Clodfelter on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 pm says:

    (Sorry about the spelling/grammatical errors–I just saw a couple when I re-read my post!)

12. Bryan Clodfelter on January 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm says:

    Sorry–I was going way too fast on that earlier post. I noticed that Apple still has a quad-core configuration available, and with that selected, the price difference between the XPS 720 and the Mac Pro narrows to $500 (that’s assuming that you waste $850 on that Core 2 Extreme processor for the Dell, and you blow a couple hundred dollars on both manufacturers’ overpriced RAM/hard drives).

    Anyway, if you do that, then you’ve got an interesting problem, which is extremely geeky: the Core 2 Duo architecture versus the Xeon architecture (and their supporting components). I’ll leave THAT conversation for another time and place.

    ~Bryan

13. Bryan Clodfelter on January 24th, 2008 at 3:35 am says:

    By the way–just finished the podcast. Couldn’t disagree more about the Mac gaming myth–there are very few games on the Mac, and the tools to port games from DirectX to OpenGL aren’t that great (unless the game has a DirectX 8.1 feature set). This is from the perspective of a beta tester for several major game ports.

14. shash on January 27th, 2008 at 8:11 am says:

    Any idea on the release time for the next MBT, do you have a strict release cycle, do you need someone do shownotes?

15. Paul Brown on February 3rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm says:

    Am I missing the shownotes somewhere?

16. Bob on February 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm says:

    oh yeah, right back after the discussion of the USB 2 speed.
    got it.
    wink wink nudge nudge

17. Sal on February 16th, 2008 at 6:30 pm says:

    [comments go here]

18. David on March 23rd, 2008 at 8:36 am says:

    Painful exercise
    Go into an Apple store. Tons of staff helping the absolutely most clueless customers.

    Maybe the least experienced people feel comfortable asking for a Mac.

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