🚀 go-pugleaf

More specifically:
>    1) Cost: PC less expensive

Is that true of a comparable configuration?  ie: with sound card, scsi,
graphics, etc?  If you shop, it gets closer, sometimes PC's end up costing
more.  By all means, if you don't need the extra stuff in a Mac, you
needn't get one.

>    2) Network speed: File transfers from web sites, PC is 7 times faster
>        than the 8100. Copying files from the Mac to a network drive, about
>        the same (PC is 7x faster).

On what kind of a network?  Is the Mac a bottleneck, or is the networking
system?  On our network, Macs and PC's fare about the same.

>    3) Disk drive speed: Save a large file (>=5 megs), PC is 2x faster.

With what sort of software doing what?  I've got some files that save
faster on a Mac, though the PC does tend to deal with getting info onto
disk faster.  Mostly because the Mac spends extra time with file
management and icons.

>    4) Word, Excel, Powerpoint: PC is faster in all cases (varies from just
>        barely faster to 2x or 3x depending on the task)

No wonder, considering Microsoft ported it to the Mac (incredibly slow and
inefficient-blame Microsoft, not the Mac).  Older versions do work better.

>    5) OS stability: NT PC's crash on average once a year. Mac OS, once
>        a week or so. More sometimes.

Try cleaning out your extensions.  v.7.5.5 is reasonably stable, v7.6
isn't quite as stable.  Try mucking with the configuration of your NT and
see if it doesn't crash more often.  Our Macs hardly ever crash.  We have
one NT box that crashes once or twice a month.  I don't know that it's so
much the OS as poorly written software.

>    6) Printing: Same document in Word on both machines: PC is roughly
>        5 times faster to give back control to the user to continue using Word.

Again, Microsoft ported Word. Again, it's the software, not the hardware. 
Again, try cleaning out some extensions.

>    7) OS Productivity: with NT I can hop between working apps and do far 
>        more concurrently than on the Mac. I'm a bright engineer so once I
>        learn the admittedly (in some areas anyway) more complicated file 
>        manager, this is not an issue. My pet pain in the neck for the Mac OS? 
>        I bring up the print menu, and the new menu window lands right on top
>        of something I need to see in the document for some reason. Can I
>        move this window out of the way? NO I CAN'T! Amazing!

It's not the OS as much as it's the application.  Wintel is more
business-oriented.  The Mac is still a graphics machine.  Why would you
need to see something behind the print window?  If you've decided to
print, haven't you already commited to what you've created on screen
anyway?  

> Simply not true, not here at GTE. We get more work done faster on our
> Pentium PC's. 

As it should be.  If PC's are better for your work application, why did
they bother to get Macs?  It's like buying hammers and screwdrivers when
all you do is put in screws.  Sure, you can put in screws with a hammer,
but why would you want to?

> >Mac OS users, when compared with Windows users: 
> >
> >     Spend 38 fewer hours per year fussing with files 
> >     Save U.S.$ 4,950 annually on support and training 
> >     Use more software applications (14.3 vs. 8.3) 
> >     Save U.S.$ 2,211 in their computer's three-year cost of ownership 
> >     Earn U.S.$ 5.01 more per hour 
> >     Constitute 62 percent of the top 10 percent in personal income
> >
> >Mac OS (vs. Windows) firms: 
> >
> >     Earn U.S.$ 12.22 more revenue per hour of labor 
> >     Produce U.S.$ 25,550 more in annual revenue per person 
> >     Create U.S.$ 14,550 more profits per year per person 
> >     Earn 32 percent more net profit per project 
> >     Achieve platform payback in 7.2 months (vs. 13.9)
> >
> >(Source: GISTICS, Larkspur, CA � 1997) 
> 
These statistics are idiotic.  Considering end use, I'm guessing that
firms using whatever they're using are doing different things.  I know of
several video-editing facilities that run only two or three Macs with
maybe six employees.  They bill as much as $500/hr per machine.  That
skews it a bit, doesn't it?  Imagine the sort of statistics they could
come up with if they compared Quantel or Silicon Graphics?

snipped

If you're using a Mac, you should be using it for what it does best; which
is not everyday business.  It does graphics well, it does math great
(really, Matlab and Mathematica really rip on the Mac), it does CAD really
well.  It does business OK.  It's not the machine, it's the software that
you need (that was said, but snipped-I agree).  

As I continue to say:  Computers suck (Mac and Wintel)  It isn't a
question of which is better, but which sucks less for what you're using it
for.