Apple hardware [was: From a NY Times Bestseller]

[Ben Scott]

On 7/11/06, Christopher Chisholm <christopher.chisholm at syamsoftware.com> wrote:
> I'm sure with a quick google I could easily find this out, but... the
> Intel processors that Macs are using; are they just a regular x86
> pentium?  or are they actually a different architecture?

  To the best of my knowledge, the Intel processors are the exact same
parts that Dell, Gateway, et. al., put in their computers.  The same
applies to HDD, RAM, and many video cards.

> I guess what I'm really wondering, are modern Macs just PCs with fancy
> cases?

  To a very real extent, that is true.  They have Apple-specific
firmware to enable certain magic, but since there is no true standard
firmware in the IBM-PC world, it isn't like one can call it
"non-standard".  Ditto the motherboard -- sure, it's unique to Apple,
but one can say the same thing about Compaq and their DeskPro line.

  To be sure, most Apple stuff is still pretty well designed and built
(especially compared to your typical no-name clone).  But these days,
their true edge is in software, not hardware.

> Additionally, I remember when I was working for the Merrimack school
> district, they ordered a lab of apple iMacs for one of the elementary
> schools.  I can't speak for other versions of the hardware but lots of
> those ended up having many problems; overheating, disk failures, etc.

  The original "fruity" iMac designs had very poor cooling.  Apple
liked to tout the fanless design as quieter, but that design assumed
very good conditions, which often don't exist in the real world.  That
led to lots of heat-related problems in many environments.  Too much
heat doesn't always mean an over-temp shutdown -- it also leads
directly to premature component failures.

> Am I wrong believing that pretty much any software you can get for Mac OS
> you can find equivalents (or even the same software) for in other operating
> systems?

  Any statement like that is pretty much guaranteed to be wrong for
many corner cases.  It's not a very useful way to look at things,
anyway.  It doesn't matter what arbitrary software you can or can't
run; what matters is if the software *you* need is available.  And the
answer to that question can vary quite a bit.  For many people, Mac vs
Wintel vs Linux vs whatever doesn't really matter, because all they do
is read email and browse the web.  Maybe write a letter to Aunt Tilly
every now and again.  All of that can be done on just about anything.