Apple Or PC?

coupe 02

ok heres a dilemma for ya..... i dont want biased views on this....

were setting up our new office with equipment. Server, 8 pc's etc.....

anyone got views on wether we should go for apple or pc.

apple server - control smtp mail, internet, and data storage.
8 pc's -microsoft office or equivelent. 8 microstations - rival to autocad drawing package......

or
pc - xp 2003 - smtp email, internet, data stroage
8 pc's - office xp, 8 autocads


and what would be advantages, disadvantages, pros, cons

BigEejit

Apple = higher total cost of ownership (replacement parts, training, more expensive initial outlay), but overall a better OS and less susceptible to viruses.

PC's = cheaper (although some may argue, and seeings as this is boards.ie - someone WILL argue) to administer (more jobless peeps with MCS*'s out there than you could shake a stick at, hire one for a few months to get your network secure and those PC's locked down (in a software sense)), cheap parts etc etc

Heresy

I work with OS X and windows xp in work.
If I were to give a preference i'd definitely go with xp. Much faster, everything is either automatic or plug & play and it has quite good self manageability functions, such as auto. updates.
On the other hand, the Mac doesn't seem to get targeted by viruses (such as the Blaster worm). Another small thing is that the G3 doesn't have a floppy disk drive, not sure about the later models. They can be quite useful even in this day and age.

Avoid OS Classic if possible, they don't (readily) talk to windows machines.

Mac daddy

Originally posted by Heresy
On the other hand, the Mac doesn't seem to get targeted by viruses (such as the Blaster worm)

Should hope so that was a win 2000 Xp Server 03 exploit, not a MAC exploit or a 98/95.
Only windows

Adrian

Microsoft based PC definitely. You will find it a lot easier to get software upgrades and such for Windows.

Mac daddy

^^nice sig LOL:D

Adrian

thanx urs is cool too man

sceptre

Get a room, you two:)


The Apples will cost you more on day one.

I'd like an Apple myself to be honest.

PhilipMarlowe

Do you mean for the workstations to be apples too? AFAIK, latest microstation only works on windows... my brother is an architect and he was telling me sometning about it. He got a dell workstation because of this.

In work we have a mixed setup, MS server and mostly win 2000 but for any design type work (mostly printing posters for our store on an epson 9600) I use a G4 apple with a 23" cinema display.

unkel

Originally posted by Heresy
On the other hand, the Mac doesn't seem to get targeted by viruses (such as the Blaster worm).

A virus doesn’t hurt you if you have a decent and up-to-date virus scan program installed, which is imperative on any company network - even on a completely internal local area network (no access to other networks or the internet). You also need this on a Mac environment.

Therefore from a business perspective, this is a non-argument

Heresy

Therefore from a business perspective, this is a non-argument

What do you mean? At this rate, they are both equally supceptible to viruses, not sure that is actually true. In our place, there's a huge focus on anti-virus software for windows and comparably none for Macs. There's never been an ounce of trouble with the Mac machines in that regard. Hackers hate microsoft, it's as simple as that.

jesus_thats_gre

Surely it would just be easier to stick with a Windows based server if all the workstations are going to be Windows as well... What is the reason for considering the Apple server by the way?

lotas

well, the reason for picking a apple server over a windows sevrer is 1) the xserve (www.apple.com/xserve) is one sweet looking system, has up to 2 chips, and just rocks. 2) no licensing problems. you get a copy of OSX Server with the xserve and it has unlimited client licenses. so your 8 machines now can connect without problem and if you add a futher 8 or 80, its free to add them. 3) it trounces the compitition in the benchmark results from apple. that being said, when has apple, or for that matter any company, told the thruth in their benchmark results? 4) apple has the easy admin feature for osx. if you have an apple workstation you can easly admin the box without needing to find a spare monitor/kb/mouse to fix it. or you could just plug in a kb/mon/mouse and use it that way. 5) if you want extra space you can get the xserve raid (www.apple.com/xserve/raid). it hosts up to 2.8tb i think. the xserve its self is 780gb hdd space or something. sweet system. ok, it costs a lot more then a dell server (probably depending on whay you get from dell) but the os is about $500 for 10 licenses or $999 for unlimited. ms start at about 500 for 5 licenses and add an extra 250 (iirc) for 10 licenses or is it 5. and you only have to think about os software later on. you get the unlimited license with the box its self.

Capt'n Midnight

Look at the costs of what you are proposing to buy and then work back.

Basically its an AutoCAD v.s Microstation question ?
The next question is - do you want RAID on the server ?

Either CAD package will cost several times the price of an entry level machine. And RAID is relatively expensive on Apple Servers.

If you could use a GNU CAD pakage then could use the OS that suits it (generally PC) ..
=================================

If it wern't for the need for CAD I would have said you could cut costs by getting www.openoffice.org instead of Microsoft Office (the MAC version is stuck in Beta 'cos there fewer developers)

Another option would to use Linux - software costs ZERO and very little chance of someone installing timewasting software. IT support costs & user training would be higher though..

flangeman

I think we have to look at what you use it for.

My Miss'es both an iBook and I have to say I'm so impressed I'm starting to look into purchasing a powerbook. I do some video stuff and to be honest its time I went legit. As it was said to me, with a win machine you just end up tweaking, patching, uninstalling, re-installing, trying to improve performance and the problem of a piece of software(windows) that has to run on hundreds of suppliers hundreds of products in thosands of different cominbations. Whereas with Apple your buying into one operating system and hardware supplier, and they run in complete unity(the benefit) but your locked in(the loss). But is that really much of a problem? Don’t we just normally just put an extra bit of ram in our machines, sure we change the graphics card but I don’t know, I want to get away from games and start doing something more creative, I need a machine to be ready for word processing and video and stable as hell. And these babys seem to be it for a little more money. And my technophobe partner, she picked it up in no time. It just works and works well.

lotas

im just saying the raid is an option for down the road if needed. and you could have windows clients or apple clients, or linux ones for that matter. it doesent matter. the apple serves all. im talking about the server though.