Date:         Fri, 1 Feb 2008 22:08:35 -0800
Reply-To:     Shawn Wright <vwdiesels@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Shawn Wright <vwdiesels@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: NVC - MS vs Mac
In-Reply-To:  <f05100302c3c9a2b4bb0c@[203.167.171.243]>
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On 2 Feb 2008 at 18:19, Andrew Grebneff
<andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ> wrote:

> >I've been told they are rock solid.
>
> Uh... depends. My G3 & G4 are anything BUT stable, on both OS9.2 &
> 10, but this is a problem sitting somewhere in my harddrive... as it
> has followed the HD from one computer to another. Generally Macs
> DON'T crash... whereas Windoze does so often. And in theory Macs
> NEVER 4need the OS reinstalled.

Have to disagree on this one. I suspect the current OSX is probably pretty solid when treated
responsibly, due to its BSD roots. But my last in-depth experience with Mac OS is several
(closer to 10...) years old now, and it was pretty sad on the late 90s model PowerPCs, where
our Mac lab crashed more often than the win9x machines (which were very sad...)
However, since standardizing on NT4, then 2K, and now XP, I can say Windows is pretty
solid, both on the desktop, and on servers (where it always has been). I'm speaking of 300
campus PCs which do not crash, outside of a hardware fault. Uptime on servers is limited
only by availability of steady power (sometimes our generator doesn't kick in during outages),
or need for reboots due to updates. Back when we ran NT4 servers (last one taken down last
month, but lives on in a VM), 300+ days of uptime was not unusual. In 10 years of managing
Windows servers for ~600 users, I've not had a server crash that wasn't due to a hardware
failure. And I can count those on one hand... ok, maybe two :-)
I should qualify this by stating that all of these machines sit behind a Linux firewall, which is
also crash-free over 10 years. I expect Windows servers/PCs would be substantially less
stable/secure if not protected by the firewall. Most consumer windows crashes are due to an
exploit of malware of some type (which is usually due to a fault in the OS and the poor sod
running IE instead of a real browser). But in a secure, managed environment, windows is
quite stable.
One could construe from the above that if you do not run in a secure, managed environment,
that a Mac is a better choice. Perhaps this is true for some. For me, I'd rather manage a PC
properly, than try to get a Mac to work the way I want.

As someone else said, Mac users tend to be more err... vocal about their preferred system.
After all, it's not cool to defend M$, now is it. But Apple is cool - I admit it. I'm not a Mac user,
but nor am I a M$ fan (I use OpenOffice, Pegasus Mail, Firefox, etc...). If the current crop of
PowerBooks weren't so flaky and overpriced, I'd buy one... but I'd run XP on it. :-)


Shawn Wright
http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels
'88 Westy 1.6TD 5 speed
'85 Jetta Diesel 1.6NA