<Admin: This message was orginally sent by Michael Gerdau [mgd@...] intended for the LUG.> Hi ! Why has the (IMO outright wrong) part below not been edited out ? >Besides, part of the reason that the Mac platform is superior *is* >the fact that there are very few hardware combinations (vastly >less possibility for conflicts). On a purely statistical level, >you've got a great chance of getting a bum PC that doesn't work >with certain software or hardware. I certainly appreciate that f-erenc is as satisfied as he is with the Mac platform. Since it does the work for him he's doing that is very good. However I do have a different view: Very recently I've carefully evaluated the Mac platform for myself. At the end of the day I had to conclude that Macs are inferior to PCs in a couple of areas: - overall performance is almost half of that of an equally equipped PC. - Macs don't scale as much as PCs do; you simply can't buy any 8-way MP Macs (not talking about 32-way machines). - all available OS prior to OSX are more crashprone by design due to inferior system architecture of the OS (e.g. no memory protection). - OSX is brand new and judging from the amount of serious bugs Apple is fixing not yet a mature OS. Admittedly this will change with time. Therefor on the long run OSX probably will be on par with W2K and WXP (not talking about Linux). - last not least the available software while probably sufficient in many aspects is limited and clearly not sufficient in all areas (e.g. databases, Application servers and webservices in general). [Note that I'm able to provide references to proof the above claims in case they are challenged] W/r to reliability Mac machines are on par with decent Dell, IBM or other "branded" makes (note that this removes the cost advantage often claimed for PCs). FWIW I'm sure the above mail would not have made it into the list (and rightfully so -- we don't need a new war :-) However outright claiming the Mac platform is superior IMO is - simply wrong - enough to start a flamewar and thus should be avoided. My thoughts, best, Michael Gerdau -- Vote against SPAM - see http://www.politik-digital.de/spam/ Michael Gerdau email: mgd@... Windows, the Vanilla Ice of Software. PGP-keys available on request or at public keyserver