Apple v. Dell: Mac "A Generation Ahead"


When an independent 'third platform' site like Linux Insider calls it for the Mac, you know that you're not getting a typical pro-Mac slant.

For example, Apple beats Dell at the high-end in a price/value/performance equation when you compare the DP Power Mac G5 with the Dell DP Xeon Precision. Their features match up, but the Mac is up to $1,000 cheaper. Ditto for the PowerBook G4/15" and the 15" Inspiron, although in this instance the Mac price advantage is less than $200.

By contrast, the low-end Dell can bee up to $350 less than an eMac - but it'll huff and puff when you try to run XP on it.

Then there's software. LinuxInsider argues that Mac Office 2004 is so far advanced over Windows XP Office that it ceases to be funny. Second-rate stuff you can palm off to Wintel users doesn't cut it on the Mac platform - its users are too discerning - so the MacBU doesn't try. And while XP has Live Meeting, Linux Insider opines it "looks hokey" next to iChat.

Not that everything's perfect. Obviously, there more software choice on the Windows side of the ledger, and there's missing functionality at the Mac end, whether we're talking games or business software.

But here, the Mac-Linux worlds start to merge and even benefit from their complementary, if very different, takes on Unix. If something's done initially on Linux or BSD, a Mac or Solaris port is "trivial"; a Windows port isn't.

There's more, much more, in this very interesting piece. Take a few minutes to read it in full.

Analysis: One might argue here that the OS X-Linux complementarity is largely down to the fact that Apple isn't a Mac company anymore: in 1997, it experienced a reverse-takeover by a NeXT CEO with a NeXT OS and NeXT engineers. About the only thing that's the same is the Macintosh nameplate.