Mac Users Sound Off On Mac vs. Dell Comparisons.

If there’s a bigger surprise in computing the past couple of years, it’s that Macs are no longer MORE EXPENSIVE than comparable PCs running Windows. In fact, at the very low end, there’s little to separate the cheapest PC from Dell and the lowly eMac from Apple.

Surprise? Feature for feature, the eMac holds its own against the Dell. Yes, the Dell “box” is less expensive, but doesn’t come with as much as a Mac.

How about the high end? Common thinking is that Mac again is more expensive. Guess what. Our comparisons this past week had difficulty finding a comparable high end Dell PC (feature for feature) as inexpensive as the fastest dual CPU PowerMac you can buy.

What did Mac users have to say about the “news?”

Ask Mac users a question and you’ll get answers. We got answers. Wednesday was the comparison of the eMac and the cheap Dell Dimension? What did Mac users have to say? Plenty. For example, reader “pehowland” chimed in:

“As others have said, you can easily remove about $100-150 worth of the extras you added to the Dell without bothering most people wanting a low end machine - and in most cases you could replace them with open source alternatives.  The GIMP is a fine photo editor (and runs on Windows).  OpenOffice is a good free alternative to Word. And so on. 

To the reader who commented that you needed to also buy antivirus, anti-ad and fireqall software for the PC, I should point out that there’s a great free antivirus program available (AVG), a great free anti spyware application (SpyBot) and a great free firewall (ZoneAlarm) that runs rings around the default MacOS X firewall. 

Finally, the Celeron 2.4GHz is faster than the G4 1.25GHz.  The Dell is also upgradeable - I can put in a faster graphics card later, a better sound card later, a dual-layer DVD burner later, a larger disk later, etc, etc.  I can even upgrade the processor with too much difficulty.  With the eMac, I’m pretty much stuck with what Apple provided. 

So, the Dell is cheaper and its got much more growth potential.  It uses an OS that is not as good as MacOS X, but that does have widespread commercial support, both in terms of software you buy and helpdesk support from ISP’s,  etc.  For a beginner, the Dell looks more attractive than the eMac.”

Whew! Is that a mouthful, or what? But spot on, for the most part. Reader “vics” seemed to agree with the premise; Macs can be inexpensive (if not cheap), when total value is considered:

“But this only covers the actual ‘physical’ machine.  It doesn’t even begin to address the Mac’s FAR superior ‘end-user experience’.  I am an IT Professional who supports 80+ Dell PC’s running Windows XP Pro.” 

These poor users spend most of their day trying to get the Operating System out of their way so they can do some work.  Mac OS X ‘just works’ - not ‘some times’ or ‘most of the time’, or ‘except when’, it just works, EVERY TIME.  Want to eMail someone a Word document in XP? 

Step 1, go out and buy Adobe Acrobat (the full program, NOT the Reader), Step 2, Jump through the right windows ‘hoops’ and eventually you can save that .doc file as a .pdf so ANYONE out on the Internet can Open it. 

On a Mac?  1) Open your document, 2) go to File, Print, Select Save As PDF and it’s done.  eMail it, post it on the Internet, print it - doesn’t matter-it just works. 

That’s only ONE of a gazillion examples of things you may need to do at work every day and how OS X just let’s you get it done and move on… “

That covers the gist of Mac users regarding the low end comparison of an eMac vs. a Dell Dimension. What of the high end?

What happens when you compare a base “high end” PowerMac with a top-of-the-line Dell Precision Workstation? Which one costs the most? Which is the most powerful? What do Mac users have to say?

Plenty. Click Here for Page 2.