Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[James Dasher <jdasher AT ibiblio.org>]

I wasn't going to comment.  As what I've taken to calling a  
"re-switcher" (remember those "I'm a switcher" ads?), I've got those  
same "convert" biases that Ruth talked about.  And who wants to hear a  
convert (or a re-convert) preach about the glories of the faith?

But the price-point discussion sucked me in.  Like a new Catholic  
discussing the glories of the Eucharist and the awesome power of the  
Mass, I can assure all of my unconverted brothers and sisters that  
those lies the Wintel devils tell about the easy joys of sinful Windows  
usage - "all your friends are doing it, and 'Grand Theft Auto 47' is so  
good, you just *have* to try it!"  - are just that: lies!  And d@#$  
lies!

<http://osviews.com/modules.php? 
op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2350>

Seriously, though, even leaving aside TCO, I've priced my ideal Windows  
machine and compared it to my ideal Mac, and the difference is  
difficult to distinguish.  Plus, the Mac runs on Unix, so you don't  
need to ssh (surely, you don't use telnet!) into your favorite Unix  
account just to configure a shell environment.

I even took my old iMac into work (PC-only) to set up a Web server so  
that my department could test a Web-based project management system.   
The sysadmin is part-time, and we have a service deal with Dell, but  
they still reboot the servers two or three times a week - in a good  
week.  My iMac sat on a spare desk for four months - never turned it  
off, never rebooted it, and it just worked.  No shares to set up, no  
samba configurations.  (Since people were printing from their PCs, I  
didn't need to configure CUPS or anything, but you get my point.)

Final note: I was recently browsing for low-end servers that I could  
set up without having to tweak hardware configurations and so forth.   
Just something to do while I relaxed - y'all understand. :)  And the  
best thing I could find was an eMac with a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of  
RAM.  Those of you who prefer Windows servers probably won't appreciate  
it, but since it comes with all the Unix server stuff, I won't even  
have to shell out for (Microsoft) software.

Cheers - and thanks, Ian, for introducing the topic.

PS I'm on the back porch typing this from my iBook while some fink apps  
update in the background.  Thanks again, Ian!

--
James Dasher
misterdasher dot com
IM misterdasher