Re: [WinMac] Studies on cost of Macs/PCs in offices???

Romeyn Prescott(prescor[at]potsdam.edu)
Wed, 16 Sep 1998 21:19:35 -0400

>
>In point of fact, none of these are all that different, more along the lines
>of the differences between MS Word, Word Perfect, and Ami Pro...they're all
>word processors and different in little ways, but the general concepts are the
>same.
>
>Once you've learned two or three, all of them sort of blend together anyway.
>The difference between supporting Mac OS8 and Win 95 are not as big as
>supporting the difference between Win95, NT and 3.11...
>
>There is a learning curve to going to one platform or another, but a great
>deal of the knowledge is transferable between them...despite the OS holy
>wars...all computer systems are more alike than not.
>
>You do NOT need "twice as much knowledge" to support a dual platform shop.
>What you do need are a commitment from IS to do the support. All too often 'oh
>that's mre than we can support' is an excuse, not a reason from IS people, who
>depite their protestations somehow find the time to learn all the differences
>between their Novell, NT and Unix server software...but of course...those are
>_their_ toys, not the users.
>

I have to agree with this. Speaking as a person with mostl a Mac-based
background and in a position a couple of years ago where I was told I would
SOON have to support BOTH platforms (which I now do) I found that the
easiest way to learn was through analogy. I continue to ask for details on
any aspect of the Windows OS I don't understand and relate them to the way
Macs do things. You can come up with an analogy for almost anything. This
started for me years ago when I realized config.sys=extensions and
autoexec.bat=control panels. That was System 7 - Win 3.1. Now with Win 95
and OS 8 they are closer than ever.

I work for a campus that invested heavily in Macs 10 years ago and
continues to do so. This summer we replaced/installed 1/3 of the CPUs on
campus; 150 Macs and 50 Wintels. I have 4 Wintel student techs putting in
about 60 hours a week to support the Wintel machines and their users. I
have 3 Mac student techs putting in about 30 hours a week to support the
Macs. Roughly, that's:

450 Mac Users, 30 student man/hours a week to support
150 Wintel Users, 60 student man.hours per week

This is, however, somewhat subjective. Arguments could be made that maybe
I have stupid Wintel techs, or unusually stupid Wintel users (I am not
intentionally trying to bait anyone here... ;-) ). But in general, in a
mixed environment, I think it is safe to say that Macs require less
end-user support than do Wintel computers.

Me? I love 'em both. I'd die if I lost my PowerBook and I am suffering
severe withdrawl at the recent crash of my NT Workstation PC whose file
structure seemed to pack up and leave. I can't bear to reformat, but
that's for another thread...

Our department/campus enthusiastically implements and supports either
platform. I have to say, however, that there are hard and fast "battle
lines" drawn on campus and I seem to be the only person with one foot
planted enthusiastically on both sides of the fence. If you have a welath
of knowledge of either platform, it's not much of a hop to get up to speed
on the other. I think this makes more sense; if you can find an
open-minded, intelligent support individual then give him or her a raise
and make him or her responsible for both platforms. That way you don't
have to hire extra specialized help.

JMHO,
...ROMeyn

__________________________________________________
Romeyn Prescott
Distributed Computing / Telemedia Help Desk
SUNY Potsdam
Potsdam, NY 13676 315/267-3181
No Frills Home Page: http://www2.potsdam.edu/DCTM/prescor/RomHome
(Last updated 8/15/98)
__________________________________________________

"Religions are all the same. They're just guilt with different holidays."

   --Comedian Rita Rudner

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