The denial tango

[chipotle]

The question is who's really in denial over the PowerMac G5s announced today--Macintosh zealots who hope the machines will significantly improve the Mac market share, or PC zealots racing to poke holes in Apple's claims of the machines being the fastest personal computers.

So. No, I don't think Macs will stop losing market share. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they hold steady. (If the total size of the computer market holds steady, I think the Macintosh segment will grow, but that seems unlikely. People tend to forget that if your company's unit sales are growing at a slower rate than the market you're in is growing, you're "losing market share" yet still increasing your customer base.)

As for hole-poking, are the G5s the fastest personal computers? You got me. I'm sure the demos I saw today were stacked in favor of the G5, but they were no less impressive--watching Cubase on the Dell dual Xeon 3.06GHz machine stutter when it was doing realtime multitrack softsynth playback of a piece of the "Matrix" score when the dual 2GHz G5 machine went through it smoothly without hitting more than about 40% CPU utilization definitely says something.

A rhetorical question to rabid anti-Mac folks: Does my owning a Mac negatively affect your virility? Are you afraid using a one-button mouse for a measurable length of time will turn you into an art designer? From watching some forums (particularly those on the frequently overfrothed OSNews), the idea that Macs might actually become competitive in price and speed has sent the MACS ARE EVIL crowd into a blood frenzy.

The thing is, to some degree they're right. PowerMacs have always been designed as if they were computing with high-end workstations, even when the performance wasn't there to match. The PowerMac may be competitive with a Dell Precision Workstation, but it's not going to be too competitive with a Dell Dimension.*

But so what? It's a damn cool computer. I'm finding myself increasingly (if arguably irrationally) jazzed about the idea of doing Mac software development. I'm realizing that, for a long, long time now, I've missed having computers, in and of themselves, be fun.

And to me, that's worth a few extra bucks.

——

*Since the P4-based Dimension can't be dual processor, I priced out a system roughly comparable with the "midline" G5. The Mac is a 1.8GHz G5 with 512M PC3200 SDRAM, a 160GB Serial ATA HD, Radeon 9800 Pro video, and DVD-R/CD-RW drive for $2720; the Dell is a 2.8GHz P4 with 512M PC3200 SDRAM, 200GB Ultra ATA HD, Radeon 9800 Pro video, DVD-R/CD-RW drive, Gigabit ethernet card (an option you can't not have on the Mac), XP Professional and Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition to roughly match Apple's "iLife," for $2448.

Comments

[pathia.livejournal.com]

Mac's were the first systems I used, but I generally hate them. I despise the interface and I despise the one-button mouse thing.

As hard core gamer, all Mac systems are entirely insufficient for my desires on nearly every level.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

That somewhat belies my point, which isn't that everyone should use Macs, but simply that people who use Macs should be given the benefit of the doubt for making an informed choice. I see a lot of arguments (from other corners of the net) which boil down to "Mac users are sheep following Steve Jobs, and if they had any sense they'd stop being sheep and use what everyone else is using!" One would think the flaw in this argument would be self-evident.

Macs aren't good gaming machines due to market forces rather than technology, and specifically due to market forces unique to the gaming industry rather than the computer industry as a whole--but that's a topic for another time.

[pathia.livejournal.com]

I see nothing wrong with others using Macs. My point was merely that there is absolutely no reason on earth for me to use one.

First, I've just in general had very horrible experiences with them. The ones at school, college mind you, they weren't ancient junkards or anything, would crash at the slightest whim while I was trying to do my Calc homework.

Also, it's simple a monetary thing for me. I can take $300 and remake my machine into nearly the top echleon of PC world, but this is quite difficult in the Mac world, unless it's changed recently.

[mcgroarty.livejournal.com]

I say -- use whatever does it for ya.

The benchmarks Apple gave were the only things I saw, but they're baked. Yesterday, I noted to a few folks that they chose GCC for the PC and turned hyperthreading off in the BIOS. Also, Apple and Motorola have been working together to optimize GCC, while Intel has been optimizing the Intel compiler. According to the results on spec.org (makers of the benchmark), if properly configured and matched up to the Intel compiler (GCC for IA32 doesn't even do vectorization yet), even the single P4 comes out in the lead. This morning, somebody else pointed out that they chose one of the worse FORTRAN compilers for the PC as well (the FORTRAN code comprises a substantial portion of the SPECCPU tests).

On the flip side --

The Mac UI is definitely more efficient than the Windows UI, and that's enough of an argument right there, if you're doing work where the computer spends more time waiting for you than the other way around. For most folks, I'd be surprised if the CPU were the bottleneck even 5% of the time.

Personally, I could care less in the end. I just hope applications keep making beefier computers necessary. I grab whatever I spot used at a fair price when I need more horsepower, and lean mean Linux and the BSDs don't much care which platform you pick.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I responded a bit to the compiler questions on OSNews. While I'm not sure it's still true for the G5, GCC wasn't the best compiler to use on the G4, CodeWarrior was, and if you want to compare the most widely-used compilers for a somewhat more real-world comparison you'd probably be comparing GCC on the Mac versus Visual C on the PC. But, Apple's always been "selective" about benchmarks; there were several times over the past few years I wanted to beat Steve Jobs with a copy of Photoshop. "We get it, Steve. Fast vector, Steve. Slow everything else, Steve."

I've used FreeBSD off and on with the PC sporadically for a few years and really like it. (The BSDish-ness of OS X is what tilted me toward buying a PowerBook to replace my Mac OS 9 iBook a couple years ago; OS 9 reminded of me of everything I'd liked about Mac OS 7 in 1991--and also showed how little the original Mac OS had come since 1991.) At NetPoodles we were developing on FreeBSD, which probably made me one of a very few people using a free Unix at work and Windows 2000 at home. I'm still considering upgrading my increasingly-outdated PC, with its Celeron 433 and the Matrox Mystique I'll charitably call "venerable"; while I'm not too much of a gamer, it'd be nice to be able to at least theoretically run my company's product.