Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Thoughts about Apple Computers
Apple Macintosh G3 G4
My computer experience started with an Apple ][ (NOT the ][e) which was the best, in my opinion, of the computers available at the time of purchase. It did NOT come with a monitor, BUT could use an older B&W TV that was available. This machine taught me a lot. Apple computers were expensive for what you purchased! Apple ]['s could do many amazing things from an automatic phone dialer to teaching Morse code to keeping my checkbook straight to writing and printing college papers to keeping student grades to showing how the planets move as seen by a person on the earth's surface. Later on due to a decision, wrongly made, by a Superintendent of schools, a purchase of a $6,000 Macintosh SE/30 was made. This was again an amazing machine. The UI was very different from the Apple ][. The SE/30 did all of things the Apple ][ did quicker, however, it was NOT in color as was the Apple ][, a big disappointment, especially since the market was moving strongly to IBM style computers with their color monitors.
Several years later the Superintendent decided that the Macintosh purchase was a mistake. We then installed IBM style machines which were much less expensive than the Macintosh computers. The Superintendent had purchased Macintosh Pluses NOT SE/30's. His second mistake!! The IBM style computers all were diskless computers which solved a great many problems in our school environment. We had ALL school computers networked to Netware servers. At that time hard drives were very expensive, and by having only servers with the hard drives we were cost effective and also prevented students from "borrowing" software! A much much tougher problem to solve today with the cheap hard drives and super cheap USB key drives!
Having had the "Mac" experience, while looking at eBay, it became apparent that a G3 or G4 Macintosh could be had for very little cost, $80. Instead of the thousands that they cost new or the many thousands required for a brand new current Macintosh. It also was apparent that the G3 or G4 could be upgraded for a couple of hundred dollars and both computers would be more than ready to run OS X. This has turned out to be the case in spades. My installation of the two Macintosh computers went quite well. My toys include three Netware servers, 20 or so Pentium computers of various ages from one year to 20 years old, and my two Macintoshes: a G3 and a G4. The G3/G4 run that latest and greatest OS X from Apple.
Having a number of computers dedicated to different tasks normally would require numerous keyboards and mice cluttering up my desk. KVM switches came to the rescue. There was much BAD information about how KVM switches and the G3/G4 would react. From personal experience, the G3/G4 computers are as happy with the KVM switches as the IBM style computers are. There are four KVM switches that control most of the computers that are in daily use. There are four computers per switch. Mixing the G3/G4 with the IBM style computers works perfectly without any glitches of any kind. The computers are hooked to the KVM and you are good to go!! In fact my G3/G4 computers are happily working with a Logitech Track Ball and an eMachine 108 key keyboard with numeric keypad; the monitor for the G3/G4 computers is also an eMachine 16" monitor rather than an Apple brand monitor; the other two computers are a Gateway and an eMachine. Switching between the computers is just a double tap on the Numlock key and then a numeric key #1 through #4. Video is crystal clear and never a hitch in the keyboard mouse combination.
My KVM switches came with cables included for $40 so there was not a huge cost in their purchase. The Gateway runs Vista Beta2 and it works without a problem with the others. Exchanging files without a problem. Unfortunately, at this time seeing the Netware servers by Vista is a problem. Hopefully that will be cured shortly! How either Novell or Micro$oft can ship product that does NOT support Netware is just short of astonishing! Neither company seems very interested in solving the customer's problems. Just their corporate problems! It is truly annoying that there is not a Vista client that talks to Netware servers! Understanding that business seems to removing very good Netware servers for Micro$oft servers still does not excuse the lack of a Netware client for Vista even if it is a beta product!
My computer experience started with an Apple ][ (NOT the ][e) which was the best, in my opinion, of the computers available at the time of purchase. It did NOT come with a monitor, BUT could use an older B&W TV that was available. This machine taught me a lot. Apple computers were expensive for what you purchased! Apple ]['s could do many amazing things from an automatic phone dialer to teaching Morse code to keeping my checkbook straight to writing and printing college papers to keeping student grades to showing how the planets move as seen by a person on the earth's surface. Later on due to a decision, wrongly made, by a Superintendent of schools, a purchase of a $6,000 Macintosh SE/30 was made. This was again an amazing machine. The UI was very different from the Apple ][. The SE/30 did all of things the Apple ][ did quicker, however, it was NOT in color as was the Apple ][, a big disappointment, especially since the market was moving strongly to IBM style computers with their color monitors.
Several years later the Superintendent decided that the Macintosh purchase was a mistake. We then installed IBM style machines which were much less expensive than the Macintosh computers. The Superintendent had purchased Macintosh Pluses NOT SE/30's. His second mistake!! The IBM style computers all were diskless computers which solved a great many problems in our school environment. We had ALL school computers networked to Netware servers. At that time hard drives were very expensive, and by having only servers with the hard drives we were cost effective and also prevented students from "borrowing" software! A much much tougher problem to solve today with the cheap hard drives and super cheap USB key drives!
Having had the "Mac" experience, while looking at eBay, it became apparent that a G3 or G4 Macintosh could be had for very little cost, $80. Instead of the thousands that they cost new or the many thousands required for a brand new current Macintosh. It also was apparent that the G3 or G4 could be upgraded for a couple of hundred dollars and both computers would be more than ready to run OS X. This has turned out to be the case in spades. My installation of the two Macintosh computers went quite well. My toys include three Netware servers, 20 or so Pentium computers of various ages from one year to 20 years old, and my two Macintoshes: a G3 and a G4. The G3/G4 run that latest and greatest OS X from Apple.
Having a number of computers dedicated to different tasks normally would require numerous keyboards and mice cluttering up my desk. KVM switches came to the rescue. There was much BAD information about how KVM switches and the G3/G4 would react. From personal experience, the G3/G4 computers are as happy with the KVM switches as the IBM style computers are. There are four KVM switches that control most of the computers that are in daily use. There are four computers per switch. Mixing the G3/G4 with the IBM style computers works perfectly without any glitches of any kind. The computers are hooked to the KVM and you are good to go!! In fact my G3/G4 computers are happily working with a Logitech Track Ball and an eMachine 108 key keyboard with numeric keypad; the monitor for the G3/G4 computers is also an eMachine 16" monitor rather than an Apple brand monitor; the other two computers are a Gateway and an eMachine. Switching between the computers is just a double tap on the Numlock key and then a numeric key #1 through #4. Video is crystal clear and never a hitch in the keyboard mouse combination.
My KVM switches came with cables included for $40 so there was not a huge cost in their purchase. The Gateway runs Vista Beta2 and it works without a problem with the others. Exchanging files without a problem. Unfortunately, at this time seeing the Netware servers by Vista is a problem. Hopefully that will be cured shortly! How either Novell or Micro$oft can ship product that does NOT support Netware is just short of astonishing! Neither company seems very interested in solving the customer's problems. Just their corporate problems! It is truly annoying that there is not a Vista client that talks to Netware servers! Understanding that business seems to removing very good Netware servers for Micro$oft servers still does not excuse the lack of a Netware client for Vista even if it is a beta product!
