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Well, my 30 days are up.

I enjoyed using it, and I definitely see the upside in Apple computers over PC’s.  But I’m going back to my Dell Precision690. (Already have actually)

Most of the “failings” of the Mac G5 Pro I was using can probably be attributed to the fact that it’s a G5.  So much software doesn’t work on the PowerPC’s, developers have given up on them.. (as is probably justified, they’re old)  and upgrading to a MacIntel would probably solve a few (but not all) of the problems I was having with compatibility.

A few points:

Negative:

• MS Entourage had significant issues.  I was forced to use the EWS (Exchange Web Services) client instead of the standard, because my exchange environment is Exchange 2010.  Maybe I jumped the gun in upgrading to Exchange2010.  Entourage 2008 doesn’t work with Excahnge2010, because Microsoft did away with WebDAV.
• The MS RDP Client for Mac (v1.0 due to PPC Support) only supports a single session.  I usually have 3-4 RDP sessions open at a time, so this was a significant limitation.
• TimeMachine doesn’t like to back up to a network drive.  I found a few workarounds but was never able to try and get it working.  I prefer to backup to an offsite location.
• NTFS read-write support doesn’t exist in Leopard (10.5.8)  Though read-only support exists, if I can’t write to an NTFS formatted thumbdrive this is useless to me.  I’ve found some third-party drivers but they are both expensive and buggy.  I’m told this exists in SnowLeopard (10.6.x) but again, not willing to shell out that kind of money for a computer to do something I can do with windows.
• Software is expensive…  The Version of Quickbooks that I paid $99 for on windows was $299 on Mac.  WTF is up with that?!

Positive:

• I love having a native BASH shell.  I do a *LOT* of scripting, and it’s nice to be able to do it hands on.
• The GUI is very intuitive, I like the Dock (Akin to Cairo-Dock for Linux)
• I enjoyed iPhoto – the face-recognition, while imperfect, was interesting to play with.
• Application installations were easy, and almost NEVER required a reboot.
• It’s mostly quiet.  I love a computer I don’t hear running.  Though the Precision is pretty quiet too.  And the Mac “Jet-Engines” when you put it under load whereas the Dell doesn’t.

- And finally:

• The start-up chime the mac makes *REALLY* annoys my eldest son, who for some reason (couldn’t be his dad, could it?) HATES apple products.  I must have rebooted it ten times one night while he was in the other room playing BlackOps just to hear him complain.

Bottom line, I work with EMC products.  Much of the software I use in my work runs on Windows by virtue of the fact that EMC writes it that way.  (Why Symmwin hasn’t been ported to CentOS or some such yet is beyond me….would save the company MILLIONS every year in software licensing)

But it all comes down to cost.  The starting price of a new Mac Pro is $2499 (Source: Apple)  That’s for a ‘simple’ box with a quad-core processor.  The higher-end systems (12-core, 2x 6-core CPU’s) run $4,999.

Macs is more expensive.  As a side-note.  I walked into Micro-Center to buy memory for it.  The G5 uses standard DDR, PC3200 memory.  In the *SAME STORE* memory was two different prices, depending on whether you were in the Mac side or the PC side.  For PC’s the 1GB PC3200 memory was $29/ea.

On the Mac side, it was $59/ea.  What amazed me mostly was the fact that the guy behind the counter said that people would GLADLY pay the extra $30 for the exact same memory because it said “Mac Ready” on the label.  (It was even the same manufacturer)

Wow.  That’s all I can say about that.  Wow.  That’s abusive.  That’s taking advantage of people who don’t know any better.  Double?  Really Apple?  (Well this wasn’t apple, but it is the general problem.)

Let’s put this into perspective.  The Dell Precision 690 I have runs 2x Dual-Core 3.0Ghz Xeon CPU’s, 8G of ram, and it cost me less than $1,000 when bought seperately.  It’s a faster box, (Twice as many CPU cores, DDR2, PC5300 memory, etc)

Now I’m not the type to buy the latest and greatest.  I’ve never bought a “new” laptop in my life, (I prefer refurbs, especially since Dell sells them with the exact same warranty as new at half the price.) I drive a 6-year old Prius, my wife drive’s a 10-year old Chevy.  I have a modest house in the suburbs that’s slightly crooked but fits my needs, but isn’t flashy by any stretch.  And every piece of computer equipment I buy for the datacenter is second-hand.  (we just acquired a pair of Cisco 9140 Switches, how many generations back is that?)

To go out and buy a “NEW” Mac for those prices is completely INSANE.  Now I could probably buy one used on ebay.  (Apple people tend to upgrade often, so there are lots of them out there.)

So in my humble view – Macs are great personal computers, and wonderful graphics arts systems.  They *CAN* be used in business if you’re willing to make some sacrifices, but again, if you want stuff to just work, Windows is still the way to go for business.

I *MAY* consider a used MacBook Pro though.  I can see where the portable version would come in VERY handy, and you can get Intel-based MacBooks on Ebay (lease-returns) pretty cheap.  (I’m amazed Apple doesn’t have an outlet store like Dell does)

This concludes my latest experiment.

P.S. For Sale – Mac Pro G5 Tower.  Dual 2.5Ghz PPC, 8GB Ram, 2x 250G HardDisks, dual-port Video, Keyboard/Mouse (new).  MacOS 10.5.6 Leopard (Installed, no media)

Make me an offer.

I told you I had no concept of days right?

Well I think it’s an “I can use this” thing.  The only downside I’ve found so far probably has more to do with my outdated hardware than anything else.

I’ve since upgraded the SIngle Processor 1.6Ghz G5 to a dual-processor 2.5Ghz G5.  The difference in performance is obviously grand, plus the dual 2.5 has 8 DIMM slots for memory instead of 4.

So now I’m up to 8G of Ram.

What I found most interesting is that to move from the old system to the new it was simply a matter of move the drives over.  I guess simplification and standardization of the hardware means that unlike windows/PC hosts, you never have to worry about whether or not the drivers are installed when you upgrade.

I also had a pretty good time with “TimeMachine”

It seems like it does a great “Grandfather-Father-Son” backup automatically, and without the user having to understand what a “GFS” backup is.  So you can restore to any hour in the last 24, day in the last month, or month in the last (however much disk-space you’ve got.)

What I liked is that nothing special was required to restore from disk.  Just the OSX boot CD.  Boot, select “restore from backup” and poof, or tah-dah, or whichever.  Windows7 has something fairly similar, but you have to build a recovery CD for it to work, probably because it has to store whatever raid-specific drivers you’re using.

All in all, a positive experience.  I may still go back to my Precision690 though…Dual Xeon 2.8Ghz processors and 8G of ram can run circles around the older G5 hardware.

I haven’t decided.

Ok – it doesn’t suck yet.

I’m sure I’m going to have my membership to the all-geek club revoked for that statement but saying anything else wouldn’t be totally honest.

I installed Win7, RC1 (I think – Build 7100) yesterday on the spare harddrive on my laptop just for grins.

First off I was amazed at the size of the download, almost a full gig smaller than Vista, must have been all that debug code they pulled out of it.

Second point was the install went smoothly and with minimal customer interaction.  When I look at a product and say “this is probably something i could hand my son (who, sob, is not technically inclined beyond how to load a game into the PS3) and tell him to run with, and expect that he’ll only ask a dozen or so questions.

The third things I noticed were the UI.  Surprisingly intuitive.  The “Windows Sidebar” has been replaced by an active desktop that actually works, you can drop gadgets anywhere on the desktop, which makes for the abiltiy to more logically place things based on your needs.

The old windows task bar has been replaced by something, not surprisingly, more mac-like.  Each application has a button, multiple windows within an application get grouped with the app.  Mousing over the application gives you a preview of all windows associated with the app, and mousing over the preview brings each window to the forfront in succession.  (It makes finding what you’re looking for in a desktop full of app windows much easier, since Win7 *STILL* doesn’t come with multiple desktops)

So far, so good.  I’ll follow up tomorrow after I start installing applications and see which ones don’t work.  (always the big fear, right?)

One of the things that happens when you run a storage/technology blog, is that you will regularly get emails from PR firms with press-releases hoping that you’ll write a post touting their product or at least link back to their site to improve their ratings in the serach engines.

My problem is, that while I’m an avid storage/technology blogger, I have an science/engineering background.  What this translates to is this.

If you haven’t seen it happen, it’s a hypothesis.  If you haven’t put the functionality to the test, don’t assume it’s real.  And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

My wife, having spent many years in marketing, was quick to explain to me how marketing really works.  “Play up the good, discount the bad, and forget the mention the fatal flaws.”

So when a new storage hot-shot approached me to write an article about their new hardware, and gave me the specs as they saw them, i refused, flat out.

If you tell me your product does 100,000+ IOPS that’s fine.  I’ve not seen it so I have only your numbers to go on, and for all I know your numbers were invented over Bacardi’s at the local pub.  Send me a demo and I’ll be happy to try it out and report the numbers.  Just beware it better do what you say it’s going to because I will report the real numbers, good or bad.

I have a few years in R&D under my belt, I know how testing is done.  I also know how any test can and usually is skewed to show off the strengths of a product.

When I worked for another non-emc storage vendor and had to tell them that their new array wasn’t capable of pushing more than 13MB/sec, they asked me not to put that particular fact in my report.  When I refused, i was suddenly “laid off.”  (of course a short time later the rest of the company was, so that may not have been quite the cause/effect I like to intimate.)

That’s marketing…sadly it’s not science.  And the one truth is marketing people have difficulty tolerating engineering people.

I’m surpised my wife puts up with me actually.

Ok, I’ve been a self confessed geek for years now. (and people have called me that for many more years – different story)

This has got to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

First there was the punch-card.  Then the keyboard, then the Graphical User Interface (IE – Windows).  I think the next logical step in user interface is finally here. 

Calling it a “Multi-Point” touchscreen is not giving it nearly the credit it’s due.  This Demo from Perceptive Pixel shows it for it’s true potential.

The first real implementation of this technology is actually the new iPhone from Apple.  One of the things that makes it a breakthrough device is that you can hold the screen with one finger and drag or click with the other.

The next implementation, the one that got my intention, is by Microsoft.  Code-named “Milan” the “Microsoft Surface” (They had better come up with something better, that name doesn’t even begin to describe this product’s potential) has to be one of the more amazing consumer applications for this technology that I’ve ever seen.

In this demo by Popular Mechanics (of all people) you can see, it turns your table top, or desk top, into a completely interactive surface.  What gets me most is the seemless integration of wireless devices like phones, cameras, and the like, where you can set a wireless digital camera on the surface of the “table” and it will instantly download the pictures from it, allow you to manipulate them and transfer them to other devices, like phones, and such.

Amazingly enough the prices of these units are not entirely unreasonable.  Microsoft anticipates the first units to go to corporate and casino clients, and will cost around $10,000 to $15,000 each.  For those of us who have paid more than $2,500 for a simple flat-screen plasma television, you realize that this is not far off the mark for prototype, first-run technology.

I anticipate seeing this available for home use in the next 5-10 years..amazingly enough.

The thing that really gets me is the company responsible, Perceptive Pixel, is privately held as a spinoff of the NYU Courant Institute of mathematical Sciences, and I don’t think they are selling stock any time soon.