This is not a question for anyone that uses Final Cut Pro or even a MAC. That is a question that is being debated at a small college. I’m not going to use names here, but a colleague of mine emailed me asking for help in pointing the administration in the right direction.
At the moment they have G5 towers and are in the process of ordering CS4 from Adobe. If you haven’t heard, Adobe is dumping on all the users that own MACs with PowerPC Chips. That sucks because I still use my G5 for everything but I guess not CS4. Back to the situation at hand. Here is a direct quote that makes me pause for laziness…
are trying to upgrade the existing Mac lab to Intel Macs. Originally our IT guy was behind the proposal, but once it dawned on him that he would have to learn a few things about Mac networking, he changed his tune, and has been trying to convince the powers that be that PCs are just as capable and are industry standard in advertising, photography, video/film etc.
Here’s my thought. Are you kidding me? The IT guy is lazy and doesn’t want to learn about Mac networking…Mac networking is easy as it gets and if he is an IT guy it should take him 2 full days if not sooner. I know plenty of IT peeps and they are some of the smartest people on the earth. I think that might be his downfall. If they upgrade his job will be to easy and no one be amazed about his skills because they can do it themselves.
I have no idea how old the IT guy is but I don’t think he has been around in advertising, photography and video/film for the last 10 years. When I was looking for gigs a year after I graduated I learned FCP and no one would hire me because the software was not being utilized in editing houses and advertise firms. FCP changed that most of the big editing houses either downsized immensely or got smart and started to use FCP and cut back on overhead. I personally know three businesses that lost out during that transition. FCP is everywhere, small businesses, fire departments, health research labs, and even public schools.
How can a college even debate using PCs over Macs especially when it comes to educating kids about what to expect on the outside world. What is your take. Would you want a PC over a Mac for creative purposes?
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Jared // Oct 2, 2008 at 12:29 pm
You’re right Andy, Mac networking is really not hard at all. The only problems I’ve had with Mac networking is making them print to network printers, but even then, I’ve still been able to make them work. I’m a PC guy all the way, but for something like this project they need Macs… period.
They can hire me out to come in and take care of their Mac networking! I’ll do it for $100 an hour YO.
2 nini // Oct 2, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Mac, Mac, Mac.
Are they kidding, lose the tech, go with the macs. All they have to do is call some creative service businesses, why go PC? We got work to do, no time to spend fixing bugs and trying network programs in PC world.
3 sean // Oct 2, 2008 at 4:38 pm
no. i wouldn’t want a PC as a paper weight. the cost differential isn’t that wide anymore, so there isn’t a business reason left for passing on a mac setup.
4 Rob // Oct 3, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I bought a Mac Pro Duel G5 some five years ago strictly for video editing. That piece of hardware is the best designed and built computer I have ever owned. The quality of the design, fit and function reminds me of the military avionics hardware I worked on as a tech in the USAF.
But Apple has little compunction about moving on and not worrying about backward compatibility. I recently bought a year old Intel Mac Pro used from a friend. Boy was I surprised to discover that my Apple Cinema display would not plug into it. (It’s the one with the fat clear plastic bezel.) I had to buy a $99 adapter to use it.
Since the Intel Macs run Windows in Parallels or VMWare, I’m considering getting rid of my PC and just using the Intel Mac for everything. I already dropped Office for OpenOffice so I don’t have much attachment to Microsoft applications. I do need to run some Windows-only apps … but they’re not from MS.
What do you think … is Windows running on a Mac good enough for everything?
Peace,
Rob:-]
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