Choosing The Right Computer

When choosing the right computer there are many things to think about; is it for work, games, desktop publishing, organizing your personal life? There are many variables that picking the right computer much like putting together a puzzle.　　Before you take anyone’s on opinion or comments, it is advantageous to understand their background. Most people see things through filters.

For example, the President of the United States may be doing a great job, however if the media doesn’t like him then they will spew forth anything and everything negative about him to work to discredit him. Those constant negative attacks through the media can eventually hurt that President’s reputation with people that trust or believe what they are told. Bad news sells evidently. Our natures should be positive and supportive of people trying to do their job. We should not be afraid to speak our mind, rather than another negative voice in the world. We should offer an alternative idea and be a positive force not a negative voice.

This writer runs the Tokyo, Japan branch of a major information technology (IT) systems support firm. Our firm stays very busy helping people (our great customers) use computers to support and grow their businesses. The vast majority of those computer environments run on Microsoft products. Microsoft servers, Microsoft personal computers running Windows, Microsoft databases; the list goes on and on. We know Microsoft products like no other. Microsoft keeps us busy but AINEO’s strength is we believe all busy should be win-win. We are not afraid to give advice in the best interest of our friends, who are usually our customers.

If you are looking for a computer to

-search the web

-do your email

-organize your music and videos

-edit video

-build a website

-organize edit, publish pictures and slideshows

-and so forth

Then Apple Computer’s Macintosh built on OSX (pronounced OS ten) is for you. Version nine of Apple’s operating system was not interesting to AINEO at all. But with the introduction of OSX, we have seen the advent of the best operating system on the market. What makes it so good? This can be very easily summarized in two points

– It is extremely stable.

It is based on Free BSD UNIX kernel. What does that mean to the end user? Let me give and example. I purchased a Powerbook three years ago at the same time I purchased and IBM Thinkpad. The Powerbook is based on Apple’s OSX operating system. The Thinkpad is based on Microsoft’s Window XP system. With use the Windows registry fills up with various files. It starts slowing down, hanging, and things just not working right. The best fix for Window XP is to rebuild the machine (get a fresh install from scratch). In terms of time that means about 5-7 hours of work reinstalling the OS, the applications, and your profile. Painful! I the In the three years since of use of both machines. We have had to reinstall Windows XP five times. Conservatively speaking that is 25 hours of time. We have yet to do anything with the Mac and we have used it more.

– User Friendly

Coming from a Windows environment of users, the Mac is a bit of a shock. Everything is so simple and logical. Three years ago when I pulled the Powerbook out of the box, I remember the struggle trying to figure out how to add my email and how to see things. I figured out that if I pressed the plus at the bottom of the box of email accounts, I could add an account. It took me 30 minutes, as I was so used to the so-called wizards from Microsoft that help you set up accounts. The windows way was so much more complicated than the OSX logic. Once I figured out not to make it too difficult, things became a breeze. Clicking on the right pointing triangle would show you the details within the account.

There are so many things I could tell you about Apple’s Mac versus Windows and even items like LINUX. However, the best thing is buy a Mac for yourself and check them out. The Mac Mini is a great little entry level box for 50,000 yen (about $500 USD) that can give you a feel for the system. Of course, not everything is perfect with the Mac. We did have the speakers in the Powerbook fail. We had purchased Apple Care (a three year extended warrantee for parts, service, and advice). Fortunately, the speakers were replaced due to that warrantee. Also there is is an abundance of software written for Windows. So Apple users can sometimes be limited.

If you are living in a large city (such as Tokyo) the Mac notebook computers are monsters to lug around. This is when you want to think about a nice lightweight Panasonic PC. At 900 grams Apple is not a good choice for a road warrior doing email and such on the fly. For that matter, that is what Blackberries are for.

In closing, for the home user or someone not corporately tied to Windows, the Mac is an option you don’t want to pass up. If you have any questions about what computers might be right for your office environment, give us a call. The elite team of AINEO experts would be happy to find out what you do and give you the best advice for your needs.

© 2006 Wolfe- AINEO Corporation