MAC VS IBM

[Steve Baule <baules@AOL.COM>]

I have both Mac and DOS machines in the media center. We have 16 Macintoshes
and 6 DOS machines. The DOS machines are only used in information retrival,
both CD-ROM and regular software. 5 have CD drives. The problem we normally
run into with these machines are that our older DOS computers do not always
have the necessary graphics and sound capabilities to run some of the newer
multimedia titles. So we really have been focusing on text based CDs for the
PCs.
A partial list of PC CD titles we use include: World Book Information Finder,
Front Page News, CIA World Fact Book, The CIvil War, Time Almanac, and
McGraw-Hill Science Reference.

On the Mac side, we have 9 machinces w/ CD players. One of these is dedicated
to Magazine Article Summaries' Middle Search. This is connected to 7 other
Macs making 8 machines which have a general periodical index. The 8 machines
also have ClarisWorks 2.0, HyperCard, Super Paint, MacGlobe, Mac USA, and
some other productivity tools each on one or two of the machines.
The other 8 Macs each have a CD drive and are used generally for information
retrival. They also have ClarisWorks. Some of the titles on the Macs include
Grolier's Encyclopedias, World Atlas, Mammals and birds, Sports Almanac,
Family Doctor, America Alive, World history, and others.
With the Macs we have no real compatability problems, because if it works on
one mac it works on all macs, within reason. The network speed question
probably comes when comparing PCs on an ethernet network vs. macs on
AppleTalk. Of course AppleTalk is slower. Macs can however be put on an
ethernet network just as easily as PCs. Most newer Macs have built in
ethernet also. The MAS network is only on AppleTalk, and 7 of the machines
are LCs or LC IIs and we have no problem with the speed unless all 8 stations
start to search at the exact same time. This has happened twice, but in less
than a minute everone has a list of hits in front of them.

I would suggest having at least a few of each machine at the middle school or
high school. Macs are so much easier to service and work on though that if
you have limited technical support, my suggestion would be to use Macs as the
mainstay, and use PCs for the few things you can't find in Mac form. (Okay, I
know all you PC lovers will be sending me hate mail now, but I had to say
it.) Of course, if all your tech people are PC oriented, maybe the reverse
should be considered. Support should really be a prime consideration, as the
platfroms are becoming more and more alike.

Steve Baule
Haines Middle School
St. Charles, IL
Baules@aol.com