h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The idea of voiding extended warranties if you buy generic RAM is common to all extended warranties, includingthose offered by HP, IBM, Compaq and Dell. In each case their endorsed RAM is considerably more expensive than the generic product, by no greater margin than Apple's. And I too have been IT manager at firms with both platforms - the Macs in my experience not only required significantly less troubleshooting, they also required fewer upgrades and were more reliable - and had a service life of at least double the PCs.

I don't know what the story used to be, exactly, but now Apple doesn't have any beef with generic RAM... the only caution is that if you install it yourself, and do something silly like zapping your RAM or board or something with static, then that isn't covered by warranty. But no silly mistakes, no problems.

(I still say they need a bunny with geek glasses smiley)

JZG, YK? - that wasn't loss of an extended warranty. That was loss of our standard warranty, period.

I know that things are better now, and I'm also aware that companies such as Packard Bell do exaxctly the same thing in order to maintain their "projected profit margins". The point is, in that situation, if you wanted to run Macs and still buy cheap RAM you were screwed. If you wanted to run PCs and still buy cheap RAM, you avoided the likes of Packard Bell. Apple's lack of licenced clones locked the user into an expensive upgrade path. I still see signs of that today, but to a *much* lesser extent...

As far as OS choice goes, my opinions are:
Windows 9x: buggy, unstable, and not good at USB support. This also applies (in a lesser sense) to ME. I dislike them, but they are easy to use and not so expensive that you can't get decent hardware as well. However, as they date, they will become more expensive to use.
Windows NT: stable, but very little hardware support, DOS is not dealt with well, and not upgradable.
Windows 2000: again, stable, but doesn't deal with DOS well. May have problems with some hardware.
Windows XP: too cute and the product activation is a pain for those who are like me and tend to fiddle.
MacOS: up to OS9, very easy to use andgood for the home user who is somewhat uncertain of him/herself when using a computer.
Mac OSX: stable and easy to use. Also, it is currently being ported (as Darwin) to run on standard PC architecture (ie Intel/AMD chips).
BeOS: very stable, but can cause hardware problems, and is unsupported since Be, Inc. was bought by Palm. If you can use it, it is very nice though. (I use it myself, and it's only the lack of support that means I'm changing)
Linux: Depends on what you buy and how easily available help is. Stable and easy to use if set up correctly. Also, many Windows applications (including games) may be run by using one of the various programs available such as WINE, WineX, Lindows and others. Also, the open-source nature makes licensing very easy, and most applications are free. A good OS for tinkerers and those who wish to learn to write their own programs.

Which platform do you usually use?

I'm trying to acclaimate the switch to OS X, but I lie in wait for when I can get a G4 machine...... Besides, cheap tho' it is for an OS, I don't want to pop the hundred bucks for a copy when OS 9 and the G3 chip were meant to run together anyway..... I won't replace my OS 9! I won't, I won't! (Though I'll certainly begin using OS X as well.)

My beige G3 *loves* OS X!

I'm using OS X on my Powerbook G3 Series - no usb, no firewire - I think this is the oldest model that it will run on. It works great, although I had to give up printing because OS X does not support serial printers. I don't print much anyway, so no big deal for me and it was just a little more incentive to get the new iMac.

*sigh* Someday I will have a G4 tower. Though it's occured to me that the longer I wait to get one, the smoother OS X will be, and the mroe things will support it.

I like keeping my G3 powerbook on OS 9; it would run OS X without problem, but the G3 chip *was* made to take specific advantage of the Mac OS (which OS X isn't, really; it works different on the innards), and then OS 9 was made to take specific advantage of the G3 chip. The same relationship was formed with OS X and the G4 chip. In my little warped head, a perfect world is where G3s run OS 9 and G4s run OS X. But anyone else can do what works for them; I just like having one set of each.

Though I must say that my latest extension conflicts have made me very eager to get my paws on a G4 tower running OS X... besides, I'm learning all these great tricks....

Oh yeah and that's another thing. Any of you out there who really want to get a hold on OS X and don't have one yet, the Missing Manual series book on OS X ("OS X: The Missing Manual") is incredibly excellent.