Re: Reliability

Jim Ellsworth (ELLSWORJ%HUA1@HUACHUCA-EMH11.ARMY.MIL)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 23:28:04 EDT

Jeff Greiner <TechCoord@hampton-dumont.k12.ia.us> writes:
> I disagree with the equality of dependability between Wintel and Mac
> platforms. Our district is about 90% Macintosh, meaning that I have a
> great many more Macs to support than Wintel. However, more than 40% of my
> repair/support time this year has been spent on the Wintel machines,
> especially our Novell lab. It has been nothing short of a nightmare.

I have always been mystified by these reports (especially the ones from
the reputable trade press), as I've been involved in computer support for
almost 15 years now -- at two different universities and three different
Army installations -- and have never seen any significant difference in
reliability between the two platforms (other than the sort of aberration
mentioned with the 5200's). The main difference is the Macs usually get
sent to an outside contractor for repair because nobody in the computer
shop knows HOW to fix a Mac.

Jim Ellsworth ELLSWORJ%HUA1@huachuca-emh11.army.mil 520-533-6570