[Gettin' Technical] Why the PC Beats the Mac

As a computer scientist and somebody who devotes many hours to writing about computer history, I am often asked whether it was IBM or Apple that “invented” the computer.

The answer is neither – but IBM (along with Intel) certainly set the standard for the desktop computer that we are familiar with. It all goes back to that fateful day when IBM opened the door to other manufacturers to contribute and sell their own IBM-Compatible products and Operating Systems, giving Microsoft their first big break which steadily made them the biggest software company that the world has ever seen.

It was IBM that invented the computer as we know it and HP that invented the term of “Personal Computer”

The Apple OS was never licensed to others and could only run on Apple hardware, the idea of a computer wasn’t formally recognized during the “programmable calculator” boom. If you have ever wondered why Microsoft has always had the lead, it all comes down to Apple’s proprietary infrastructure; To run the Mac OS you must have an Apple system. The motherboards featured in Apple systems are encrypted in order to prevent upgrades or replacements outside of the manufacturers that Apple designate and therefore this is why one wouldn’t build an Apple-style computer to run Mac OS X as you would need to build an IBM PC-Compatible computer and install an unsupported ‘nulled’ version of the Operating System such as Hackintosh by the guys over at the OSx86 project.

and although I don’t plan on explaining how it all went about back then (mostly because Google is your friend) I do plan on divulging into my opinions and theories on the PC versus. Mac

Over the last ten years or so I have been privileged to work with over 1000 different types of computers, Operating Systems and manufacturers. When it comes to education, you will find that tutors are very biased and mostly in favor of teaching the IBM PC-Compatible systems rather than the Apple Operating Systems or hardware.

In the mid 90’s the effort was made for Apple to license its BIOS/OS combination and whilst companies such as Sony and Motorola invested millions of dollars in developing these systems, Apple canceled the licensing and therefore with its smaller market share comes much higher system costs, fewer available software applications, and fewer options for hardware repair, replacement, and upgrades as compared to PCs.

The proprietary form factors also ensure that major components such as motherboards, power supplies, and cases are available only from Apple at very high prices, making out-of-warranty repair, replacement, and upgrades of these components ridiculously ineffective for businesses.

So here we have a chart for a couple of quotes I worked on – they are obviously not 100% accurate but give or take, there is still a $7000 difference in pricing. Apple or PC, you choose.

Now obviously there are many contributing factors in a full system build, and although a shiny white 27” monitor from Apple will cost you anything between $500 and $900 – a monitor from a respectable brand like Samsung would cost a fraction of the price, and will featured 3D technology.

So there we have it, I didn’t go into much detail as it would have taken years to read, but this gives some sort of insight into why Apple and PC systems have always been enemies.