Dealing With G3 Envy (03/19/98; 7:00 p.m. EST) OPINION By Randy Whitted, TechWeb contributor
Someone finally did it, and of course it would be Steve Jobs. Only he would have the nerve to do a side by side comparison of a G3 PowerMac and a Pentium II-based PC.
What's worse, he compared a 233-MHz G3 to a 333-MHz Pentium II. Not much of a comparison, though. Even at a mere 233 MHz, the G3 outperformed the Pentium system.
This has got to sour those PC people who have been trying to ignore, downplay, and even hunt down Macs. PowerMacs have always been a little bit faster, depending on which models were being tested. But now there's a huge performance gap to be dealt with.
Feeling like a good sport, I've come up with a few ways and stock rebuttals for anti-Mac folks to use as they deal with their G3 envy.
(Note: The following retorts closely resemble the feedback I get from PC users who frequent this column.)
The Future: Sure, a G3 may be faster now, but Intel is working on this new chip called "Merced." The name is so cool, it's gotta be fast! After all, it will be a fully 64-bit processor. It won't run Windows 95, but by 1999 there's bound to be something that it will run!
The Present: Who cares? Macs suck.
The Past: You Mac users have never been able to get software for those things, so it doesn't matter how fast they are.
Denial: Speed doesn't matter. It's how much software you can get for it, and everyone knows you can't get anything for the Mac.
Oversight: Isn't it cool the way you can eject a CD from a PC by simply pushing the eject button? No dragging icons to the trash or anything dumb like that.
Hopeful: Yeah, but Intel may one day make a 500-MHz Pentium II, and then the G3 233 won't seem so fast.
Anger: Steve Jobs is a jerk, and all you Mac losers don't have a clue.
Analytical: There are so many factors to speed -- hard drive types, memory, software optimization, temperature ... how can you really say one machine is faster than another?
Overanalytical::Technology flows in cycles, like the cosmos. Today's hot technology is tomorrow's bargain bin fodder. It is inappropriate to say one technology is better than another. We're all working toward a state of harmony, are we not?
Begrudging: I'm not using a PC because I want to. They're making me do it. I wouldn't mind having a G3, but it's not gonna happen.
Reality: So I've not only been stuck with a second-rate operating system, but I've got to use it on second-rate hardware.
The best way to deal with your present PC platform is to go outside, take a walk, and sit under a tree (something all of us should do now and then). Take a break from electricity. Computers can be really cool, but they are still nothing compared to the wonderment of a simple tree.
An Apple tree, of course.
How about that story guys? I thought it was hillarious.
