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Macintosh faces possible deletion
by Michael Navarro
"There is not enough demand [for Macintoshes] on campus," said Gary Kidney, associate director of
academic computing and member of CSAC.
Four years ago, Kidney recommended that the university stop buying Macintoshes. He also
recommended that the Delta 204 lab be converted to a PC lab. This conversion has already taken place.
While this change may not affect all students at UH-Clear Lake, it will affect students in the
School of Human Sciences and Humanities; all the classes that use the Macintosh lab are in that
school.
"I think it is a big mistake," said Bob McPeak, a digital pre-press operator at Mirror Publishing.
The Mac is the industry standard in newspaper and pre-press printing. If students are going into
graphics or pre-press and they don't use Macs, it may hurt them."
Stuart Larson, assistant professor of graphic design, said that Macintoshes are the most reliable
computers to use in graphic design and pre-press.
"Although both machines can crash, it is easier to install and problem solve hardware on the
Mac," Larson said. He also claims that solving software conflicts on the Macintosh is easier.
"The Mac interfaces with Adobe's expert post-script printing language much more effectively than
the PC." As a result, most production houses and service bureaus use Macintoshes to send jobs to the
printers. Even companies that use both Macintoshes and PCs use the Macintosh for their final output,
Larson said.
However, Kidney does not have the same confidence in the future of Macintosh in the pre-press
industry.
"That is one of the niche markets that the Macintosh still has," Kidney said. "My guess is that
two years from now the publishing pre-press, digital video areas will all be revolving around the PC."
"A year ago, I made a decision to replace the old Macs in Delta 203 with G4 cubes; well, the cube
was discontinued in nine months," Kidney said. "When machine models turn over that quickly, how can
you partner with a company that does that to you?"
Another reason Kidney has decided not to purchase any more Macintoshes is that their operating
system has not changed significantly since the company first began as compared to the six changes in
PC operating systems, including the recently announced Microsoft XP.
Better memory management, the ability to multi-task, and better network support are all results of
operating system changes, Kidney said. With better memory management, all applications have their own
memory so they do not interfere with each other, he added.
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