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Throwback Thursday – Kevin’s PC vs. Mac Class Paper from 1990

Hi, Kevin here. I have personally been interested in computing since the 286 processor days. I was hooked ever since my dad explained what the “turbo” button was for – which of course I had turned on at all times. Whether it was the dial up sound on my 1200 baud modem to the latest BBS listed on the back of the Reader newspaper or being one of the first people to sign up for a CompuServe email address, I was hooked for life.

Recently I was digging through my archive of digital and paper documents and found the following gem from one of my English classes in middle school. After the comedy wore off, what I realized are some of the points I make in my comparison are still valid to this day.

  1. Macs are still more expensive then PCs and therefore schools could purchase more PCs
  2. Macs are better for individuals and are experience-driven
  3. PCs are better for business
  4. Macs are better for art – which I would argue now personally as I massively prefer Adobe Cloud on PC from a computing perspective.

I hope you enjoy the following paper in its entirety from my youth.  Feel free to tease me about it in person, via email or on social media.

—- (…presses Turbo Button…puts in bootable 5.25 in floppy disk for freeware word processing program…goes upstairs for 3 minutes while software boots…) —

Kevin Calgren, May 13, 1990, Writing Class

Comparison and Contrast: IBM vs. Macintosh

The IBM and Mac are alike in many ways and very different in other areas. The IBM is a better business computer because it processes faster and has a better memory base. The Mac can have between 20-14,360MB.  While the IBM comes with 80megs standard. The standard for a Mac is 40. The IBM can go from 40-20,000MB.  But there is no possible need for 14,360 or 20,000MBs. An average person needs only 80.

The Mac is very good for home use, or pretty much anything that involves art. It has many art programs and home organization programs with the IBM has but they are not as effective. If a choice was to be made for a school to have either Mac’s or IBMs, the Mac would be the choice. But if funds are a problem in the school, the Mac is much more expensive than the IVM and the school wouldn’t be able to buy as many computers if they chose the Mac. If entertainments the need, the IBM and Mac all have the same games and that isn’t a problem.  IBM and Mac round each other out in capabilities of graphics and sound. For instance, the game “Civilization” is both IBM and Mac. But in the two versions, the Mac’s graphics looked more detailed than the IVM. The music is far better for the IBM with the “Sound Blaster” attachment. The Blaster makes the sound clearer and more like a home stereo system. The Mac has an internal sound card which comes close to the Sound Blaster but not close enough in my opinion.

The IBM and Mac are alike in many ways, and different in many ways. I hope I’ve made the more basic things clearer.

Thank you for reading.  I hope it gave you a laugh or two.

Written by: Kevin Calgren, Partner