by Timothy Hoarwood

Created on: May 28, 2009   Last Updated: July 12, 2009

This article is based on my experience with an old Dell Dimension 4700, a ultra-low end PC, a high end Dell XPS 420 gaming PC, an old G4 Mac and a newer iMac, currently selling on the Apple website.

My experiences with Windows have generally been pretty good. It wasn't horribly slowed down by antivirus software, or brought to it's knees by the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death.' There were no problems with faulty drivers or system modules. However, when I had this PC, I really didn't know a great deal about computing. I installed every conceivable interesting-looking program I could find - I had around a third of my hard drive filled with total, unmitigated trash. As the PC groaned under the strain of more programs than would fit in the 'All Programs menu, I eventually learnt of the wonders of formatting. Within a few hours, it was running like new.

So, this was when I first came across an Apple Mac G4. The specifications were arguably lower than the Dimension, but it did have considerably more RAM and considerably fewer programs. I used it in my school IT suite, where a room of antique PCs, with around 1/8 of the Mac's RAM, churned away in uncomfortable harmony with rows of Apple G4s. So, filled with excitement at using a legendary 'Mac', I logged in. Admittedly, first impressions were rather...lacklustre. The interface was really nothing special. Yes, I know Macs were first with the GUI, but really, it's Windows with the buttons moved. So, both equally good GUIs...until I discovered the abomination that was the single-button mouse. Why would any company ship their computers with a single button mouse? Why would anyone want to hold the 'Command' key instead of right clicking? It truly defies belief. Luckily for me, I found a Windows mouse and plugged it in. Peace was restored. My enthusiasm not yet drained, I started Safari, Apple's flagship web browser.

Ouch. It seemed incapably of retaining proxy server settings, so bombarded me with popups demanding my username and password. Popups pacified with a great deal of hasty typing, I proceeded to browse and found that everything seemed perfectly serviceable. Perhaps...why has my mouse turned into a spinning multicoloured top? Oh, it's loading things. It finished loading things after around a minute of unresponsiveness. This quickly became annoying. Every application I tried would occasionally, for no apparent reason, start to load some unseen resources halfway through whatever I was trying to do. It quickly became

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