Macintosh myopia?
Readers comment pro & con

 
Do we have Macintosh myopia, and what if we do?

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I study at a college in the UK (besides working for a printing company) and we have mixed PC and Mac labs. Quite nice because this way everybody gets a taste of both platforms and so will be able to make a more objective decision about which computer they like best. —Inge Schoorl    [Top]

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Going through graphic school, they were all Mac...BUT I had the same applications running on my home PC. So not only was I fluent in the Mac, but the PC as well. When I got out of school, I found more job openings than the Mac only student, and the current position I have is using Illustrator, Photoshop, and Quark Xpress...on a PC

I don't feel LESS creative than if I was using a Mac. Though the file maintenance is a bit more cumbersome on the PC, I thank my lucky stars that Apple continues to control the Mac heads like zombies, because heck, there are just as creative jobs for PC users.

And you are correct, the majority of web users use PCs. TV shows MAKE you think EVERYONE has an iMac on their office desk, right? —galagher@wi.net   [Top]

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One shared lab we use for intro classes—18 Macs. One multimedia lab used by majors—10 Macs, 3 NTs. New lab to be built (half this year, half next) and shared with other programs—5 Macs, 5 NTs. I've taught for several graphic design programs—100% Macs. —Gunnar Swanson, California Lutheran University   [Top]

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Macs are varied.... G4's, G3's, Performa 5460's, Performa 5200 and we finally just last year, retired IIci's and LC475's! Believe it! We had one measly 486 in the lab only because our only available negative scanner at the time was parallel port. However, our students also receive HTML, Front Page a la Windows platform. This year we will be introducing GoLive on the Mac as a compliment to HTML. —Laura Piche, Canadore College of Applied Arts and Technology   [Top]

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I echo your concerns... upon arrival as teacher of this visual communications program, the lab was entirely Mac. I pushed for and received the approval to go 50/50 Mac/PC. Admin has also pushed back to request I create an entirely PC lab.... NO GO from me. —Rick Racich, HG Sackett Technical Center   [Top]

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Connectix Virtual PC we've found excellent to give students an opportunity to become proficient on Mac and PC platforms. —James Jarnagin, Jefferson Community College   [Top]

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I've seen so many graphic designers come out of school knowing nothing about the Windows OS, not even how to run a program or copy a file. I work at a web design company where we use PCs for their compatibility with the programming department, and it is frustrating to have to spend time teaching designers how to work on a PC, and they are never as comfortable as they are with the Macs they learned on... —kemie guaida   [Top]

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I do not teach in a college but have been in touch with the National College of Art in Dublin. In the NCAD both Macs and PCs are used. I believe the college would favour Macs but the photographic dept. does have PCs running NT4. I approached a colleague in the college requesting some advice as I had to buy a new computer. I have been using a PC for the last few years and was thinking of switching over to Macs. Having looked at the cost of a switch over to a Mac I realised that such a project would be too expensive. —Michael Killen   [Top]

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Visual Communication Design uses the Mac; Industrial and Interior Design use the PC. —RBS, Ohio State University   [Top]

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Tough keeping Mac but our program has administrative support for them along with computer art and photographic imaging. —Faye Lourenso, Suffolk County Community College   [Top]

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As a student, I find not only the selection of only Mac computers (even all the faculty/staff/administration are on Mac's now... however good for Apple that is.... I can't enroll once without problems. :)

Myopic, but it's hampering students integration into the workplace. As a self-taught computer tech, I work at home exclusively on PC's (easier and cheaper to build and maintain as a student) and have had few if any problems converting/transferring files to the labs. However, the lack of software in the labs as well as usable computers of any kind is a problem. There are still 6100 PowerMacs in use with nothing more than Photoshop 4 on them.

At home I have access to much more advanced software, which I find to be a great advantage compared to the average student, who are being hampered by this myopic technology implementation in the labs. —Kelly R Moore, University of Oklahoma   [Top]

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I'm Associate Dean of the College and sending you details on our college-wide technology lab, which is used not only for graphic design and new media but for music theory and composition instruction and CAD instruction for theatre tech. We are familiar with the design matters you mention in terms of needing to work on dual platforms. —Christine Havice, University of Kentucky   [Top]

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Sounds more like a prize fight than a debate in development platforms.

I went to NYU where I got into design via photography (digital photography and photographic manipulation were to follow). The labs that the photography department had were all Mac labs.

I got into web design sophomore year when I was an intern at CBS new media. At ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU -- a grad program) they had wonderful Mac and PC labs with all the same software on them both). Unfortunately, I never took advantage of this as I did most of my assignments from home and I never had a professor that told me the importance of developing on both platforms.

I had many design jobs in school as well as doing freelance and I never had to use a PC. My employers always catered to my Mac preference (though they couldn't understand why designers had this weird PC phobia); in fact, they expected it.

Now I am doing creative development at Viant where I struggle to write cross-browser cross-platform style sheets and scripts. Amazing, part of me wonders how I got away with it for so long. I am still trying to get used to it.

Development on a Dell seems to be a bit of a sin, though I love HomeSite a lot more than BBedit. Hey, its just the way I was raised. I personally think development should be taught on a PC. The only people who seem to use Macs are either designers, schools (from academia to UDA), or people doing really high end video editing work like Media 100 and Avid (using Mac clones).

I love my Mac, but I realized that my preference is aesthetically based. I just feel better using a Mac interface. Unfortunately, for reasons that require another conversation, Mac has lost the race. Coming to Viant and not knowing much about the PC development environment has been a thorn in my side in every way. From writing a good front end, to integration with what the tech architects are doing to effective testing, the Mac users in our office always have issues.
—Ty Turnipseed, viant.com   [Top]

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The feature on Mac vs PC is interesting. A consideration for graphic designers and students has been that the graphic arts business world (commercial printers) jumped on the Mac bandwagon early on and built their equipment and processes on that technical base. I design a university magazine on PC, and for years the pre-press folks at the print shop have opened my files on a Mac and converted them. This, as far as I know is not difficult or time consuming. The main problem may be font non-interchangeability. A consideration for design students who may end up working in print is that of taking Mac or PC skills into the job market. Mac skills, I would assume, are more marketable.
—Don Nelson, Notre Dame Magazine   [Top]

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The Mac, MacOS, and Mac versions of the important creativity software, continue to provide the best system for our art/design environment (since 1987). Because it can also read PC disks, our students who have PCs at home have little trouble porting projects. Our alumni report that they find primarily Macs in their work places after graduation.
—Elizabeth Ross, East Carolina University   [Top]

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I am the Graphic Artist on staff here, and there are NO Macintoshes. Reasoning: Macs are too expensive, budgetarily not justifiable, incompatible with other campus computers, limited software, and insupportable by Administrative Computing Services. Would I rather be working in a Macintosh environment? You bet. Is it a realistic option for a public institution? No. It IS possible to do good design work on a PC (really, truly--we've got the awards to prove it), service bureaus are caught up, and you get more bang for the buck. Exclusive Mac users are going to have to get over it.
—Leslee Paquette, Renton Technical College   [Top]

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[on Mac myopia]
I have it and I'm proud and here's why.

It's a generally known fact in the computer world that Windows/PC did not win because it was the better system. In fact, in case no-one noticed, Microsoft has just been found guilty of illegal and monopolistic business practices in one of the biggest antitrust suits of all time.

I am not a wide-eyed busy-tailed computer novice. I used my first computer in 1983. It was a DOS computer and it expected me to be an engineer. I hated it, but was forced to use it. Then I discovered Macintosh, a machine that was designed for normal people. I have spent my entire career as an interactive designer watching Microsoft "engulf and devour" the computer industry, not because of quality but because its ravenous business practices.

I also do not believe that "majority rules" is a compelling reason to abandon a product which I feel is far superior to what the other 98% of people use to browse the web. I'm not interested in being a conformist, and I think Apple's new marketing job was brilliant because it addressed people like me that prefer not to play the role of lemmings running with mass market manipulation.

The fact is, if you walk into any creative studio, whether it be print graphics, architecture, computer effects, or digital filmmaking, Macintosh still holds a prominent and respected place. It may have lost out on its originally intended vision of mass-media appliance, but it's still a far better creative tool than the PC.

I have been designing interactive multimedia for the entire duration that this industry has existed, and several years before it was even called that. I currently teach in the interactive program at the University of Southern California's world-renowned School of Cinema-Television. Our interactive media lab has both Macs and PC's. Our nonlinear editing systems are Mac-based Avids.

I agree with you that although Windows/PC (and let's not mistake that what we're really talking about here is not the PC at all but the Windows/PC) is the mass media web-browsing standard, if you are going to train people in the creation of new media, it's absolutely a requirement that they learn both.

In spite of doom and gloomsayers, Apple is the little computer that could. It has survived all measure of battering, and that is because it's a good product.
—Celia Pearce, author of The Interactive Book   [Top]

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At Kent we are 100% Macintosh-oriented. We are very close to completing a third Mac lab and the graduate studio now has iMacs. Glyphix has all new G4's and one of the maxxed out G4/500's with the video monitor (a very sweet machine). Although I think we are being narrow in our scope, most of the internship requests and job openings are for Mac-based systems.
—John Brett Buchanan, Kent State University   [Top]

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We are in the process of being told we need to change our lab from Mac to PC as the university does not feel it can afford to provide technical support for both platforms. Their reasoning is that the software runs the same on either platform.

We are a design program that has evolved from a print tradition, we have run into output problems when we generate files for the service bureaus on PC instead of on Macs.

The largest response has come from our Practicum (internship) supervisors, who are mostly Mac based. They are very mad, and vocal, about the proposed change.

The students are 50-50 on the issue. Half have chosen PCs for their home computer and the other half Mac. The PC people learn how to reconfigure their files to print in a Mac-based environment. Some of the hard core Mac students become PCers on the job or during their practicum. I find the students to be very fluid between platforms.

We have two thoughts. One is to go to a laptop requirement and let the students choose, and two, we are preparing a proposal that would expand our current lab from 15 Macs to 15 Macs and 10 PCs.
—Cary Staples, University of Tennessee   [Top]

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I read "Macintosh Myopia" with great interest. I am a graphic designer turned multimedia designer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I am in the minority position of being a graphic/web/media designer working in the world of the PC.

I have been working in the design field since I was 18 years of age, cutting my teeth and earning my wounds in the industry as opposed to taking time out to attend a design/technical college or university(not that I'm am at all against that). I credit or lament, depending on your outlook, never having had to immerse myself in the Mac world.

For the last 2 years I have been teaching web design part time at a local multimedia college. We are PC based and I must say that I believe my students are better for it. I find the number of problems associated with producing for the internet masses from a Mac a very large problem and I give the author of this article credit for being confident that he can teach his students mass production design for the web from a Mac.

There is, however, one question that I wish to discuss. What place do Macs have in the future of internet and multimedia design? There is a flood of newly educated talent now hitting the streets, a majority of which will be PC based and experienced. Are new upstart companies going to shell out the 25%-50% in increased cost to fuel their office workstations with Macs? I don't think they will. Where will the Macs position themselves in this new industry? Lots of questions which uncertain answers. In any event, I appreciate the thought process your article began and the eventual lesson plan that it may inspire me to produce in the future.
—Tim Winters, Creative Solutions New Media   [Top]

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I agree 100% about the need for students to have experiences on both platforms. In the art departments at our community colleges it is fairly well mixed, although some of them seem to have all Mac or all PC. Across the board in our system it is about 50/50.

Of the newer purchases, we are seeing mostly PCs, especially for employees because of the intricacies of new student information systems. At the same time, for students, plenty of our open computing labs sport rows of new Pentiums as well as hordes of new iMacs.

One approach for cash strapped shops would be to equip at least a few of their Macs with VirtualPC, so student at least can test creations in a PC environment. I would not want to work intensively in VirtualPC, but it is commendable for quick checking.

I am wary of absolute web stats. I think you have to consider the audiences for various contents, as your site has a heavy favor toward Macs than the 2% world at large. Our total web site of education content runs at about 13% Mac, but within our highest traffic sub site, DirectorWeb it is about 22% Mac.

The ironic thing about platforms is the Mac fanatics will rise to defend the virtues of their computers ("prying from cold death-grip"). They would rather die than switch. On the other hand, Windows users rise to the defense of the shortcomings of their machines, mumbling phrases about "preemptive multitasking." I think if offered another platform that everybody else was using, was cheap, and was glad-handed by the computing figureheads, [they] would jump in a heartbeat from Windows.
—ßAlan Levine, Maricopa Community Colleges    [Top]

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