[Elecraft] Windows vs Mac

[Grant Youngman]

>> 
> 
> While Apple has a good reputation for reliable hardware, their
> software policies make that long term reliability useless.  Apple
> simply updates the operating system so often - and requires that
> all users purchase each incremental update.

Partly true, but with a major caveat.  Point upgrades, e.g. Lion (10.7) to Mountain Lion (10.8) cost a "budget busting" $20.  Updates within that point level (e.g.10.8.1 to 10.8.2) cost nothing.  I can purchase a whole lot of future Apple OS upgrades for the price of one copy of Windows 8.


>  In addition, each
> major version upgrade will not run on less than current hardware
> (e.g. "Mountain Lion" will not run on Intel "Core2 Duo" systems
> that are only a four years old) and many application updates
> require the current OS version.

Mountain Lion will not run on machines that have a 32-bit EFI (bios).  It has nothing to do with the processor type.  My going on 5 year old Core 2 Duo Mac Book Pro runs just fine with 10.8.  My 2007 Quad Core Mac Pro does not, because it has a 32-bit (rather than 64-bit) EFI. Time passes, technology changes.  You might be able to load Windows 8 on some ancient machine, but getting it to run in any useful way is a completely different issue.  And realistically, most computer systems are getting pretty ancient at the 5 year mark.
> 

Grant/NQ5T