[Stuart]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Another thought I had on this power lacking Mac bashing subject is that we don't actually need the processing power most of us have on our desks. Your average PC user probably does not play games, edit video, use postgrad level mathematics in excel spreadsheets or work with multi gig databases. They write the occasional letter, email, chat, surf the web etc. To do all these things a Pentium 1Mz is probably more than adequate, so while the Mac is less powerfull than a PC, it is like comparing a 1.8litre family car to a 2.0 litre one, both do the job to a level well in excess of the legal requirements, just the 2.0 litre one may do 130mph flat out and the 1.8 115mph. Taking this analagy a step to far, the OS and chip design of the Mac could be compared to something like the Honda vTec engine which although smaller outperformes the larger engine by design superiority.

I don't know about now with the Power PC processors, but I do know that the 68000 series processors that powered the original Macs were around 1/4 to 1/3 more powerful than an Intel processor with an equivalent clock speed.