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Re: MacOS vs. Windows PC for Mathematica?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg13827] Re: MacOS vs. Windows PC for Mathematica?
• From: Harald Giese <giese at dkrz.de>
• Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 04:41:07 -0400
• Organization: Institut fuer Meereskunde, Universitaet Hamburg
• References: <6s5l6q$c84@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

franki at aerodyne.com wrote:
> ...
> I'm wrestling with the option of switching platforms. 
> ... 

Hi,

sometimes I am also thinking about a switch, but to Linux, because
Mathematica runs there twice as fast as on a Mac or NT: "Speed
comparison of Mathematica on various machines":
http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~stst/mathstef2.html) However,
the complicated installation of Linux deters me. 

To answer your questions: 
Windows NT is a very stable system (but Windows 95/98 are not!). NT has
a very good memory management and pre-emptive multitasking. Indeed, the
long filenames (NT and W95/98) need the extension for linking the
appropriate application (though NT offers to hide them).

However, considering the problems the change to a new platform will
bring (especially from Mac to PC), perhaps you should just wait for the
coming Mac OS X - for which Apple promises stability and pre-emptive
multitasking.

Regards,
Harald

-- 
Harald Giese
Email: giese at dkrz.de
Phone: +49 (0)40 4123 5796; Fax: +49 (0)40 5605724 Institut fuer
Meereskunde der Universitaet Hamburg (Institute of Oceanography of the
University of Hamburg) Troplowitzstrasse 7, D-22529 Hamburg