The Great Church Tech Debate #1

July 23, 2008 in Church Ideas,Creative Arts,Macs,Tech/Gadgets with View Comments

And so it continues… the love hate relationship between Mac & PC users that has spilled over into the church world. “How do we learn to talk, share, print, function and just be compatible in the office & at our services we do?” After hearing Aaron’s “Apple Hate Speech” to the question, “What is on your iPod?” I figured now is as good a time as ever to battle out the current question of “Should I switch?”

It’s completely a valid question, and one I asked myself for over 10+ years of doing ministry and life with a PC. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks and how will I be able to get work done on one of “those” things?

Let’s address question #1 that many people has asked:
1. Will I seclude myself from the rest of the office/church/world?

Even though Apple’s latest advertising campaign for Macs is very convincing and pokes fun at PCs (view the commercials here) you might still be having some reservations. Now I know the ads make a funny attempt to win you over and they make note of things you already were thinking, but there is a part of you that is still like, “Hey, hold on a sec! That’s great, hip, cool and all… but will I seclude myself from the rest of the computer world at the office/church/world with a Mac?”

Short Answer: Yes. But you should be counting your blessings. You will seclude yourself from a large amount viruses, spyware and other malware. This is something I haven’t missed a bit with ditching my PC system and moving to a Mac OS. Days spent on IT help lines have virtually disappeared and left with me much more time to do ministry.

Long Answer: No, no you will not seclude yourself from the rest of the office/church/world. Most of the reasons for this deal with compatibility and usability with a Mac. They’re built to “play nice” with a wide array of computer/tech/gadgets around the world as have TONS of free open source software to use and keep productivity flowing.

So will you be able to “play nice” with the network, printers, ms office and more? Yes, and we’ll get into that in the next post in this Great Church Tech Debate.

Until then, J-del **over and out**

[discussion/article adapted from entries by Chris Howard]

  • Chris Moncus

    Funny, the “secluded” are the Windows users at our church. Of like 20 staff, there are only 2 PCs. When our Tech director gave the cost analysis over 3 years to our administrator with Macs clearly winning, plus a side by side list of Win/Mac support cases he had to deal with (Mac had far less) we became a Mac church.

    When I got hired I was given a standard-issue Mac and got upgraded a couple months ago to a 24″ iMac. Photoshop LOVES being on a 24″ monitor.

    Funny, but I’m not sure I would have taken the job if I couldn’t have used a Mac.

  • Chris Moncus

    Funny, the “secluded” are the Windows users at our church. Of like 20 staff, there are only 2 PCs. When our Tech director gave the cost analysis over 3 years to our administrator with Macs clearly winning, plus a side by side list of Win/Mac support cases he had to deal with (Mac had far less) we became a Mac church. When I got hired I was given a standard-issue Mac and got upgraded a couple months ago to a 24″ iMac. Photoshop LOVES being on a 24″ monitor. Funny, but I’m not sure I would have taken the job if I couldn’t have used a Mac.

  • aaronsaufley

    Glad to see I’ve inspired you, Bedell. But you guys seriously need to repent and stop following Steve Jobs and start following Jesus.

    Seriously, this will be a good series. There are certainly pros and cons of going either way. Do try to be even handed and mention pros AND cons of going with a Mac instead of a PC.

  • aaronsaufley

    Glad to see I’ve inspired you, Bedell. But you guys seriously need to repent and stop following Steve Jobs and start following Jesus.Seriously, this will be a good series. There are certainly pros and cons of going either way. Do try to be even handed and mention pros AND cons of going with a Mac instead of a PC.

  • Jason

    I will mention some in later posts and definitely in the final post. Overall, the cons are few and far between. As a die hard 9+ year PC user for creativity, I found it refreshing to move to Mac.

    I am the only Mac in my office and I can do more than the other 12 PC’s in the building. It’s just a Mac thing that I pray you understand one day.

    *wink, wink*

  • Jason

    I will mention some in later posts and definitely in the final post. Overall, the cons are few and far between. As a die hard 9+ year PC user for creativity, I found it refreshing to move to Mac.I am the only Mac in my office and I can do more than the other 12 PC’s in the building. It’s just a Mac thing that I pray you understand one day.*wink, wink*

  • Jason Powell

    I’m the IT Director for a decent sized church. Though I prefer Windows OS, I’m not an Apple hater … I have a Macbook Pro sitting at the end of my couch (powered down currently). We have around 20 Macs on/off our network in contrast to around 200 PC’s.
    I wish Macs were as “they just work” as the commercials indicate … real world experience says otherwise.
    Again, I like OSX, but it has it’s issues just like any OS … I’ve seen many macs hang leaving just the “spinning beach ball of death” … or worse the Black Screen of Death.
    You are correct that it’s not a cake walk when trying to make them work in a predominate windows centric environment … and yes, we even have OSX Server to try and make things play nicely.
    Just trying to bring a little balance to the “Macs will solve all your problems” thread … they are nice, but not without issues ;-)

    And for you mac readers: please consider a future post on best practices for backing up a mac. I can’t tell you how many mac drives we’ve had to attempt to recover because mac users, thinking the mac never has issues, fail to backup properly or at all … yikes!
    Thanks for listening…
    Jason

  • Jason Powell

    I’m the IT Director for a decent sized church. Though I prefer Windows OS, I’m not an Apple hater … I have a Macbook Pro sitting at the end of my couch (powered down currently). We have around 20 Macs on/off our network in contrast to around 200 PC’s.I wish Macs were as “they just work” as the commercials indicate … real world experience says otherwise.Again, I like OSX, but it has it’s issues just like any OS … I’ve seen many macs hang leaving just the “spinning beach ball of death” … or worse the Black Screen of Death.You are correct that it’s not a cake walk when trying to make them work in a predominate windows centric environment … and yes, we even have OSX Server to try and make things play nicely.Just trying to bring a little balance to the “Macs will solve all your problems” thread … they are nice, but not without issues ;-) And for you mac readers: please consider a future post on best practices for backing up a mac. I can’t tell you how many mac drives we’ve had to attempt to recover because mac users, thinking the mac never has issues, fail to backup properly or at all … yikes!Thanks for listening…Jason

  • Jason

    Jason P- THanks for the comments. I noted some issues/cons in post #7 and I completely agree with you. Sometimes it made out to seem like Macs have "no" issues, but it's an electronic machine. They all have issues. Check out post #7 and we'll definitely be talking about some of the back up issues.

    On a side note- listened to your IT talk to GCC, hilarious & informative. Nice Job. Keep that IT blogging going too, it's defintely helped our IT here at Forefront.

  • Jason

    Jason P- THanks for the comments. I noted some issues/cons in post #7 and I completely agree with you. Sometimes it made out to seem like Macs have "no" issues, but it's an electronic machine. They all have issues. Check out post #7 and we'll definitely be talking about some of the back up issues.On a side note- listened to your IT talk to GCC, hilarious & informative. Nice Job. Keep that IT blogging going too, it's defintely helped our IT here at Forefront.

  • Jason

    Jason P- Oops, I noted the CONS is post #6. I need to do shorter series.

  • Jason

    Jason P- Oops, I noted the CONS is post #6. I need to do shorter series.

  • Jason Powell

    Thanks … it was a fun talk to give :-)

    I wish I had the time to blog like I used to … heck, I’m not even reading blogs these days … your post came to me via google alert :-)

    I’ll check out the rest of your series

    Keep rockin’ for the King!
    Jason

  • Jason Powell

    Thanks … it was a fun talk to give :-) I wish I had the time to blog like I used to … heck, I’m not even reading blogs these days … your post came to me via google alert :-) I’ll check out the rest of your seriesKeep rockin’ for the King!Jason

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