Why A Mac in Church?

[chaselivingston]

Man, can't believe I didn't catch the small block/short block snafu.

[dmeyer]

I guess you could put a short block in, but you wouldn't get very far...well, about as far as a normal Chevy engine would get you. (cue crickets)

Uh, Macs! Yes, what were you saying?

[chaselivingston]

Haha, very nice.

[jimwalton]

Sheesh, I know very little about Ford vs. Chevy engines etc. I mainly just posted back to you, Daniel, to prod you. I know your situation and potential challenges. It would be interesting if ProPresenter had a way to easily integrate with EW, then nothing changes for anyone else and you take their work and easily import it into ProPresenter. Your situation makes sense to want to use EW on Mac. The other challenge there is getting it on AD but it can be done.

EW on a Mac could very well be a good transition tool then down the road(years!) you could begin transitioning others to the light! Last I knew, some of your people wanted Macs and that fits very well into your master plan.

It's about budget time again, all you have to do is pad your budget with enough to begin your move to Mac.

[chaselivingston]

Man, I wish I had the ability to pad our tech budget. I'd have several Macs already, lol.

[paschott]

I was thinking the same thing. Padding our budget by enough to buy a Mac would essentially quadruple or more our current budget.

[craigmash]

I take special care not to load anything on our presentation PC that is not needed. This keeps is clean and running well.

Perhaps the Macs tend to be more stable for some people is because people have less that they can actually load on it. If it is your only Mac, you are probably not going to have lots of software sitting around to start loading on it and thus you keep it very clean with only the essentials.

I would bet most churches have lots of PC software sitting around and maybe people go overboard loading it up unneeded stuff.

Just a thought.

[chaselivingston]

In my opinion, most PCs I've ever used come with too much software in the first place. There are so many things that all try to start when you boot up the computer, and that run constantly in the background. I know that you can disable a lot of this, which I usually do, but the average user may not know how to do that.

[johnnyd]

One issue I cannot look past is that you are paying for a luxury brand. It has been reported recently that 91% of people that buy a laptop over $1,000 buy Apple. Apple doesn’t even sell laptops under $1,000 (unless you buy refurb). While yes I agree Apple has great engineering and design, stable, in general more secure, and easy to use. One question you have to ask is, IS it really worth paying the 30+% premium?

Windows 7 is out now and it’s ridiculously easy to use, security software is free, and Microsoft give tons of free multimedia software as well, Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker, Live Mail. AND it runs smoothly on my 2-year-old $350 laptop.

I mean I love BMW’s, I know they are built-to-last, higher reliability, more enjoyable to drive, have more features included, etc. But does that mean it’s appropriate for all church leadership to drive BMW’s?

Whether it’s a personal computing decision, a business computing decision, or a religious non-profit computing decision, each one has to be looked at differently.

I firmly believe churches in all of these have the highest calling in being a good steward with our resources. If you are committed to fight against social in-justices how can you justify a luxury brand computer in your church? If there is a specific task in which you need an Apple to do that task effectively than I can understand.

Look at Fluid Desktop for PC, developed by Thirsty Media. It’s very easy to use, has all the features of ProPresenter 4 at 1/3 the cost. I too would appreciate a full comparison review.

I’d have to say I completely agree with Chris. It’s our responsibility to find the best tool for the job (whether mac or PC) and not let our personal bias drive our decisions.

[chaselivingston]

To some people, including myself, it is worth paying that extra premium for the stability and reliability you get with Apple.

Now, I can understand, and agree with the fact that we should be good stewards of the church's money. The church I am a part of, for instance, cannot afford a Mac right now, so we have just recently purchased EasyWorship 2009 for our presentation purposes. If we did have the money, however, we probably would purchase a Mac and use ProPresenter. Not because EasyWorship is bad, or because ProPresenter is the best, but because that's what would work the best for us, and the volunteers we have.

The software that comes installed on a Mac is far superior to anything I've seen from Windows, i.e. iMovie, iPhoto, Finder, Spotlight, etc. I really think these things, coupled with everything else I've said previously, make a Mac the best decision. I don't advocate spending all the money you have on it, and then not doing anything else, but if you have the money that you can afford to spend on a Mac, I say that's a great choice.