Architosh has conducted a survey into cost of ownership for firms
involved in architecture/building industry
you may want to have a look at some parts of it.
http://www.architosh.com/business/press%20information/pressreports/030604-aecreport-pr.phtml
snip>
Key Findings
There were five key findings in the report:
1) Mac firms spend on average 12 percent more on hardware costs than
Windows or Mac/Windows mixed platform firms,
2) Mac firms have workstation replacement cycles of six (6) months
longer than Windows firms, gaining a full year of additional
productive use every two replacement (upgrade) cycles,
3) Cross-platform firms spend approximately the same amount on IT
costs as Windows-only firms,
4) FileMaker Pro is the dominant database application used by AEC
firms in the study, especially in cross-platform firms,
5) Macintosh-only firms spent 15 to 50 percent less on IT management
costs (including staff type, staff hours, etc.) than both
Windows-only firms and mixed platform firms.
"We were somewhat surprised by the findings," says Anthony Frausto,
"especially the 12 percent greater cost Mac users spend on comparable
hardware." "However, we were absolutely blown away with the IT
management costs by Windows firms. Windows firms are clearly spending
more money on IT staff related costs than their Mac counter parts."
Stephane Laroye, IT Manager at Hotson Bakker Architects, of
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a medium sized firm, said "this
does not surprise me at all. The Mac is an intuitive environment so
each user is able to comfortably figure things out on their own." He
adds, "I can also comment on the fact that with Mac OS X, my IT time
has been reduced considerably since we deployed our Xserve. With one
disk image, I can configure all desktop machines the same while each
staff person's Home folder is located on the Xserve. If there are any
problems with one desktop, they can move to another and login into
their own account giving the office far more flexibility (remember
the mainframe days?)."
Even Windows firm participants commented on Apple's Macs being easier
to maintain and support.
/<snip
and by the way in our industry you buy/use workstations, and most of
the good CAD software is in the $5000-10000 bracket.
--
Gary Dorn
Permaculture architect
North Perth
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
