Windows on the Web: Can An Economist Be a Mac Guy?

by Bruce Kratofil
NABE Webmaster

Most of you have seen the commercials “Hi, I’m a Mac…Hi, I’m a PC!” You may have even thought to yourself that most business economists resemble the PC guy more than the Mac guy.

After nineteen years of using PCs (my computer before that was an Atari), I’ve finally decided to explore the Mac world. I needed to replace my laptop computer, and I replaced it with a MacBook. I’m writing a series of articles elsewhere detailing the switch and the rationale behind it. The purpose of this article is to see how practical a Mac is for a business economist.

Those of you in the corporate world may have little say in what computer goes onto your desk or into your briefcase. But you do have a voice in what computer you have at home. Those of you running your own shop and calling your own IT decisions may also be considering the switch.

Universal File Formats

Nowadays, it’s quite easy to switch between being a Mac guy and a PC guy. Almost every file format I use is universal, and can be opened by both a Windows program and a Mac program. These include the HTML, mp3, PDF, and mpeg files used for Web development work, as well as all the Microsoft Office formats. The MacBook came with a trial edition of Microsoft Office for the Mac, and there was no problem moving spreadsheets, docs, or PowerPoint slideshows from one to another.

The MacBook connects easily into my network of Windows computers, and almost every Windows-based peripheral device I own connects and works with the new laptop. (Since it only has USB and FireWire ports, older legacy devices such as parallel printers may need adaptors.) I’m using the three-button USB mouse from my old laptop as the external mouse, and flash drives work equally as well.

Some things are a little different – the buttons to close a window are on the upper left instead of the upper right of a window, and menus are at the top of your screen instead of the top of each window. But it doesn’t take long for a typical computer user to learn how to do things. Mac OS X 10.4 also comes with a huge number of applications that let you do everyday tasks without the need of extra software. Most of the newer features in Windows Vista are only catching up to what Mac OS X 10.4 had a while ago.

Stability and Security

Macs are more stable and secure. They aren’t perfect – there are still bugs and security patches, but not nearly to the extent of the problems with Microsoft Windows. Part of it is because Apple is more ruthless than Microsoft. They control both the hardware and the operating system in a very tightly controlled package. Because of that, there’s probably some economic profit built in to the price of a Mac. But in return, there aren’t driver issues, DLL hell, or spyware.

On the other hand, Microsoft produces Windows to work on an almost infinite combination of microprocessors, motherboards, video cards, sound cards, and the like. This opens up many possibilities for bugs and incompatibilities. Microsoft also tries to make each version of Windows as backward compatible with old applications as possible. When Apple came out with OS X, they did make a compatibility mode to work with some old applications, but in reality they cut off a lot of the old applications. This made people migrate to newer software that is designed to work with the newer OS.

Parallels

While the file formats are interchangeable between Macs and PCs, the software isn’t. You can’t take Microsoft Office for Windows, or Macromedia Dreamweaver for Windows, and install it on the Mac. One solution is to purchase the Mac versions of the software you need, and install it on the Mac. (That is, if you need the Mac versions. Most economists will need Microsoft Office, but a lot of other software needs may be fulfilled by the applications that come standard on the Mac.)

Another solution is Parallels , software which allows you to run another operating system, such as Windows XP, Vista, or Linux, as a virtual machine. I purchased Parallels, along with a legal version of Windows XP, to install on the MacBook. That allows me to install my Windows applications on the MacBook. It’s a nice way to test the Mac waters without having to make a full-fledged commitment. (This article is being written in Microsoft Word running on a Windows XP virtual machine on the new Mac.) You can run Windows in full-screen mode or within a window on the Mac. With the latter, all you need is a mouse click to switch between one OS and the other running simultaneously. You can share files between the two systems running on the same computer, and you can cut and paste between Windows and the Mac.

I used the MacBook during the March 2007 NABE Policy Conference, with Microsoft Office running within Parallels, and didn’t have any problems handling files.

Econometric Software

One specialized need of economists is econometric software. Many of the big statistical packages, such as SPSS, RATS, Gauss, and Mathematica have Mac versions. One notable package that does not is Eviews. However, since QMS says that Eviews 6 can run on Windows 98, ME, or NT, it can probably run on Parallels. (Note: After this story was published, I heard from a NABE member who confirmed that Eviews works in the Parallels Desktop on the Mac.)

Since there is no budget for testing software here at Windows on the Web (actually, there’s no budget for anything), there’s no test of how Eviews would work. However, there was an evaluation copy of SPSS 13.0 for Windows handy, and I installed that on the Mac within the Parallels virtual machine. It appeared to work OK, except that SPSS itself didn't seem to like the fact that I was using a two-year old trial version. While the program would start, some built-in time limit kept it from doing any calculations. A quick trip to the SPSS website and a 163 MB download got a trial version of SPSS 15 for Windows. I tested it with a 73 variable, 680 record dataset from a consumer survey. It had no problems chewing through the data doing cross-tabs, hypothesis testing, frequency analysis and graphing, at about the same speed it would take running the analysis on a standard Windows computer. There didn't seem to be any tell-tale signs of strain on the computer, for the results appeared almost instantaneously and the fan didn't kick on. (The fan kicking on usually means the microprocessor is working extra hard and getting hot.) At least in this case, number-crunching within the virtual machine did fine.

If you do use econometrics software a lot and you are thinking of making the switch, this is what you should study. All the other issues shouldn’t be a problem.

And finally….

This year’s version of NABE Fantasy Baseball is up and running. We’ve expanded to a nine-team league, and in much fancier surroundings in a CBS Sportsline Fantasy League, thanks to a NABE member who works for CBS Interactive. The next fantasy opportunity will be NABE Fantasy Football 2.0; anyone interested in playing should contact me in late July or early August.