Windows muscles in on Mac DTP turf. (desktop publishing; includes related article on how to choose a desktop publishing platform)

Brad Koltz describes his department's shift from Macintosh computers to Windows-based machines at Essex County Newspapers, in Beverly, Mass., as a transformation of nearly Biblical proportions.

"You're almost branded a heretic if you challenge the Mac," said the production and systems director, describing how he brought a PC-based pagination system to Essex.

Defying the long-standing reverence accorded the Macintosh, Koltz decided it would be far less expensive to handle the department's graphic needs on Windows-based Pcs. While that used to leave colleagues questioning Koltz's good sense, now they just want to know how he did it, Koltz said.

IN THE BEGINNING. When artists began to harness desktop computers en masse in the last decade, the omnipotent Mac was the coveted computer. But slowly things are changing, and those faced with computer purchase decisions now can choose from two options -- the Mac and Windows -- each with its own following of religious fanatics.

"It's not the same kind of fervor you get with word processing or spreadsheet users," said Dan Ness, a senior industry analyst at Computer Intelligence, a La Jolla, Calif.-based market research firm. "Artists as a group are really zealots."

Several events …