Why Can’t CIOs Take Macs Seriously?
As I read this article, I, too, found myself feeling what many in the IT community feel about using OS X. Macs are great, but I can buy a usable Dell for half the dollar amount to accomplish most of the same tasks. While it is true the Dell for half the amount has less in the way of hardware goodness, to run Windows 7, it does not need to be a screaming machine. Any new $500 desktop will do nicely. Sadly, Macs are unable to fit into this category.
Now before the Mac users come in here frothing at the mouths, consider the following.
- I live in a Linux/OS X household. We also have Windows here as well, but I am NOT a Windows user by nature.
- Computers are about accomplishing a task. And if one can do this with a system that costs less, it stands to reason others might go this way as well. Even though I, too, think OS X is a great operating system.
But when you are looking at dealing with support for a number of systems, being able to replace something easily without sending it in to Apple or trying to take apart an iMac instead, the PC appears to be coming out the winner for most businesses based on this line of reasoning.
This is not to say that Apple products cannot be used in an IT environment. BootCamp and Virtual Machines make accessing Windows only tools quite doable. As a matter of fact, it has been argued that a Mac runs Windows better than many PCs!
Still, at the end of the day, it comes down to resources. And if that means installing Windows 7 on existing machines or purchasing new machines in their entirety, I suspect that decision is an obvious one in this economic climate.
What do you think? Being these are merely my thoughts on an article I have read and that I have no problems with any one OS over another, I want to hear what you think. Does Apple have a place within your company’s IT infrastructure? If it does, then how is that working out for you? Hit the comments.
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2 Comments
Joe2G
October 6th, 2009
at 4:29am
Where I work the MAC is used only for higher-end graphics work, and that was since the manager learned in the old days where MAC ruled the graphics and educational world, his group has stuck with MAC. We also use UNIX Sparc workstations for specific engineering tools. Everywhere else are HP PC’s of one type or another.
There is no sense having to use an emulator or boot manager to switch ‘modes’ from OSX to Windows for Windows only tools. The problem would be exacerbated by users that are challened to maintain their own passwords, let alone switchup the OS depending on application.
MAC’s are great and work fine, but too many of our daily tools are still Windows only. As we work toward a majority of web-based tools, the platform importance will diminish, but for now, we have to maintain a compatability with our customer and vendors, and that means Windows.
Wes Jones
October 7th, 2009
at 3:31pm
After all the hoopla – and religious campaigns – they are just different boxes, and not that much different anymore. Apple’s proprietary approach from the beginning gave them the definite technological edge, but that’s all but gone as far as I can see. I am moving some systems from Windows, but they are to Ubuntu and SUSE, not OSX. Every business I have worked for, it’s just economics, and the fact that in the course of daily operations I haven’t run across anything specialized enough to demand a MAC. Not that they aren’t great machines – If I didn’t hate computers in general, I would probably have to get one myself..