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Mac OS X Gaining Ground In Corporate Environs
nonsuchworks writes "MacWorld quotes a Jupiter Research report on the increasing penetration of Mac OS X in the business world. From the article: 'The report found that in businesses with 250 employees or more, 17 percent of the employees were running Mac OS X on their desktop computer at work. In Businesses that had 10,000 or more employees, 21 percent of employees used Mac OS X on their desktop work computer.' Analyst Joe Wilcox adds, 'Companies that were considering Linux are now buying Mac OS X instead.'"
Of course they are. Why? Because there are a lot of legacy applications that write closed format documents with versions for Mac and Windows, but not Linux. This means that if a company wants to get the benefits that Mac and Linux offer over Windows, it will either have to buy Mac, or find some way to port its library of legacy documents over to an open format.
There are certaintly ways to do this in many cases, but going the Mac route would probably be easier, and maybe even cheaper or at least as expensive if you take man hours into consideration. Plus you have a strong corporate label backing your Mac setup, which you don't necessarily have with Linux, and this is very important to people.
The last company I worked for had the entire advertising department and copyeditors on macs. That was like 150 machines out of pry 500. So I believe it at least from the pov of my exp.
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10k+? A loaded dual G5 with dual 30" displays doesn't even come out to 10k. Apples are a bit more expensive than Wintel machines, but they're not THAT expensive.
.technomancer
Just thought I would add: 100 computers on my network, two of which are Macs (graphic design and music recording).
Dell Precision M70 1.6GHz/80Gig/256Mb/15.4" lcd $2,400 + (Tax everywhere)
Apple G4 1.5GHz/80Gig/512Mb/15.2" lcd $2,000 + (tax in california only)
Clearly you don't do purchasing for large enterprises. I'm in an organization known for being cheap and the 'low end' machines they buy are in the $900-$1200 range (though with bulk discounts I'm sure it's less than that). A high end machine will be $1800-$2500. Gee, that's what a G5 tower costs.
Fortune 1000 companies don't build their own boxes from parts they find on pricewatch, and they don't buy eMachines boxes. They buy mid range and high end Dell/HP/Gateway boxes and pay the same price they'd pay for an Apple box.
this is getting old and so are you
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You seem to be confusing the the term 'update' with 'upgrade' You're happy with Win2k, and have not found a reason to 'upgrade' to WinXP. You receive regular 'updates' for Win2K from MS. Good for you, sounds like you are happy with your choice.
A Mac user still running 10.2 still receives 'updates' from Apple as well, although they have chosen not to 'upgrade' to 10.3 or 10.4.
I know these technical terms can be confusing, sure hope this clears it up for you. Oh, and good luck getting that case of self righteousness cleared up...
I'm with you. I work for a company with 27,000 employees and I have the __only__ mac. lucky me :)
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What makes you say that browsing a windows network doesn't work well on a mac? I find that it works better with OSX than it does with windows...
I click Network in the Finder, then select the domain I want. Then I double click on the machine I want to connect to. All of my passwords are stored in my keychain so the share just mounts.
I can't count how many times I've gotten the "could not map drive because of conflicting credentials" error message in windows...
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Actually BSD is NOT Unix. The original BSD source that was released by Berkely had everything removed from it that made it UNIX, hence the stripping and lawsuits. All BSDs prior to the release of BSD under the BSD license (such as SunOS), are UNIX. All BSD after the release (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc.) are all Unix-like or *nix operating systems.
These days, the only way something can be called UNIX, is if it undergoes validation testing with and certification with the Open Group, which costs a pretty penny, from what I understand.
I would say so since OSX is based off FreeBSD rather than Linux.
Most OS X users probably don't even know they're running a flavor of Linux, but they can slowly get more involved with that world while as they feel comfortable.
Since no one explicitly why OS X is not Linux: OS X is based on the Mach Microkernel and FreeBSD (a BSD Unix variant, not Linux (see section "What is Linux?").
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
What could possibly be the benefit of OS X as a desktop computer?
Not having to buy and update the license for VirusScan for each machine?
Not having to choose between running Windows Update and breaking compatibility, or not running it and having everything grind to a halt because some script kiddie got bored?
Not having to lock down every user's rights just to prevent them from installing that cool new IE toolbar with the smiley faces?
Less capable on the server end perhaps, but you're dreaming if you think Mac OS X is less capable as a desktop workstation than Linux, of all things. The server market is Linux's strength, and frankly, I think it's a waste of time to try and make it a desktop operating system. The desktop market requires consistency and attention to UI detail. Entrusting these things to freelance geeks coding in their spare time and expecting results on par with those of multibillion-dollar corporations is unrealistic.
This is not the case with the server end, which really only requires functionality and stability. On the desktop, once someone implements a feature, he has to then think, "Okay, what would be a good interface to this feature?" Microsoft and Apple have graphic designers and people trained in human-computer interfaces dedicated to answering that question. Linux distros don't.
I've been frustrated with RDC at times, although I don't think you can run multiple instances under Windows either. I believe you can run multiple instances if you make a copy of RDC. (I've not tried that so don't quote me) I frequently use VNC. It's not as fast as RDC at some thing, but at other things like scrolling is much faster for odd reasons.
Microsoft has announced a new version of Entourage that will fix all the problems. I can't speak to that nor the release date. Some people have sworn to me about Evolution, the Novell Exchange client for Linux. It is also available as a binary for OSX. You might consider trying that, although you loose some Mac feel.
I've never had trouble with Office documents, although I only use passwords occasionally. I've actually found for some things, such as versioning comments, that the Mac version is superior to the PC version. I certainly prefer Word on the Mac as opposed to Word on the PC. The sidebar on Windows for Office really bugs me.
I would say companies are willing to spend $2500 for a variety of reasons
a) computers are 2 year depreciating assets in the US, last time I checked ($1250 a year for 2 years written off on taxes)
b) large companies offer hardware support (Dell, Gateway, HP, etc). If you build your own, your own support staff is responsible, and what if the builder leaves? Management doesn't like risks like that.
c) software support is also required - OEM Windows requires the hardware vendor to provide most support (and therefore costs less). This isn't always supplied by the hardware vendor, so I list it separately (I've worked for a hardware vendor and redirected calls for bundled software to the software vendor, so have firsthand experience on this).
d) established vendors (like Dell, Gateway, HP, and Apple) have volume discount contracts and often bundle software (like MS Office), as well (as mentioned).
I know companies that have made large purchases of Linux boxes, but always from established Linux companies like RedHat and Novell (SuSE). You'll never find Slackware because of support, or GenToo because no party is responsible for "owning" it (i.e. can't pressure vendor to make bug fixes).
I call shenanigans on your bullshit post.
"I've working in educational and corporate IT" (and in fact do now), and I can say that Macs are extremely prevalent in academic, government, and research environments, and everyone in those environments knows it. It's hard to walk around a large research campus or a national lab without seeing Macs everywhere. So while I'm not making any claims whether Macs are 1 in 5 business desktops, to say that Macs aren't prevalent in bullshit.
And by the way, just as an example, Macs are MORE than 1 in 5 machines at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, one of the nations largest universities. It's not uncommon to find this at many large research institutions.
I just connected to a Windows server with my Mac a couple days ago (over a VPN even). And let me tell you, it was easier than doing it under Windows. And it goes without saying that it was orders of magnitude easier than under Linux.
And to use another example -- the firewall was trivial to setup. I want SSH, I check SSH. Does it get much easier than that? Certainly not under Windows.
It took me a long time to get up the nerve to give Macs a try -- I've been a long time bigot, turned against Apple since the days of the original Macintosh. Now that I have my Mac Mini, I've got to hand it to Apple -- Mac OS X is several times better in every respect than Windows, and an order of magnitude better (as a desktop OS) than Linux. The truth hurts, but that is it. I'm still a big fan of Linux, even on the desktop, and I'm seriously hoping it does some catching up -- because I can't ever go back to Windows, if for any reason Apple should go away.
sun solaris servers, and 1/4 of the office was switched to mac ox, 3/4 use windows xp.
Mac os x has made a huge difference in our corporation.
Techs actually learn unix.
downtime is reduced 80%
no compatibility problems
opensource resources are outstanding
job performance increased 40%
no real security worries
wireless is almost flawless
bluetooth KB, mouse, phone work as well as windows
greatly reduced cost
the list just goes on, and we have plans to switch the entire 200 person corp. in 1 year
I got to say any director of IT who is not looking into this is just negligent. Network engineering is not a preference. You have to use what works at the time.
We estimate windows longhorn will be at this lvl in 2009.
Most users are diehard windows user, but using this OS have changed everyones opinion. Going to the apple store and people actually care about helping them, at no charge, and simple stuff like finding a file written 3 years ago in 20 secs.
I personally think that the os ranting is very childish. You ask urself what companies space suit you would wear on the moon. I guaranty most would be using the apple or sun space suit right now. Those wearing the MS space suit would die at the first freeze of the OS running the space suit. I can't bet my life or my business on what I like, I use what gives it the best chance for survival. Thats my job.
1. Entourage sucks ass. I just moved over to Mail.app in Tiger and it's a much better experience. Of course, things other than mail don't carry their way over. Oh darn. iCal can upload a .ics file via WebDAV and other iCal users can check my calendar.
2. RDC - Take a look at http://rdesktop.org/. Much more configurable. Works great.
3. I've had other issues with Office 2004 Mac. Excel likes to munge weblinks and row heights. Not to mention it doesn't save things where you think they should (i.e. saving HTML document where I opened it makes me save a new file in a new directory. YECH). I haven't found any solutions for this yet.
I've been Macified since Jan 2004 and I won't look back. I do have a PC next to it (using http://synergy2.sf.net/ so no keyboard and mouse) and I use it for the basic things... i.e. my Windows based phone software and other cranky Winapps. It's old and slow so I use it infrequently. I do use it for VNC because I have yet to find one VNC client on the Mac that Just Works.
SBC stands for Stupid Bell Company
AT&T stands for All Telephones Tapped
If you're in the terminal, OS X doesn't hide directories. sudo will give you access to every unix command. You can turn off the genie minimize crap. You can use pretty much any mouse you want with OS X. You can configure the dock to your liking. And you can use the CLI for pretty much any task.
I think that story and those statistics are implausible, both given how big businesses operate and given Apple's actual sales figures.
Furthermore, the suggestion that OS X is an alternative to Linux indicates a lack of understanding of what Linux is all about and why it's being adopted.
So while I'm not making any claims whether Macs are 1 in 5 business desktops, to say that Macs aren't prevalent in bullshit.
He didn't say they weren't prevelant, he just said they weren't that prevelant. Even the most Mac heavy organizations I have seen might be 50% Apple machines overall. Factor in all those companies where the Mac usage hoovers around 0%, and there is NO WAY that 21% of computers are Macs.
To further call shenanigans an the article, note that it doesn't say Macs, it says Mac OSX. That means it isn't counting all those older Macs running OS9 and earlier!