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Macs Gaining a Bigger Role In Enterprise
rev_media tips a short article up at InfoWorld giving some numbers on the increasing Mac presence in businesses. "We're seeing more requests outside of creative services to switch to Macs from PCs," notes the operations manager for a global advertising conglomerate. They "now [support] 2,500 Macs across the US — nearly a quarter of all... US PCs." Another straw in the wind: "Security firm Kapersky Labs has already created a Mac version of its anti-virus software for release should Mac growth continue (and the Mac thus [find] itself prey to more hackers)."
Well that's only because you can run LCARS in vmware now...
Well when you've got such a low starting point it's not hard to improve is it? i think this deserves a dilbert comic, something like marketing showing a 100% increase when they only sold 1 extra unit.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
If Macs ever get to be the predominant platform or to common, Im switching to Linux. Call me a troll or whatever (Im a Mac user and have been for over a decade, so you other zealots feel free to mode down one of your own), but I dont want the Mac to grow anymore than it already has. Id much rather see OSS software take over the market and let the others be a paid choice.
Die First, Then Quit
I think a lot of us really hoped that eventually people would really get what a mess Microsoft's products are and then OSS would really take off. Instead what I think is happening is that Apple may really see some growth.
I don't know if this means much but my department of 80-90 has gone from zero to about 20% mac in the last year. I don't see that adoption rate slowing down either. Now in the server room it is a mix - Windows, AIX and Linux. With Linux growing the fastest. But on the desktop I don't think anyone is full time Linux only. Even the Linux users all have a windows or apple machine.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
FTFA "We're seeing more requests outside of creative services to switch to Macs from PCs," notes David Plavin, operations manager for Mac systems engineering at the U.S. IT division of Publicis Groupe, a global advertising conglomerate. There are so many requests that Plavin now supports 2,500 Macs across the U.S. -- nearly a quarter of all Publicis' U.S. PCs. There that sorts it out, 2500 is no where near 1/4 of all US pc's... damn
Besides, uhmmmm, ok, so Mac is gaining ground. How much is that about the Mac vs. about Microsoft being shit for the last three years? Vista did more than an 'own goal' they are giving points away to EVERYONE else. Of course Mac will get some of them. It doesn't hurt that the iWHATEVER has been so popular. It's called the halo effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect and so Mac gets more customers right now. Lets see how long they keep them? The halo effect has been shown to be quite a peak-then-die thing unless the product has real staying power.
Don't get me wrong, Mac has some serious positive qualities and I'm not going to bash it (other than being proprietary and expensive) but this story is not taking into account the halo effect nor the gains made from MS defectors. Defectors? Why don't we just describe them as passengers on the titanic looking for a life raft without having to resort to building their own?
I have a couple of friends (who have obvious desires for Mac due to musical or creative arts reasons) who have opted for a flashy balls out Mac because, and I quote "I just want something that works and I don't have to fuck with it, no matter what the cost is."
Mac will get those votes. With the looming recession I don't think there will end up being all that many of those votes, especially when GNU/Linux is making so much headway. I'm not declaring a winner or anything, just saying that the optimistic view of this FA is
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
thats right you can't be an elitist snob if everyone had one.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
After all, as Publicis' Plavin notes, Macs -- which cost the same as equivalently configured business-class PCs -- are cheaper to support because they are easier to support.
To which I might add, "Citation Needed".
I'm a recent Mac switcher with years of Windows experience. It's not all that easy to get OS X to work and play well with Active Directory and Windows networking (or maybe it's the other way around). IT lets me play with the Mac because I'm pretty self sufficient. Most enterprise OS X users aren't going to be particularly savvy - they'll need lots of help (like always).
And finally, the cynic in me wonders how many of those Macs are really running XP / Vista under boot camp while at work... Not that there is anything wrong with that. You'll look cool and all, even if you're running the same dorky programs as everyone else.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
This isn't surprising. We've seen this behavior many times and it's called the oscillations of business. Just wait until they are the dominant force in the market and it'll all go downhill from there. Just like Microsoft. They've already made the mistake of not allowing open source software on the iPhone (one of the many reasons I don't get one). That's the one that's pissed me off the most, but it certainly isn't their only mistake. I'll never be a mac fan since I'm so used to tactile response anyways.
Help fight spam
People are pretty trusting of the repos most of the time.
Perhaps it's just IT people looking down the road and seeing the same thing some end users saw with XP:
Like many others, I didn't like where it seemed Microsoft was headed with Product Activation and DRM and decided that long-term, I would attempt to migrate away from Windows. I might not have as quickly if I hadn't gone into "creative services," but that was my thinking at the time.
I can imagine IT departments are now experiencing a similar sensation: Even if Vista (like XP) isn't a terrible thing in itself, it points toward a rather unpalatable future for the platform.
There is a slow but undeniable exodus underway. To Ubuntu and Fedora go the more technically focused, to MacOS go the more user-focused. Windows' arbitrary relevance becomes ever slightly moreso every day.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
This is the year of OSX on the desktop!!!!11
*cough*
My "introduction" to macs--aside from school--was at my current job. I am a web developer/it manager. I first thought it was odd everyone used macs but after I got used to it I'm glad. The amount of questions asking about their computer locking up or not being able to print or something is practically nil. When something doesn't work it's usually something more significant than just the windows "shut down and reboot" mantra.
EVERY employee uses a mac. From graphics designers (of course) to the IT department to accounts receivable and billing. From an IT standpoint being able to have a native terminal to ssh to remote servers is very handy. Yes I know of cygwin but terminal on mac is just there. We literally only have two windows machines only because of some software that only works on windows.
A troll already pointed this out, but the quote has been mangled: [they] "now [support] 2,500 Macs across the US -- nearly a quarter of all... US PCs." The article says that this is a quarter of all _the company's_ US PCs.
rofl. seriously i don't have anything against gays. I was responding in kind to the moron OP, he seems think anything who doesn't use a mac is rightwing? seriously wtf.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
They have needed Macs on-board Enterprise for a long time. First there was that blue screen of death when they were head to head with a Romulan vessel. Then there was the malware that kept putting male enhancement spam on the viewscreen. Picard says "Make it so" and they're stuck waiting for Geordi's new "Vista" thing to boot up...
Wait, did that say Macs gaining a bigger role "on" the Enterprise, or "in" the enterprise...
Oh well, never mind.
My comments are my own, and do not represent the views of my employer, my spouse, my children, or my cats.
Are you being sarcastic? Nowadays it's difficult to say. I have just finished to watch Steve Jobs' keynote about the brand new iPhone SDK, which is a heck of a platform for development, either proprietary or open source, and the App Store that will let you distribute your application to every iPhone on Earth.
I'm not sure what's wrong with those Mac bashers around. You know, just stating to not want to be a "Mac fan" because you like tactile response is stupid for itself. Intel based Macs running UNIX plus open source software and a great set of development tools is anything a geek that respects him/herself wants to get his/her hands on.
And before anybody mods me down, I'm not a Mac fanboy. I've been programming for Windows, Unix and Unix-likes (Linux, OpenBSD) on Intel and SPARC for years and never owned a Mac until recently (two weeks ago aprox.) and I'm amazed. I'm currently writing this message from Safari while whatching my terminals (cloning repositories, building software, the usual stuff.)
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
The article asserts in a couple of places some very amusing things: 1. Apple SAYS that it integrates cleanly in Active Directory environments. (In our experience, it doesnn't). 2. "That Apple Enterprise support doesn't exist is a popular myth." (We actually paid for Apple Enterprise support and work in a major metropolitan area. We and our VAR could actually never manage to locate Apple Enterprise support. I'm calling myth.) Admittedly, I'm writing this on my Macbook Pro with an Iphone in my pocket. Supporting a handful of macs is easy. Supporting hundreds is a major pain.
Hence the hate for Ubuntu, for allowing normal users to be comfortable with Linux.
I was thinking of buying a laptop some weeks ago but I was reluctant to use Vista. That was the initial thought that led me to buy a MacBook.
I use Windows XP at home and OpenBSD at work as desktop OS. I can't stand Linux as a desktop OS. Mac OS X seems like a perfect merge of a great GUI and the power of UNIX, running on solid, proven Intel hardware. With a Mac I have the best of both worlds.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
Don't kid yourself. Linux is potentially as vulnerable as other operating systems. Reports say that rootkitted linux machines serve as botnet controllers. Keeping linux machines patched for security is necessary, too.
Not likely since Rush Limbaugh is a Mac user.
Last I checked, all Windows anti-virus programs did was slow your computer to a crawl while consistently breaking their host machines over time. They're a completely backwards answer to the problem of security. Please don't tell me that enterprise Macs will have to run anti-virus too; isn't there anyone in corporate IT that understands this? It's especially silly considering that OS X tends to have much better privilege separation than (pre-Vista) Windows.
I can't wait for on-access scanning to become standard on Macs, causing everyone to complain about how slow Apples are.
You seem to assume that I believe on the "Free software" religion and its prophet RMS. I'm sorry to break it to you, but not every Slashdot reader is a free software loon.
But maybe you got something right, after two weeks with a Mac, I think I've started to love this thing.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
Small company, newly formed IT/development department. Turned out all four of us preferred OS X as our desktop environment, and it didn't take long for the boss guy to convince himself he needed one to (and very happy with it he is). Just found out one of the sales people has come over to the dark^H^H^H^H Jobs side, and the external consultant guy has a MacBook Air (which is a subject of constant ridicule as we are Ethernet-only for reasons of paranoia).
(Personally I need a laptop which runs an internationalized UNIXy environment and plays well with the hardware without me having to spend time fiddling about with the OS , and OS X has saved me a great deal of time in this respect).
If this is true then 4000 users at Salesforce are about to switch to Macs.
http://www.alexcurylo.com/blog/2008/04/23/switcher-salesforcecom/
I'd love to roll out more Mac laptops but the main thing holding it back is complete lack of a first party dock connector for the portables. Not everywhere is the same of course but where I work it's an OH&S problem with loose cables hanging about the place.
I know about bookendz and they might be ok but it's hardly an elegant solution and the aesthetic is so non-Apple. I would jsut like a single connector on the bottom of the Mac that connects to a dock that has all my shit permantly plugged in to it...is that so hard?
they only work better for the same reason that its hard to drown in the kiddie pool...
When they sell an OSX for any x86 architecture system I'll try it. With the OS tied to the hardware the flexibility is reduced. Giving one vendor too much control in a corporate environment will eventually give them leverage. If Microsoft tried this they would only have 3% of market share and we would all be using Linux.
I know this is dangerous to say on Slashdot and all but here goes.
You are VASTLY overstating the importance of open source on a mobile platform such as the iPhone. Its a friggin $500 phone. You think the masses who are buying it are going to care if they can use open source software on it or not? The big draw of the device is its interface and ease of use. You can release zero cost programs via the AppStore if you want and to the user thats really all that matters. The vast majority of the computing using public can't program to begin with so whether its open source or proprietary is wholly irrelevant.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
First it was us on the Unix Sysadmin team. Then the network guys had a look at what we were doing, and started buying themselves Macs as well. Now management is starting to get into them. With VMware Fusion we can use Outlook, everything else we don't need Windows to do.
Vista has prompted many people to make a decision about what they want from their operating system of choice. With Windows the OS is everything, with OSX it's just the means by which applications are run. The measure of an OS that I find most compelling is how effectively it keeps me from noticing it.
Firstly, it's nothing to do with "Oh my God how amazing is my mac" it's more like, "Oh my God just how badly can microsoft constantly screw up". And in my opinion this is a very very very bad trend, we're going from a heavily locked down operating system run by a monopoly, to what is a more (in some ways) locked down system which will become a monopoly, AND this is from the guys who make the ipod, YOU MUST USE OUR ITUNES FOR YOUR IPOD, YOU MUST USE OUR ITUNES FOR OUR SONGS, and the lesser known lying to customers about their internet browser. So they've proved they can't be trsuted to handle the majority of market share. So does no one else worry that, having seen microsoft badly screw up, people are moving to the most locked down untrustworthy alternative they could find?
I'm stunned, really. Do you really not understand the difference between 'shoplifting' and 'receiving a gift'?
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Personally, as a programmer, I write stuff in my own time because a) it keeps me in practice in languages and application "genres" that I don't get to really work with in my professional career, b) the projects look good as professional samples of my work, and c) most importantly, because I like to do it. It's a special type of weasel that instantly seeks compensation the instant that they believe they've enhanced the life of another person in any way.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I've seen nearly every episode of Star Trek and I've yet to spot a single Mac as anything other than an extra!
I'm pretty new to the Mac too, after a 20+ year hiatus from the Apple world. You know what? Figuring this out took me all of a day. Figuring out how to do broadcast imaging using Apple's tools took most of three days. In short, people aren't as dumb as Microsoft needs them to be.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
When there's even one virus/malware/rootkit in the wild that affects Apple or Linux systems, you may have a point. Until then you're just speculating about werewolves and vampires that other people don't believe in. Windows has more than 1 million known malwares, and a well evolved malware ecosystem with buyers, sellers, hosts, financiers and money launderers. osX and Linux do not have any of that because there are no known osX or Linux viruses in the wild.
It's ok to say all systems can be defeated. It's quite another thing to say they are equal. They aren't. osX and Linux are more secure than Windows. Full stop.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I think to understand the renewed interest in Macs in enterprise requires a look how IT departments got themselves into the sole-sourced software platform pickle to begin with.
The story begins with IBM doing a piss-poor job of protecting their hardware. It seems everyone forgets that IBM had every intention of locking up its hardware just like Apple did with the Mac. But they blew it. Some guys cloned the hardware and the commodity PC was born.
Corporate IT departments, believing that having multiple hardware sources was key keeping down capital expenditures, rejected the Mac because it was sole-sourced. They opted for the commoditized IBM-PC hardware platform. But, as they preached the importance of having a diversity of hardware suppliers, the same IT departments insisted that it was imperative to "standardize" on a single operating system and a single office suite. "Standardize", in this context, is just a different way of saying sole-source.
In other words, the dogma was (and still is, for the most part) that computer hardware must be multi-sourced and software must be single-sourced.
That strategy has bit them in the ass. It turns out sole-sourcing your software platform is just as probamatic and expensive as sole-sourcing your hardware platform. Having put all their eggs in Microsoft's basket in the persuit of minimizing hardware cost, IT departments are now stuck in an ever-deepening hole of increasing and recurring licencing fees to a single vendor. And they are completely powerless because they single-sourced their software platform lost all leverage with their supplier.
Perhaps some IT departments are finally questioning the wisdom of that strategy and are bringing some Macs into the mix.
Apple finally has a viable alternative, mostly because OS X is mature now and they've to x86-compatible hardware. Combine that development with the continuing creep of web-based alternatives to embedded applications and you've finally have an escape route from sole-sourced software platform hell.
A wise CIO, in my view, would take advantage of this opportunity by moving to a more heterogeneous computing environment. Re-introducing platform competition in the corporate computing space is the only way for IT departments to regain pricing leverage with Microsoft. It will cost a little more up front. Mac hardware is more expensive. But, that extra upfront cost will be more than offset by the gains from being able to exert price pressure on Microsoft.
Don't pretend this is the same thing as tens of millions of Windows bots compromised with a single vulnerability. Some poorly administered linux servers got compromised. That's bad, but that's not the same thing as your own windows box allowing a Lithuanian hacker to remotely administer your XP machine while you sleep and feed the username and password he captured from your keyboard log to instruct your bank from your computer to transfer all of your funds to his account. That's a completely different level of exploitability.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Considering that Star Trek classic was filmed before Apple existed, it's not a far stretch to assume that one never appeared on the show. Moving forward one series, I draw your attention to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708798/
which is clearly analogous to World of Warcraft on a Macintosh.
I'll buy Kapersky AV for Mac. Really I will. The very day I find werewolf repellent at the local Walgreens I'll be all over it.
Until then, not so much.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
How do you think transparent aluminium was invented?
Yes, on a Macintosh Plus.
"Hello computer!"
There _is_ no hate for Ubuntu. There's just somewhat disdain for Ubuntu fanboys, but don't let it get you down. All are wellcome in the community, but please be civil.
Now, this "hate for Ubuntu"-meme that surfaced about a week ago, _that_ I hate.
Why people have to turn "many long time users are not that impressed with Ubuntu" into "many hate Ubuntu", is beyond me. But it is probably just a sign of the linux desktop getting close to critical mass, and the userbase broadening up.
Oh, and you meant to write "new users" not "normal users".
Damn, I knew someone would beat me to that joke! Well done sir.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
With Apple's sales having gone up 43% in the previous quarter, this is a good time to write letters to developers who produce useful software that is not currently available as native Mac OS X software. For example, people from two unrelated departments at work have remarked that they would like to change their systems from the Wintel boxes they currently use to iMacs. Such a change would remove a great deal of clutter (since the iMac is an all-in-one architecture), give their office space a facelift (by replacing ugly beige boxes with stylish large-screened iMacs), give them a performance boost (since they are currently using ancient Pentium 3-based systems), and give them a better user experience overall. Most of these same people have Mac computers at home. What's stopping us from being able to make this switch? The very expensive software packages they must use are not available for the Mac nor do they have an acceptable Mac alternative. So these poor users are stuck with an OS they do not like. The point isn't that Macs are great and Windows sucks. The point is that the need for certain software titles continues to force many people who want an alternative to keep using Windows. It must be made clear to developers that the availability of their software on the Mac would fuel sales.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
"Don't pretend this is the same thing as tens of millions of Windows bots compromised with a single vulnerability. Some poorly administered linux servers got compromised. That's bad, but that's not the same thing as your own windows box allowing a Lithuanian hacker to remotely administer your XP machine while you sleep and feed the username and password he captured from your keyboard log to instruct your bank from your computer to transfer all of your funds to his account. That's a completely different level of exploitability." - by symbolset (646467) on Sunday April 27, @03:59AM (#23212460) Homepage It's EXACTLY the same thing, since you mentioned "poorly administered" - see this:
----
HOW TO SECURE Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003 & even VISTA, & make it "fun" to do, via CIS Tool Guidance:
http://www.tcmagazine.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2662
----
Because it LITERALLY shows you the level of security that BOTH Linux (AND WINDOWS) have, via their DEFAULT security policies settings, & out of the box/oem stock (this is inclusive of SeLinux bearing distros as well, mind you).
(And, by default, they're BOTH setup pretty poorly for security... until you "security-harden" them).
It's not like I couldn't produce you a fairly sizeable list of hacks/cracks/security vulnerability holes & incidents over the past 2-3 yrs. now for you, should you ask, ok? Just ask.
APK
P.S.=> Right now, as long as Macs, Linux, & all other *NIX distros/versions variants are less used, they DO have the phenomena known as "security-by-obscurity" operating in THEIR FAVOR... & that's about it, because you CAN security-harden a Windows rig & have it as secure as ANY *NIX variant out there, if not moreso, for around 1-2.5 hrs. of your time doing what's in that thread, in addition to using some common-sense, for YEARS to DECADES of secure, stable, & security-hardened uptime... apk
I've seen many comments saying Ubuntu users don't deserve to use Linux because they aren't any better than Windows users. I've seen many comments complaining about Ubuntu users not knowing how their operating system works. I've seen many comments complaining about Ubuntu bringing in people to Linux who know nothing about Linux.
This isn't disdain for fanboys, and it isn't just a preference for a different distro. Some people actually hate Ubuntu and Ubuntu users for spoiling their elitism.
It does seem likely that this may merely be a vocal minority, but it is a real sentiment that I have witnessed multiple times. It's hard to get a sense for what the majority feels.
Then someone realised that the HTML rendering engine used by IE was full of security holes, and that Outlook rendered HTML emails using this engine - indeed, it couldn't (easily) be prevented from doing so. We've been mopping up the mess ever since. or run a program that executes it. And even then, unless the user does it as root, the virus is almost totally harmless to the system. Same's true in Windows - the user has to be an administrator or the amount of damage it can do to the local system is limited.
However, viruses which intentionally hose the local system are more or less extinct today. Instead, they spawn a process in the background, connect to some central communications mechanism (generally IRC) and await instruction. The instruction they'll get is the kind of thing that any user can do - "ping this host constantly", "connect to that host, open a particular port and send the following....".
It can be made more awkward in linux (mount any filesystem where the user can write as noexec is a good start, and something you can't easily do in Windows), but to imagine that it's totally impossible for today's malware to appear on alternate operating systems is sadly naive.
"I've seen many comments saying Ubuntu users don't deserve to use Linux because they aren't any better than Windows users."
/. in about every thread you'll find a few trolls that try to spoil stuff for others, I'm sure you also ignore these.
Oh, really? Weird opinion, *nobody* deserves Windows.
"Some people actually hate Ubuntu and Ubuntu users for spoiling their elitism."
And _other_ people make websites on chihuahua breeding, but it is a *big* internet, and I don't let it get to me. Try it.
But seriously, on
You can cite me: our company has moved 80% mac since 2004. That resulted in 50% cut of IT support personnel, because there simply isn't that much to do. And 80% of the work for the remaining IT support personnel is dealing with the remaining 20% of Windows installations (most of which are a few experts' desk/laptop machines).
I suppose you never do really know about security holes until either the developer or a security expert publishes them. Until then, any program could be being used to plant malicious code on any system. I guess I've just been a little blasé about open source software, since any deliberately malicious program would quickly draw attention. Although, that says nothing of security holes in open source software. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Perhaps another take is that some of Apple's practices, which work fine with their current market share, would be considered draconian if they were the dominant vendor.
This just isn't the case. Most enterprises don't care as you can't enforce windows-style user permissions and roles. That's what auditors care about as well as enterprise IT bods.
As a Mac/Linux user (binned my last windows machine a year or two ago), its noticeable things are getting there slowly. You can happily do LDAP/Kerberos on Linux, and its getting there on Mac (although notice that the Kerberos tools are hidden?). You can even authenticate off an AD with your Mac login, but its just not there yet.
Either they need to implement their own AAA framework for users, groups and role-based group policy (and while they're at it, give it a license Linux can use!), or they need to broker a deal with MS and get proper AD integration.
Until this happens, you'll only get these OS in big corporations for people like NOC staff who are allowed to deviate from corporate IT policy.
Don't get me wrong, smaller companies that don't have centrally-managed IT policy can probably get away with it now by just writing policies that staff have to adhere to (ie they dont get root, the IT staff do, etc).
- incubus
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.
I have a mailbox full of Mac exploits. Want some?? ;-))
They're easily identifiable by attachments with Mac file extensions.
"The Mac is a Linux/Windows variant at heart, with a little polish on top"
More correct would be it's a BSD variant, with polish on top.
If you do give Macs another shot sometime there are multiple ways to do things that aren't so reliant on the Dock. Personally I keep very little in there and turn magnification off.
Why the complaint about MDI? You can make MDI type apps, or are you just missing the ability to tab between individual application windows instead of just applications?
No, he thinks anyone who uses a mac is gay. Or he's, like, joking.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It has never occurred to me until your post that Macs may be resisted in the enterprise due to job security.
Somewhere the Maytag man is yawning.
In reality, though, Apple could never keep a dominant position for long, at least not with their current practices. The word "antitrust" comes to mind...
Palm trees and 8
It's the stuff in your home folder that is the valuable stuff though. If the operating system gets hosed, you can reinstall it. However, the 500 page novel you are writing which you haven't backed up for a while is irreplaceable.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Athy, athier, athiest.
The only stupid one is you, I'm not comparing gifting with shoplifting. What I'm comparing is the loss of revenue that happens in both cases. The developer of the software still has to find some way to earn a living. Selling support services doesn't cut it in most cases. Red Hat and Suse the two biggest open source companies manage to do it and Mozilla manages by getting search engine placement revenue from Google but for everyone else they're living a pipe dream if they're giving away their software and hoping to make it up on services.
But as you say, someone is a weasel for trying to eat.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Apple needs a real desktop not a overpriced mini and under powered mini that is not that easy to open up or a over the top mac pro. The imacs are ok but the build in screen dose work that well as in Enterprise setups monitors tend to last longer then desktops do also real desktops are a lot easier to open up and replace parts in them.
My thoughts exactly, and it doesn't have anything to do with elitism. This will be a long post, so please bare with me.
First, a Disclaimer: I am a sysadmin in a shop that uses mostly Macs, and a few Windows Machines, and I've been using Macs since 1990 and OSX since the first public beta in 2000.
Second, Apple, like anything or anyone else, is as vulnerable to the abuse of a powerful position as, say IBM was in the 70s and 80s, and Microsoft has been up until now. Apple has already started showing signs of that abuse, which I'll now point out.
Third, Apple originally touted OS X as a very open Unix like variant. They had all sorts of technologies that were there to draw developers and Windows users to the platform. Built in Java and C/C++ APIs as first class development language along with Objective-C. As Apple became more comfortable with their position and had less fear of Developers being unwilling to move to the platform, the first dropped Java as a first class language (no more Java-Objective-C API bindings) two years ago, and last year dropped the C/C++ API's further development.
The net result of this is that if you want to develop a native 64 bit GUI application on OS X, you must use Objective-C. ObjC is a fine language, and now has Garbage collection, amongst other things, but it is very very difficult to port ObjC applications to other platforms. In a way, it's like Microsoft's
This means huge costs of major software developers who have, for the most part, been developing in C/C++. Microsoft Office, Adobe CS3, Maxon Cinema 4D? They're all C/C++. There will be no 64 bit version of Adobe CS4, the next CS iteration, for OS X, Adobe has said. It will literally take them years to port their code base to ObjC. Personally, I wonder why they bother. Given that the Ubuntu Linux desktop is now very smooth, is getting fantastic reviews all around the net on mainstream publications, It would be a perfect time for Adobe and others to port their apps to Linux (with far less effort and far lower cost than porting to ObjC). Putting some of the money saved into a major marketing push for Linux would help the uptake.
It would also scare the living hell out of Steve Jobs (apart from making him go off on one of his major Ballmer-esque tirades again) and, it would force competition on Apple, which Apple seems to think is now unnecessary due to the major fuck up that is Windows Vista.
Fourth. Apple is almost wholly dependent on the final opinion of Steve Jobs. That is often very good, as the man has a sense of taste, unlike Steve Ballmer, who doesn't, but, because Steve Jobs is only human, that sometimes results in extremely poor decisions like the OSX 10.5 Leopard Desktop and GUI design. The default galactic image background is very bad for designers who need a neutral background to work on. The fact that Apple made the default Dock in 10.5 a weird faux 3D thing that is very difficult to use due to the changes, making it often very hard to see what applications are running. The new pop-up folders in the Dock are next to useless for most things, and the translucent Menu-bar could have only been a Steve Jobs decision, driven, like the 3D Dock by the perceived need to compete visually with Vista. Apple only offered changes to this when users rebelled in outrage.
Fifth. Apple's server offerings are to a large extent just wrappers around open source technologies. Their Open Directory is just a wrapper around OpenLDAP, SLAP, and a Berkley Database as data store. Their Email server is just Postfix for SMTP and Cyrus for IMAP. The problem is that due to the Apple GUI management bindings, it is next to impossible to customise these software packages. This is somewhat symptomatic of Apple's approach. They make some things very easy, but others very, very hard.
Apple needs competition. Without competition, Apple tends to lose their solid grounding and become a bit more like Microsoft, given to market lock-in and arbitrary decisions that make no sense.
It is all about the userland. If Mac became more popular, it is likely that MS Office for Macs would become more popular, and we would see many of the same exploits. This is not a "windows or mac" issue, this is a general computer security issue.
Palm trees and 8
Fire torpedoes! I can't sir! Why! The computer will only let me draw them, and color them red! We don't have any software to calculate the trajectory. They tell me it's coming soon when more Starships get Macs. But... by then the Klingons will have a virus to attack our computers.
After all, as Publicis' Plavin notes, Macs -- which cost the same as equivalently configured business-class PCs -- are cheaper to support because they are easier to support.
I'm a Mac system admin. You're right and wrong. Macs tend to behave better under stress than Windows does, but there are many problems on OSX, a number of which are related to, very much as in Windows, legacy PPC stuff running under the Rosetta emulator. Apart from which, just as in Windows, if users are allowed to load their machines with crapware, they become unstable I'm a recent Mac switcher with years of Windows experience. It's not all that easy to get OS X to work and play well with Active Directory and Windows networking (or maybe it's the other way around). IT lets me play with the Mac because I'm pretty self sufficient. Most enterprise OS X users aren't going to be particularly savvy - they'll need lots of help (like always). Again, you're right and wrong. The Mac users in our company, which has become 80% Mac in the last two years, tend to manage the basic things much better than the Windows users, but they run into problems in the more complex things. I think the Mac is genuinely easier to use for beginners, but more advanced stuff, like LDAP binding, network homes etc are totally beyond their grasp, for the most part. And finally, the cynic in me wonders how many of those Macs are really running XP / Vista under boot camp while at work... Not that there is anything wrong with that. You'll look cool and all, even if you're running the same dorky programs as everyone else. The only Mac users in our company who use Windows, are me, so that I can provide support, and the users who have apps that only run on Windows, like CAD stuff.To which I might add, "Citation Needed".
I can't help you out with the MDI thing, but here are two ideas that may help you become more productive with launching the apps you want (ie, less fumbling with the Dock and Finder).
First - check out Quicksilver . It's kind of a dynamic shortcut to your useful applications, files, music, webpages, etc. Many techie OS X gurus can't live without it. There are even youtube tutorials for it.
Second - if you want something akin to Windows-style start menu try this. Open the Applications window in Finder. At the top of the window there's a small icon next to the Applications window title. Drag that icon into the dock, to the right of the separator. With one click you now have instant access to your Applications directory.
However, if that's not good enough, by right-clicking this icon instead it will show you all your Applications in a textual menu form, much like the Windows start button.
If that still isn't good enough, you can make another Useful folder with links to all your commonly-used Applications, then put this Useful folder in the dock.
make world, not war
I do freelance support work for Macs primarily (though I deal with plenty of Windows machines as well), and I've helped switch several small companies partially from PCs to Macs. Generally, once the "how do I do this" calls stop, and the users get some familiarity, the new Mac people stop calling for months. The die hard Windows people I deal with also tend to be the least technically inclined, and generally I'll see them every few months to fix the results of their incompetence before they either run out of money in the budget to pay me to fix it, or decide that it's me who's incompetent and allowing all these viruses and spyware on their machine and go call the Computer Geeks at 2-3 times my rate.
There are a few people that have made the switch, and end up just not wanting to change the way they've always done things (despite the fact that they'd called me in to totally reformat and reinstall Windows 3 times in the last few months) and who pitch a fit about it, but there just isn't much you can do about them.
Plenty of the switchers I've dealt with run Parallels to run the one or two Windows apps that they just can't be without for whatever reason, but I haven't ever (depsite offering several times) had to install Boot Camp on anyone's machine to effectively switch them back. I have had a couple customers that who exchanged some quite old Macs for cheapass, low-end Windows machines, but that's was for cost reasons primarily, rather than preferring the Windows platform (and they're spending more money on my time as a result).
Fixed. (You actually like MDI? I've hated it since Windows 3.x!)
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Want to know what the biggest apple problem in the enterprise is ?
Just try leasing them, on a 3 year lease, and find out at the end of the lease theirs no replacement machines because apple has run down the channel due to a new product announcement, that is yet to happen.
Happens on a regular basis to us, and then the new machines doesn't support the current release of OS X, so we cant deploy until we fully test in any case, as it only runs 10.5.2 or later, not earlier or some such rubbish.
Apple is light weight and no where near enterprise ready.
I'm an Information Science major, but I have a strong interest in photography and graphic design.
If Adobe ported Photoshop to Linux, I'd switch. Even on my my Mac I use mostly open source software... (Neo Office, Firefox, VLC, etc), but Photoshop and the rest of the creative suite have no equivalent on Linux
Please do not mention the Gimp. I need CMKY for one thing. Many users don't use Photoshop's advanced features, and that's fine, I'm glad there's a product out there for them that doesn't cost them any money.
And on the topic of businesses, Office 2008 for Mac removed VBA support for it. What is a business to use? Neo Office? It's a great tool, but it does have a lot of bugs, mainly when dealing with complex documents. Neo Office currently supports all 2007 VBA and related fun, but it's also prone to frustrating formatting issues and other glitches.
Considering that so many businesses stupidly decided their IDE of choice should be Excel for all their random back office calculations, this could be a big consideration.
If so, they're not using them right. Macs are a pain in the ass to administer. They're great for end users, so you do avoid some of the stupid calls once you've answered EVERY question about why they are different than Windows. However, Apple's server product is an abomination. They change behavior with OS updates and you have to buy new versions to get security patches as they phase out after about 2 versions. If you consider the difference in the OS release schedule between windows and Mac OS, it is much more expensive for small deployments. If anything happens to your open directory setup, Apple will tell you to start over. If you're lucky, you were smart enough to export your users so you only have to reset the password for everyone! Combine with that fun things like php not having any modules that are common, lack of java 6, and random crashes with Leopard Server, and you have one of the most annoying products I can think of. The only useful thing about OS X server is the control over client systems. That is why you buy it. At work, we have a FreeBSD webserver because we couldn't get NFS mounting to work consistently between two xserves. The FreeBSD machine has much better uptime and it's a beater Dell Precision 1.4Ghz POS. In apple happy land, you're supposed to use dynamic AFP mounts for everything. It sucks when you're trying to serve web pages! Best of all, if a Leopard client connects to a 10.4 server, it sets an ACL on the home directory to explicitly block access by everything but the user thus blocking serving web pages! (if the user uses their webspace, it's mapped to a ~/Sites directory) I suggest anyone looking at doing Mac deployments consider buying a real server to go with it. It could be BSD, Linux, Windows Server, even Solaris. The problem with Macs is their inflexibility. It's great from a user perspective because it's hard to get into trouble, but when you're trying to work magic common on Windows or *NIX installs... Yes, I'm the Mac sys admin for a university computer science department.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
Guess they'll have to move to *BSD. And if that becomes too mainstream, there's always the HURD. Personally I feel decidedly "out of mainstream" enough on Ubuntu, thank you very much.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Thank god. If you're not smart enough to back up, I don't want to read your shit anyway.
I'm equally uninterested in reading authors of paper novels not smart enough to visit Kinko's, drop their novel in the feeder, and press a button. Just to be fair.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Get a two button mouse--they work identically on Mac as they do on Windows.
Or, hold down the ctrl button while clicking with that one, lonely button.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Go on, tell us how long it takes you to copy a file.
Recently my company bought a Mac server and it is causing nothing but problems. For example you can't use the calendar unless you use the delivered directory service because it can't connect to existing ones. It also has to be the master server and can't be just a replica. Great. It's things like that that are just annoying. I wouldn't want to administrate such a mess. The business hotline is not better: "Well, I don't know anything about the server but do you know you can watch porn on the new iPod?". And I'm not making this up.
Although I'd never use a Mac voluntarily I'm quite open-minded and think everybody should use the system that's suited best for him. Then again there are these Mac friendly decision makers that have to mess it up. "If it's good for me, it's good for you and if it's not good for you then it's at least good for me."
And as a last quote... the poor guy that has to work with this thing: "There are things that work, there are things that work a little bit and then there is this Mac server."
As a side note the server doesn't even look good or shiny or whatnot.
Disclaimer: I know that this comment contradicts my sig, but I'm going to make it anyway.
I've been using Macs since the Lisa, and have used literally every generation of them.
I've been using PCs since the PC-1, and have used literally every generation of them.
I had an Amiga 500, and have used literally every generation of Amiga.
As my primary home machine, I've used various generations of Sun hardware including a 3/260 I upgraded to a 4/260, and an Ultra 2; I've had IBM RT-PCs, and a BeBox, and all KINDS of other crap no one cares about today. I have, in fact, owned more types of computer and run more operating systems than even most self-identified computer nerds even realize existed. Due to my long and varied experience, I can compare systems in an educated fashion.
Now, if you can point out which part of my comment was inaccurate, let alone a lie, I'll greatly appreciate it. But I have been there, I am still there, and I stand by every word. Meanwhile, you obviously lack the courage of your convictions, because you refuse to log in. Your comment consists solely of Ad Hominem attacks because you have nothing real to say.
Please log in, and join the big parade, so that I can recognize your stupidity in the future. Thank you.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
One might question whether judging Macs by how well they work with Windows is a fair assessment....
Unfortunately it is a reality though. My lab uses all Macs. There are a couple of rackmount Windows terminal servers in the computer room but they haven't been upgraded in years since nobody uses them anymore. The Mac works pretty well with Windows file and printer networking (better than Windows, usually). Some of the other stuff requires some setup, but once it's done it's pretty much done. The savings come in the day to day support. Got a user who's click happy? No problem. Nasty worm going around? Don't worry.
You saying that Windows can be secured does not diminish the fact that over a million Windows boxes are compromised right now. No useful system that's connected to the network can be made perfectly secure, but that doesn't mean that some are not better than others.
Again, Linux and osX don't have any viruses in the wild. Zero. None. Not one. Zip. Nada. On these operating systems antivirus is to protect you, the feeble Windows client of the mail server. The Linux malware ecosystem is almost the exclusive purview of nation-states and their clandestine operatives, megacorporations and their industrial spies. Securing your linux box is important, but these people aren't generally interested in common folk.
Windows has hundreds of thousands of viruses in the wild. These viruses support the financial interests of spammers, identity thieves, Nigerian scam artists, mail order fraudsters. Their ecosystem includes money launderers, extortionists, blackmailers thugs and hit men. There are incredible toolchains that take a found vulnerability and turn it into an exploit plugin for distribution by their botnets and compromised websites in mere hours. There are marketplaces where the proceeds of spying on your Windows box and the tools to compromise your windows are bought and sold. The ecosystem also consists of various members on the white hat side including antivirus vendors, penetration experts, firewall vendors, malware blockers and anti-phishing toolbars. Then there's the grey area group who sell with irritating popups products that do absolutely nothing, but give users a false sense of security -- opening them up to exploitation. These industries generates several billions of dollars a year in profits.
No antivirus catches 100%. The virus infrastructure in a thriving stew that's updated minute by minute to stay ahead of the AV companies. For the most part the latest and most successful viruses are used. Once your PC is infected they pretty much can do anything with it they want to including:
They can do all of that without your knowledge or consent of course. They are actively doing this to over a million Windows users right now. Are you one of them?
People can choose. The operating systems with no viruses or the ones with hundreds of thousands. It's their choice.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
C'mon, you've never run across an elitist Linux snob? I have. This isn't necessarily a mainstream view, but there are a whole lot of loud-mouth "I use Linux and I'm better than everyone!" types out there. And I don't mean /. trolls. I mean people who are serious. Just like there are Mac Fans who act that way, or people without TVs, or (insert just about anything even remotely obscure) fans.
I'm not even all that heavily involved in hanging around Linux people (despite being one) and I see this pretty often. Probably because they stand out.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
There are many ways to do good deeds. Giving away software isn't one of them. Helping the sick, the hungry, the abused, the oppressed... in other words REAL causes. Not invented causes such as the social injustice of proprietary software.
And no open source is NOT a superior development model. It is just one of many. Were it superior we would all be using open source operating systems on our desktops. Last time I checked Redmond had the top spot followed by Cupertino. Those who allow their politics to get in the way of practically bring up the rear with Linux.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
They're peer-to-peer now, mostly. Distributed command and control for reliability.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Apple doesn't love you. Apple doesn't care about you. They just want your money.
If your love and affirmation only comes from a corporation, then you have other problems. Commodore didn't love you either.Here's a story for you: About a month ago, a coworker bought a new MacBook laptop. She is also a student at the local university and was working on her finals when the screen went dead! She took the computer to the local Apple Store and they gave her a new computer and helped her move her files over to it.
As to your spinning beach ball: Yes, this would happen sometimes in OS X, versions 10.1 through 10.3 perhaps. I haven't noticed it in a long time. If you gave it some thought, you could have done what I did: Telnet into the frozen computer and kill the offending task or do a proper shutdown. Like I said, I haven't had this problem in a few years now.
Happy Mac and Amiga owner.
It's mandatory to wash your hands before returning to the land of Dairy Queen.
In fact, you and the GP speak of different snobs, his snobs are demeaning to Ubuntu users, and your snobs are demeaning to Windows and Mac users. But forget that.
You do have me wondering what sort of things 'elitist Linux snobs' say ("I compile my own kernel so I'm better than everyone" sounds way too lame). And keep in mind, some linux elitists have been running linux since when it sucked balls, and that isn't that long ago.
" the interface is not that good (for example, the lack of MDI can be really confusing; another example: the dock makes me search all the time for the items I want)."
In other words, you expected it to be like Windows but better, and found out that it wasn't Windows at all.
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
I know people and companies who used the Java-Cocoa bridge. A friend of mine was developing an online custom PDF report generator for financial companies using it. There were many such uses of the Java-Cocoa bridge, just not much in the way of client side publicly available applications. The problems my friend ran into, long before Apple decided to drop the bridge, was that the Java-Cocoa bridge was very buggy and reported bugs to Apple by companies that had developer agreements with Apple were simply not given any priority. One of the bugs in the J-C bridge was that the a PDF renderer (IIRC) implementation in the bridge had a memory leak. It only became obvious on many hundreds of objects, which was precisely what my friend was using. Apple knew about the bug as far back as 2003, yet never fixed it, right up until they deprecated the API in 2005.
I am aware of CoreFoundation and Objective-C++. Since you mention it you are also aware that it is restricted in what it can do. Porting a large C++ application to ObjC++ is not that simple. You will need to rearchitect the entire GUI code and most of the backend.
I am not ignoring the Python and Ruby bridges, and not the AppleScript implementation either. But they are not suitable for major client side performance dependent native applications.
As for GNUStep, who uses it? Can you point out any major applications that make use of it? The best way to make cross platform applications has been though the Qt and WxWidgets toolkits. They both rely on the Carbon APIs.
If you see my first clarification above, you'll see that I know people who used the Java-Cocoa bridges. The reason that they had problems is that the bridge implementation had many serious bugs, some in the form of memory leaks. Apple was very unresponsive to them even back in that day when the bridge was supposedly going strong.
I don't want to invoke conspiracy theories, but it did sometimes seem as if Apple was not exactly behind the project wholeheartedly.
You can also not tell me that you can get better performance with the Python or Ruby bridges. Java has lots of problems, but it is a lot faster than either of those two or Applescript.
I specifically stated in my original post "major GUI applications". That means Carbon. Apple have stated that they will not develop it any further and it will not be ported to 64 bit. If that isn't deprecated, then I don't know what is. The fact that it hasn't been officially deprecated might have more to do with company developer politics than with documentary policies.
Being able to call freely from and to 32 and 64 bit code is useless if you want the extra speedup that 64 bit code gives you or you need the extra memory of the latest features of Cocoa.
I'm sorry, but I stand by my original post.
The effect hasn't become dominant yet, but IT budget cuts in the face of economic recession will accelerate enterprise adoption of Macs.
Until recently, IT departments got a blank check so there was no hard necessity to take cost seriously. Windows skated by on familiarity and prior market dominance.
When the recession finally hits corporations, IT departments will understand the significance of per-client pricing of Windows server vs. the unlimited client pricing of MacOS X server. The accountants will start to notice Mac hardware has a longer useful life and a higher resale value. When the blank check for Windows support stops arriving, corporations will take a hard look at Mac.
Yes, there will be some divas who have built a career's worth of critical analysis software in VBA and insist on keeping their Windows computer. They will be considered a necessary additional cost, and not the baseline support configuration.
Not all companies will switch at once, but those who make the switch will have a competitive advantage. The remaining companies will follow suit, or suffer from higher operating costs. The enterprise transition from Windows to Mac will be quick (surprisingly quick to most).
Many companies will adopt Linux in some capacity, especially if they user server farms that need large-scale computing capacity. However, I expect Macs to be in high demand as a front-end server and desktop system.
When the bottom line depends on companies taking IT costs seriously, Windows will fall rapidly to Mac.
I've read a few criticisms that the Mac might be easy for the end-user, but it's harder on the system administrator. I don't think this is generally true, but I can see two situations that generate this opinion.
The more obvious is sysadmins who are familiar with Windows and Unix having trouble adapting to the Mac. I had quite a bit of difficulty during my first few months of using a Mac because I'd become accustomed to the complicated ways of doing things on Windows. Once I lost my Windows habits, I was amazed at how much time I wasted on Windows before switching to Mac.
The less obvious condition is when the Mac is forced to adapt to procedures and paradigms designed for Windows or Unix. There are naturally some issues when a Mac tries to authenticate user logins through a Windows server, and otherwise tries to fit itself into a Windows environment.
I expect the situation will be very different once the IT infrastructure is based on Mac. There are many underutilized Mac features, like Netboot and network install. Once these features are implemented in an infrastructure designed for Mac, it will be the Windows and UNIXes that seem like an awkward fit.
In what way is Apple draconian?
The only people who don't consider Apple's practices to be tyrannical are Apple fanboys and people who don't know or care about anything beyond whether or not their computers gets them to Facebook/Myspace/whatever.
I am not an Apple fanboy. Nor do I use my MacBook Pro to get to either Facebook or Myspace though I do use it for the web. I also will be using it for photography and web development.
Oh, I also have a Linux PC and up until it died used a Windows PC. If the Amiga were alive today I'd probably using it as well.
In reality, though, Apple could never keep a dominant position for long, at least not with their current practices. The word "antitrust" comes to mind...
Antitrust hasn't stopped Microsoft yet, what makes you think it would stop Apple? And how could Apple become a case for antitrust? If I wanted to I could run not only Mac software but Linux and Microsoft software as well, actually I have installed and used Linux, FOSS, and cross platform software. For instance for my office suite I use NeoOffice, the native Mac port of Open Office.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I've seen many comments saying Ubuntu users don't deserve to use Linux because they aren't any better than Windows users. I've seen many comments complaining about Ubuntu users not knowing how their operating system works. I've seen many comments complaining about Ubuntu bringing in people to Linux who know nothing about Linux.
In other words they're pissed a normal person can use Ubuntu instead of needing to be a sysadmin or guru to use it.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Unless the worst viruses in the world are interested in your music collection, stored in your home folder. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for a virus to run on a Linux machine, the user would have to either knowingly execute it, or run a program that executes it. And even then, unless the user does it as root, the virus is almost totally harmless to the system.
But the OS X is the same, unless something is installed as root it's harmless to the system.
FalconShould there be a Law?
And rootkits aside, consider a Linux box used in a residential environment, everyone using the same user account, downloading and running whatever they like. What's to stop them downloading and running any sort of malware that now starts every time this user logs in?
That's the fault of the owner though a Linux distro can help. About 20 months ago, almost 2 years, I bought a new PC with Linux preinstalled. When I got it home, connected everything up then booted on that first boot it asked me to setup a root user account. Once I did it asked me to setup a user account, one that couldn't install software or mess with the OS, and suggested I use it for most things.
FalconShould there be a Law?
The fact that hijacked linux systems are serving up malware and controlling botnets is proof that the probability of infection is unacceptably high for linux.
Do you have any statistics showing how many botnets control Linux PCs? Or is this just a guess that's there's a bunch? While I don't have statistics, like I asked you for, Tech Republic has an interesting article on how "Linux phishing botnet statistics can be deceptive".
FalconShould there be a Law?
OS X will be marginalized in the enterprise
Except, as TFA is all about, Macs are gaining in enterprises.
Mobile users will still have Mac Book Pros, artiste-types will have their cheese graters, but the cubicle critters aren't going to get anything that fancy.
Many of the "cubicle critters" don't really need much more than the set top like Mac Mini. My problem with the Mini is that it's very much planned obsolescence made with a lot of precious and toxic stuff.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Now that the pundits are finally realizing that Macs are being introduced to the enterprise, let's have some fun and look further into the future, at the things pundits will be announcing a few years from now.
As enterprises increasingly replace Windows with Mac, there will be two effects most pundits haven't thought of yet. First, IT staffs will decrease dramatically because of the lower support burden of Mac. Second, the army of Windows support workers will be out of a job.
For any minimally-skilled person (think high school diploma, GED, associates degree, etc.) the easiest way to get a decent paying job has been training in Windows. Think about your local community college course catalog. If it's anything like mine, the computer technology section is full of Microsoft courses and devoid of Mac and Unix courses. That will change.
The effect on the economy could be interesting. On the one hand, the number of corporate IT jobs will drop. On the other hand, the ease (and lower cost) of MacOS X server will create numerous new IT jobs for smaller businesses who could not handle the financial or technical burden of Windows.
I predict those Windows courses will rapidly disappear from community college course catalogs over the next several years.
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (15") 1.999 mac book pro .2ghz and extra inch of screen, worth $970.
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (14.1) 1.024 insprion 1420
This comparsion isnt as fair as ive got a worse PC, because i was only looking at the dell-linux site, but is the
Before buying my MacBook Pro I compared it's price to the prices of laptops from a number of Windows OEMs. Of those that I can recall a similarly configured Dell was $200 more and an HP was about the same price as the MBP.
FalconShould there be a Law?
But for the cost of a mac, you could get a higher spec Dell
Before I got my MacBook Pro I compared it's price to that of some Windows OEMs. A Dell having a similar configuration was $200 more while an HP was the same price.
FalconShould there be a Law?
There are many ways to do good deeds. Giving away software isn't one of them.
Really.
$ telnet www.mercycorps.org 80
Trying 207.189.99.69...
HConnected to www.mercycorps.org.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP/1.0
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:58:01 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS)
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
I unscrewed one fat screw, pulled out the hard drive sled, slotted a new drive in, and restored everything from backup.
Did you pay for the new HDD?
And that was AFTER the phone call to Applecare and waiting for the Apple Store to call me to say they had the right part in. Had to run my Macbook from an external drive for a week while I was waiting.
When I ordered my MacBook Pro I ordered some software with it including TechTools Pro. Then when I got it I tried to use the diagnostics by booting up with the disk in the drive, b ut it wouldn't work. So the following day, not knowing I was supposed to make an appointment I went down to an Apple Store. Someone there said they were all booked up for the day but he went online to check for an available slot at another store, there's 4 stores in my area, and found one. He signed me up for it. The genius there took all of 5 minutes to find out the version of TechTools I got wasn't compatible with the new CPU, Apple had updated the CPU a couple of days before I placed my order. While I think Apple should have replaced the old one with a new one at the store, she suggested I call the company and request a new disk, I didn't have a problem with their tech support.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Like many others, I didn't like where it seemed Microsoft was headed with Product Activation and DRM and decided that long-term, I would attempt to migrate away from Windows.
They were far from the only reason I switched from Windows but two big reasons I did switch, both to Linux and Macs, was because of Activation and all the spyware, WGA/WPA. I got a tower PC with Linux preinstalled, I'd like to set it up as a server, and I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro.
Even if Vista (like XP) isn't a terrible thing in itself
The very first tyme I booted up a PC with XP it froze while booting. The PC was a brand new Dell the college I went to got, they had just replaced a bunch of older PCs.
FalconShould there be a Law?
but for developers, it's not.
Yea, I've recently switched from Windows to OS X and I've spent several hours, without success, searching Apple's developer connection on how to start programming on it. I picked up a book on XCode however I don't see anything about how to use it for Java. I think I'll try JBuilder as I've used it on Windows. However I also want to program in C/C++ as well as Perl, Ruby on Rails, and or other languages for the web.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I had this problem just as much on 10.4 as I did on 10.3. Which was far too much.
As to your spinning beach ball: Yes, this would happen sometimes in OS X, versions 10.1 through 10.3 perhaps. I haven't noticed it in a long time. If you gave it some thought, you could have done what I did: Telnet into the frozen computer and kill the offending task or do a proper shutdown. Like I said, I haven't had this problem in a few years now.ssh would often be unresponsive in these situations as well, and I don't use telnet (at least not without ipsec) because I'm not a schmuck. but aside from that, how is a user less savvy than me supposed to correct a condition like that? Same way people did it with the mac for years, with the programmer's key. Oh wait, new macs don't have those. What a pity.
Happy Mac and Amiga owner.If you're still milking your Amiga for actual work for this long, then there's really nothing to say, is there? If it's just a toy, then mentioning it in this fashion is kind of disingenuous, isn't it? I mean, I have a GRiDPad 1910, but I don't generally mention it except in discussions of antiques because I don't use it to do work (or anything else.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In 2008 Mac prices are comparable to Windows PC prices, and have been for a few years now. Unfortunately what you will not find in Apple's lineup is an inexpensive expandable and upgradeable model.
FalconShould there be a Law?
LOL! How do you do that with only one button?
Actually Macs have 3 buttons. The "left" click is the normal one. Another one is when you hold the [Apple] key down while clicking, and the third is when you hold the [ctrl] key while clicking. Hold one of these down while clicking makes a context menu popup, a different menu for each key. Or in the case of Firefox, if I [Apple] click on a link it opens up the link in a new tab.
Old Mac mice only had one button but the Mighty Mouse has 2. Or you can use the easier way, use a two or three button mouse. I have a Logitech 2 button scrolling trackball for my Mac.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Or, hold down the ctrl button while clicking with that one, lonely button.
You can also hold the [Apple] key while clicking. It will give you a different context menu than [ctrl] clicking does. For my reply to you I did that when clicking on the reply button, the reply window opened in a new tab in Firefox.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Please do not mention the Gimp. I need CMKY for one thing.
I think both CinePaint aka Film GIMP, and Krita support CMYK. CinePaint is available for Linux, Macs, and Windows whereas Krita is for Linux. I don't know about Krita but CinePaint also does 32 bits per colour channel.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Thanks, but it kind of defeats the purpose of the Mac. Isn't the Mac supposed to be the best computing experience out of the box? Having to download add ons and tweak the environment just to get some basic functionality is just another proof that Macs are no better than Windows or Linux.
Yes, I like it very much. When programming, I have at least two word documents open, a dozen web pages pointing to documentation, and a dozen source files. I wouldn't like all those windows to have a separate entry in the task bar.
And if that becomes too mainstream, there's always the HURD.
HURD is already too mainstream. I would rather use "VOCALIS" . A new OS allowing you to order OS instructions by voice (you just need a colleague to make real parallel programming).
Normal users dont do backups
Normal users don't know how their system works and don't want to know...
to expect your great writers to also be great users is to narrow your reading material more than you might be prepared to accept.
You do know for example that Douglas Adams lost an entire manuscript ( no backups) due to computer error. (back on topic the computer was an apple, the file was unrecoverable)
In the utilities folder there is an excellent application to plot trajectory called "Grapher". It is included with the OS.
I am primarily a mac user and admin, but I love ubuntu. I have successfully deployed ubuntu server in my environment. Most recently a moodle server running 7.10 server. I even did it without installing any desktop environment. All CLI baby, except for the graphical install screens during installation. apt-get is good magic. I will admit I installed webmin for my co-workers.
I would really like to give Étoilé a try, but without many GNUstep apps, it seems kind of pointless. (I really wish there were a single standard for X11 menuing, so that it could be a simple run-time option to switch from shared-menubar to per-window-menubar, and all apps would respect that regardless of toolkit.) It's a chicken-or-egg proposition, though. One can hope that the relative ease with which one can built native apps for both GNUstep and OS X from the same codebase will draw developers, but so far I haven't seen much of that.
Constitutionally Correct
I never reply, only signed up for an account because of Discussion2. However....
I also work for Publicis and know David, and I don't know who he knows to be featured in these articles all the time. Yes, they run parallels (no boot camp), our Image Dev team had to build in WinXP support. However, most of the apps they use (Notes, Photoshop, other Adobe products, etc) run native, parallels is a recent addition - and not Enterprise wide. The thing is, we had about 2000 Macs last I knew (2-3 years ago), and Publicis has bought many more brands since, so I don't imagine those are "PC converts" as he implies. In fact, I can't think of a single case where that's true. Either he's misquoted, or the "requests" are getting stopped before they come to fruition.
It's not a convert story at our company. It's creative companies that have always used macs and probably always will. If I wanted a mac (and do) there's no way I'd be able to get it funded - because it costs the same as a HIGH END PC, not our normal Desktop model.
BTW- we have something like 12-14000 Users US wide (more now I think) so 2500 isn't 25%. As a disclaimer, I like the Mac platform - and help support it from the systems end, but this story just isn't what it seems, at least from Publicis.
The keys are flat, not bevelled. The keys are not solidly seated... they float, making it feel imprecise. The action is both too soft and too hard, with very little "padding" effect.
The only problem I have with the keyboard is that I wish it were closer to me. I'd switch the track pad and keyword if I could.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I intended only virus and botnet. Didn't mean to include malware and rootkit.
See this comment by me which predates your comment and where I correct another poster for the same error.
Mea culpa. You're right.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Wait, you only like MDI because it keeps the task bar from being full of individual documents?
I guess that's a reason, but it just shows a flaw in Microsoft's task bar model. OS X already works the way you want in that Dock items are per application, not per "process", where every document is considered a separate process. (And the Mac has worked that way since System 7.0.)
I don't mind too much when MDI puts the documents in a tabbed area, but I hate MDI because you end up with a tiny area in which to make windows (especially after all the docked toolbar panes), and if your MDI subwindows aren't zoomed to full size, they always end up sticking over the edges of the area. Of course most Windows users react to this by running everything fullscreen. To a Mac user, this just removes one of the benefits of using windows in the first place, that being the ability to see two or more things at the same time.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
You are contradicting yourself. From one side, you are saying that MDI cuts down the useful screen estate, and from the other side you say that you prefer your windows to be not in full screen mode, because it allows you to see two things at once, but that limits the useful screen estate!!!
Yes, I prefer to have my windows maximized, because I usually work at one thing at a time. It's very rare that I need to work at a document while looking at another document all the time, and when I need that, I put the two windows side by side. In either case, my screen is not cluttered with windows as in the case of the Mac.