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IBM Open Sources Mac@IBM Code (9to5mac.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the come-and-get-it dept.

PolygamousRanchKid shares a report from 9to5Mac: At the Jamf Nation User Conference, IBM has announced that it is open sourcing its Mac@IBM provisioning code. The code being open-sourced offers IT departments the ability to gather additional information about their employees during macOS setup and allows employees to customize their enrollment by selecting apps or bundles of apps to install.

Back in 2015, IBM discussed how it went from zero to 30,000 Macs in six months. In 2016, IBM said Apple products were cheaper to manage when you looked at the entire life cycle: "IBM is saving a minimum of $265 (up to $535 depending on model) per Mac compared to a PC, over a 4-year lifespan. While the upfront workstation investment is lower for PCs, the residual value for Mac is higher The program's success has improved IBM's ability to attract and retain top talent -- a key advantage in today's competitive market."

91 comments

  1. This is going to be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm popping some corn. I'm guessing all the macOS haters will be coming out to say how IBM can't add, or something, and screwed up on Apple computers being cheaper to own.

    1. Re: This is going to be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who would have thought overpaying upfront for macs would make finance department reluctant to authorize replacements in a short period of time? Apple forces you to buy overpriced hardware, while PCs purhased are never priced at competive specs with long term vision.

    2. Re:This is going to be good by sittingnut · · Score: 1

      source for this ad is 9to5mac.com. enough said.

    3. Re: This is going to be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even better is that after all these years, there are still features of Novell Netware that neither Apple or Microsoft have yet to come close to offering yet alone meet and surpass.

      Geekpoet

    4. Re:This is going to be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      source for this ad is 9to5mac.com. enough said.

      precisely...

      and... top talent demands Macs? Think again... only kind of top talent I can think of that actually has people that COULD prefer Macs, are designers or some similar "soft" field

    5. Re:This is going to be good by Bert64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Technical people often prefer macs due to the unix underpinnings.. There are also quite a lot of companies that offer the choice between windows or mac but won't let you run linux, which pushes technical users towards the mac.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    6. Re:This is going to be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, if my choices are Windows or OSX I'm down with the mac 100% of the time.

      I have the deepest respect and utmost sympathy for people stuck with Windows. Please see the light.

    7. Re:This is going to be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. And although we CAN use Linux, it's an approved flavor that doesn't work well with all the tools we're used to (or even with internal tools we're required to use). Mac is fully supported, and it's UNIX-y enough to do technical stuff without a glitch.

  2. I guess... by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 1

    ...IBM forgave Apple for ditching the PowerPC chip.

    1. Re:I guess... by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      IBM abandoned that market before Apple did. IBM, in fact, never entered it, only making a single product at Apple's begging long after Moto/Freescale had totally failed to support the general purpose CPU market.

      I don't know what's worse, the complete ignorance of people on topics like this or their belief that they are qualified to comment on it. IBM's interest in PowerPC was entirely embedded and didn't care at all about that PC space. That's why they donated their work to Moto who proved entirely incompetent.

    2. Re:I guess... by Henriok · · Score: 1

      Except you're totally wrong. IBMs POWER processor are entirely PowerPC to this day and have bee so since the mid 1990s (POWWER2 was the last POWER processor that was not PowerPC). The latest POWER9 is using the third version of the PowerPC instruction set. You are right though that they hardly cared for PowerPC the desktop space, and entirely right if you meant the consumer computer space.

      --

      - Henrik

      - when the Shadows descend -
    3. Re:I guess... by dwywit · · Score: 1

      Yes, "I don't know what's worse, the complete ignorance of people on topics like this or their belief that they are qualified to comment on it" is ironic, hmmmm? I mean, all you have to do is type POWERPC into a search engine.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    4. Re:I guess... by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      Well, I suppose, to many IBMers, PowerPC based AIX servers probably do look like embedded, especially compared to a z-series mainframe.

      You probably shouldn't have talked about other people's complete ignorance though.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    5. Re:I guess... by mlyle · · Score: 1

      I don't think he's wrong-- I think you two are talking past each other.

      The '970 family was a purpose-built processor for Apple, and the first and only time of IBM selling processors in quantity to other vendors. IBM basically didn't use it themselves (yes, it showed up in a couple blade server platforms early on).

      Yes, it was an offshoot of IBM's successful POWER processor lineup.

  3. Mac Support Cost about $0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    In my limited experience supporting my family, Mac support costs is approximately $0 per year. I bought Macs in order to enjoy peace and quiet and it worked. The odd little problem that surfaced, everyone were able to handle themselves. Their IT skill level? Accountant, teacher, construction worker, police constable, retired butcher...

    1. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Their IT skill level? Accountant, teacher, construction worker, police constable, retired butcher...

      If you had Windows machines, that retired butcher's skills might come in handy when the inevitable frustrated user rage sets in.

    2. Re: Mac Support Cost about $0 by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

      It kind of depends. My sister took straight to it. Never had a single call from her since she switched. She's a smart cookie though.

      My father however endlessly complained. Why is the menu at the top (why is it stuck to the window?) why did Apple chance Ctrl-c (better question , why did wordstar change cmd-c) etc etc etc.

      The old boys a smart dude too but never underestime the support costs of preference stubbornness , especially in older folks

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    3. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      With family like that you are an Indian chief away from the members of the Village People.

      Wait a minute. Elizabeth Warren? Is that you?

    4. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      For residential use, yes... but for corporate I have no idea how they pull it off! Just getting SMB/CIFS client connections working reliably borders on insanity. The few (but unavoidable) hooks to the Windows applications makes for a lot of fun too... especially the apps that block installs on RDS machines. And then there is the random shit that just doesn't work on the application level. (I shit you not, a "known bug" of a CAD package is that zooming via an Apple touchpad will crash the program. Hasn't been fixed in two years. Really great when you need to switch back and forth between a windows app via RDS that needs the same gesture to navigate.)

    5. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by Tsolias · · Score: 1

      I installed debian stable to a bakery's boy's snsa eee 1000 netbook and he came back asking to change his desktop, too, to debian.
      Guess what, debian's support costs $0, runs even on a toaster, has file manager, browser, IM clients e.t.c. and I don't see any reason to choose running firefox on debian, over running firefox on anything else.

      IBM and TFA fails to mention all the additional s/w that they have to buy in order to support windows and they fail to mention that moving one "retard" from windows to linux ends up having that retard sperg about how linux is difficult. OTOH moving the same retard from windows to something from Apple, they don't complain, because it's shinny.

    6. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by t0y · · Score: 1

      Chromebooks are much more cost-effective in this use case.

    7. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by gtall · · Score: 1

      They don't complain so much because the interface to Mac isn't as inelegant as the ones that run on Linux. Personally, I feed like I've been shit on after using Windows.

    8. Re: Mac Support Cost about $0 by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Some Linux "interfaces" are just as shiny as the Mac. Some are more plain but efficient. You want to replicate a Mac, install something like Elementary OS, or just install Gnome 3 on any distro, with a Mac theme. You want something more widnows-like, try Cinammon or MATE. Hell even KDE is pretty decent these days. If after trying all that you still feel "shit on" then I would suggest that the problem lies with your own biases rather than with the "interface".

    9. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by tepples · · Score: 1

      I installed debian stable to a bakery's boy's snsa eee 1000 netbook

      You dodged one there, as the same company's Transformer Book T100TA has serious problems under Debian. Suspend, Bluetooth, backlight brightness, and camera are all broken, and you might need a separate USB network adapter to download nonfree drivers for the WLAN and audio.

    10. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SMB/CIFS: Does anybody still use that swiss cheese security hole in a corporate environment?

    11. Re:Mac Support Cost about $0 by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately yes... there isn't much else you can do effectively for a heterogeneous network that supports reliable file locking. CIFS/SMB 1.0 should be dead, but going exclusively SMB3 is nearly impossible.

  4. Macs in use at IBM? For what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Macs at IBM? What are they using them for? My guess is that they need them to produce the glossy brochures used in press kits to media and U.S. Senators to try and convince them that IBM actually has any non-executive employees left.

    1. Re: Macs in use at IBM? For what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have two MacBooks and I work for IBM. I manage a team of data scientists.

    2. Re:Macs in use at IBM? For what? by sit1963nz · · Score: 2

      I work in a University.
      Macs are used in Chemistry, Physics , Microbiology , Genetics , Bioinformatics, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Computer science, Veterinary , etc etc etc.

      But then again we have Linux, Windows too when wanted/required.

    3. Re: Macs in use at IBM? For what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We don't believe you.

  5. Could be huge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this truly brings Macs into the kind of corporate control that you get with domain joined windows pcs, then this just sold a shit ton of macs to corporations and also probably a shit ton of MaaS360 since I assume IBM depends on their own MDM for Mac connectivity

    1. Re: Could be huge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Definitely uses MaaS360.

  6. OK this its opensource-ed config recipes only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Applause to IBM opensource-ing their mac config recipes but is the recipes only. Appears to me that the actual runtime that executes and applies the config recipes is commercial proprietary config management & deployment suite called Jamf Pro.
    See https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/
    and https://github.com/IBM/mac-ibm-enrollment-app/

    In light of config management via actual FOSS runtimes (Puppet/Chef/Ansible/Salt), this seems like a thinly veiled advert for Jamf Pro.

    1. Re:OK this its opensource-ed config recipes only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you want a great alternative to Jamf Pro, look at Munki.
      It was developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios and open sourced for everyone to use. It does just about everything that Jamf Pro does, with the added bonus of being open source and very well supported by the authors of the software and the community in general.

      I'm going to have to take a look at IBM's framework and see how tightly it's tied to Jamf, or if I could drop Munki in at the back end instead.

    2. Re:OK this its opensource-ed config recipes only by torkus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Very thinly veiled indeed.

      With that said, Jamf is pretty awesome but needs to be customized. What IBM turned over is immensely helpful to medium and large enterprise for managing their Macs. I'm not a huge fan of several companies managing to advertise together in one post tho.

      TBH anyone who manages Mac either has this kind of propaganda success story or reality. Yeah, your support costs are 'lower' because 1) you spent a lot of time and effort to build self-service infra from the ground up in an actual user-friendly way and 2) most of the support cost is pushed back on the end user.

      Oh, your Mac crashed? Ok, check the knowledge base wiki that's maintained largely by other users. Ok, looks like you need to do an internet recovery, re-provision, restore your apps, restore your data, etc. It might be somewhat streamlined but the effort still exists. They're just having "not IT" people do it, typically with far less efficiency.

      Apple isn't quite actively hostile to enterprise, but they certainly do not operate the same way enterprise expects from every other vendor ever.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    3. Re:OK this its opensource-ed config recipes only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, your Mac crashed? Ok, check the knowledge base wiki that's maintained largely by other users. Ok, looks like you need to do an internet recovery, re-provision, restore your apps, restore your data, etc. It might be somewhat streamlined but the effort still exists. They're just having "not IT" people do it, typically with far less efficiency.

      [Raises hand] Hi there. I manage 3500 Macs in a global enterprise. I'm one of two people on the Mac Management team, and the two of us are not coincidentally the only 3rd tier Mac support people in the company. I've been doing this for nearly 20 years.The number of times that I've given that advice I could probably count on my toes and have a couple left over.

      Do you actually manage Macs for a living? If you do, and you commonly give that advice, are you sure you're good at your job?

    4. Re:OK this its opensource-ed config recipes only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want a great alternative to Jamf Pro, look at Munki.
      It was developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios and open sourced for everyone to use. It does just about everything that Jamf Pro does, with the added bonus of being open source and very well supported by the authors of the software and the community in general.

      I'm going to have to take a look at IBM's framework and see how tightly it's tied to Jamf, or if I could drop Munki in at the back end instead.

      Munki is pretty awesome, but it isn't an MDM. That is a huge distinction, so no Munki does not even do close to everything Jamf does.

  7. Mac Support Cost $0 just need to over pay hardware by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 0

    Mac Support Cost $0 just need to over pay for hardware

  8. Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, etc) by linuxtelephony · · Score: 1

    Given the problems with the "new" keyboards and the rise of the "Pro" models replacing real Pro machines, I wonder if this estimate of savings still holds true with today's Macs. 2015 the MBP still had the good keyboards.

    $265 to $535 is not a lot over 4 years. That's only $66 to $134 per year. One keyboard glitch a year and the loss of productivity or time spent cleaning/repairing that and that savings is wiped out.

    IBM probably has enough metrics and enough machines to see some interesting trends. I'd love to see the savings breakdown on machines by model over the years, and especially how the new models compare to some of the older ones.

    As for my bias, in 2015 I was going to do some traveling and needed a small foot print machine. I had planned on getting the slightly cheaper Macbook model, until I got to the store and typed on it. That keyboard was awful!! I ended up getting the 13" MBP because it still had a real keyboard. So happy I went for the real keyboard.

    --
    . 62,400 repetitions make one truth -- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
  9. Re:Mac Support Cost $0 just need to over pay hardw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe look up lifecycle costs then? We really cannot hold your hand you have to do some of the work yourself.

  10. Because they are not Personal Computers. Duh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's right there in TFS: "per Mac compared to a PC".
    That's meant literally. Not just iCluelessly.
    Because that's what modern day macOS is. And Windows, for that matter.
    So maybe Windows is cheaper than a PC too. ;)

    1. Re:Because they are not Personal Computers. Duh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "PC" used to stand for "personal computer."

      Ever since, oh, 1982 or so it has stood for "IBM-PC compatible," sorry you missed the memo.

      Oh, and in case you're too young to remember memos: they're like printed emails.

  11. Re:Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, etc by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    I read an article about this a while ago. The summary fails to mention they save a ton in help desk and support staff as well. What strange times we live in when Big Blue once the ruthless king of PC desktops is buying Macs.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  12. If the CEO wants something by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there will be a rationale. Doesn't matter if that flies against common sense. Such is the power of the CEO for better or worse. For worse in this case, I presume (he said, absently starring at the negative price trend since 2014, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IBM?p=IBM).

  13. Re:Could be & I suspect those groups too... ap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's a simple solution:
    GO the fuck AWAY!

    LEAVE Slashdot entirely. Stop reading and posting here.
    EVERYBODY here is sick of your GARBAGE
    NOBODY wants to read your spam!

    APK
    GO the fuck AWAY!

    APK
    GO the fuck AWAY!

    APK
    GO the fuck AWAY!

    APK
    GO the fuck AWAY!

  14. Re: Why do that when I'm winning? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Quick! Go shitpost in the next two articles, too!

  15. Re: Mac Support Cost $0 just need to over pay hard by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

    What is the 'life cycle cost' of the recent MacBook with the keyboard defects that it seems Apple will never fix? Any system of that generation is tainted and potential unremarkable junk as soon as Apple decides to drop support.

  16. Attract talent by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    If people are joining your firm based on the the type of laptop they are issued, they aren't top talent.

    1. Re:Attract talent by guruevi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      On the other hand, if companies insist on using Windows even though you're a developer, I'm sure you wouldn't want to work there either.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:Attract talent by sit1963nz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Rubbish. When you are paying hundreds of thousands per year to top talent, you buy them what ever they are the most productive on.
      Add on floor space, support staff, etc etc the cost can add up to be hundreds (even thousands) of dollars per hour to have that top talent
      At that cost if you can save them just 1 minute per day by supplying them the computer and software they need, the computing costs work out to be zero over 4 years, paid for well and truely by time savings.

    3. Re:Attract talent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you looked at the job postings for startups these days? They're pretty much all bragging about getting a Mac.

    4. Re:Attract talent by tepples · · Score: 1

      if companies insist on using Windows even though you're a developer, I'm sure you wouldn't want to work there either.

      Then how do developers of Windows applications prefer to test the Windows applications that they are developing? I doubt they rely on Wine for testing.

    5. Re:Attract talent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop talking sense.

    6. Re:Attract talent by jeremyp · · Score: 3

      Most professionals in other industries use the best gear they can get. Professional photographers generally have good cameras. Professional musicians have the best instruments they can afford. It amazes me that IT professionals, especially developers, are often supposed to put up with crappy hardware. This is the tool you use to do your work. Why wouldn't you insist on getting the best you can?

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    7. Re: Attract talent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. I don't like macs because they're shiny or cool. It's a commercial UNIX with occasionally fantastic hardware, that has kinda lost it's way recently. I'm sticking with my pro 2012 maxed out tower & gigantic video card and MBA w/ MagSafe adaptor until they start to understand their users again.

    8. Re:Attract talent by guruevi · · Score: 1

      VM? Who still develops pure Windows applications? Even Microsoft is releasing their tools on Mac and Linux nowadays.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    9. Re:Attract talent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How well they provision an employee is a proxy for how well they treat employees. While correlation does not imply causation, it still can be a good indicator.

  17. Re:Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, etc by torkus · · Score: 2

    Macs are cheaper if you:
    - Don't count the user's time to self-provision/install/configure
    - Don't buy licenses for things commonly needed in enterprise (AV, HIDS, anti-malware, inventory, etc.
    - Actually get residual value from your equipment
    - Don't include the back end time spent keeping infra updated around apples quirky behaviors
    - Don't count training time and lost productivity if you force people to ove over
    - Don't count cost spent upgrading legacy infra/apps that 'just work' on a PC or IE
    - Ignore several common security practices that most enterprise consider requirements (though I agree most of them are pretty stupid actually)

    In the right environment, sure. In real enterprise where 5 different groups get to impose their will on any effort like this? Not so much.

    --
    You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
  18. Re:Mac Support Cost $0 just need to over pay hardw by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

    Reviews over the last 14 years or so show that you actually have to buy more expensive hardware to get the same performance from Windows.

    Yes, they are expensive. But in most cases It Just Worksâ and you have top-of-the-line performance and lots less hassle.

  19. One more reason IBM is going out of business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The steady inexorable decline continues as they divest IP. Still a ways to go before the vulture capitalists buy them up though.

  20. Source wasn't opened it was laid off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is IBM, remember.

  21. Re:Mac Support Cost $0 just need to over pay hardw by Bert64 · · Score: 2

    The hardware is initially expensive, but also retains value better... A couple of year old macbook still fetches a decent price on ebay and the value only really decreases significantly once it can no longer run the latest osx.

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  22. Re:Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, etc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they save money in this way: "ah your browser doesn't work? reimage by yourself, waste a whole morning and try again"

  23. Re: Why? You probably already did like... apk by c6gunner · · Score: 1

    I never get tired of watching APK argue with himself.

  24. Re:Could be & I suspect those groups too... ap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look everyone it is the lying retard APK posting fake support for himself and then replying back. He must be livid that he keeps getting caught lying and that it keeps being exposed. We would stop exposing APK's lies if the retard would just stop posting them.

  25. Re:Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, etc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you not good at math? Even at your low end, that's almost $2 million in savings per year.

  26. SIMPLE TEST THAT SHUTS YOU UP...apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    0.0.0.0 test1.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test2.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test1.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test2.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test1.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test2.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test1.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test2.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test1.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test2.com:53
    0.0.0.0 jowie.com
    0.0.0.0 jealous.com
    0.0.0.0 jowie.com
    0.0.0.0 test1.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test2.com:53
    0.0.0.0 test3.com
    0.0.0.0 test3.com
    0.0.0.0 borlnd.com
    0.0.0.0 tester.com

    * RUN THAT DATASET THRU MY PROGRAM & WHAT RESULTS COME OUT THAT HAVE A "PORT FILTER" ATTACHED?

    NONE!

    Only borlnd.com, tester.com, test3.com, jealous.com & jowie.com (last 2 are for YOU, lol) REMAIN (no filters on them)

    MY PROGRAM EVEN PREVENTS THAT MISTAKE!

    APK

    P.S.=> THIS PROVES MY PROGRAM'S OUTPUT DOES NOT ALLOW "PORT FILTERING" ENTRIES IN HOSTS as I said DESPITE you IMPERSONATING ME & LYING (already PROVEN YOU DO THAT c6gunner https://linux.slashdot.org/com... )... apk

  27. c6gunner's impersonating me & lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: c6gunner's name on this post as submitter yet signed "APK" https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & he ran from a fair challenge I put to him https://linux.slashdot.org/com... after insulting me.

    * I never say hosts cure Spectre/Meltdown OR it'd be on the Start64.com download page & I do NO MacOS X one!

    I cut him to pieces for his lies:

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    https://news.slashdot.org/comm...

    APK

    P.S.=> You say hosts = shit https://slashdot.org/comments.... ? /.ers & security pros + RESULTS say DIFFERENT:

    1st: /.ers https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments....

    2nd: SECURITY PROS https://slashdot.org/comments....

    3rd: REAL RESULTS w/ hosts vs. threats https://slashdot.org/comments....

    EAT YOUR WORDS

  28. Sysadmin pov by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our company purchased Jamf pro. While we're a big company, our Mac footprint is small. It was bought in because execs like it and for talent attraction. IBM has been the poster child for Jamf quite some time now. The Jamf and IBM, or Apple and IBM partnerships are not suprising.

    Having installed and maintained a Jamf on-premise infrastrucure, the product works quite well and support is decent. When we looked at architecture and potential scale in the future, was nice to see another large business like IBM able to scale at those number of devices.

    Provisioning workflow (lite touch / zero touch) is usually one of the more essential workflows. To do it well is no small feat.

    I give props on their client game at their own shop. On the disrtibuted server side... the installs that IBM sell: the install and licensing are just horribad.

  29. Re:Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, etc by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    What strange times we live in when Big Blue once the ruthless king of PC desktops is buying Macs.

    In these strange times, Macs are PC desktops.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  30. This is obvious crap.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mac's CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT THE "PC" AND OR WINDOWS. THAT's A fact..
    Linux cannot do it alone
    Mac's cant do it them selves
    Artsy, Fartsy bitches use mac's
    Lets face it,, its the same old, Ohh shinny gimme gimme..
    moving past that, it's not the engineer, its the company..
    I fail to see why companies allow themselves to be taken "hostage" by this type of behavior..
    Whats next, allowing the employee to dictate their schedule 100%? Really, has corporate america set their expectations so low?
    I smell "click bait"
    Lets lo0k at facts, 30,000 mac's in 6 months, what does that equate to with regard to percentage of the company?
    Just because people start buying the Pixel 3 over lenovo's offering, duz that mean there is an "up" tick in android usage, and therefore do we have to gear up for Android usage??
    I mean really??
    this is stoopid, where is the $ in this??

  31. Re: Wonder if it's still true today? (Keyboard, et by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For a company who spends that much on toilet paper. It's a drop in the fucking bucket

  32. Still a Windows license, RAM, and update time+BW by tepples · · Score: 1

    VM?

    That's still running Windows: a $199.99 per seat license (source), plus double the RAM to run both the X11/Linux host and the Windows guest, plus time and Internet download allowance spent on keeping each tester's Windows VM updated, especially if the company isn't big enough to subscribe to WSUS or other centralized management.

    Who still develops pure Windows applications? Even Microsoft is releasing their tools on Mac and Linux nowadays.

    A company that hasn't yet expanded to offer its applications on macOS, which is even more expensive per seat than Windows as you have to use a $500+ dongle (Mac mini) or a $1300+ monitor (iMac). Or do you claim that a company ought to offer its desktop applications to the public exclusively on X11/Linux for some period before expanding to Windows?

  33. Re:Still a Windows license, RAM, and update time+B by guruevi · · Score: 1

    Startup developers get free Windows licenses (Desktop, Server etc) and even Azure time.

    Startups rarely develop native Windows clients these days, Windows is indeed an expensive platform to develop against (Microsoft's C compiler - Visual Studio - can cost upwards of $2000 for a team), hence most new apps being web apps and even many desktop apps are simply HTML/JS compiled against all platforms simultaneously.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  34. MinGW is without charge; Windows to test on isn't by tepples · · Score: 1

    Windows is indeed an expensive platform to develop against (Microsoft's C compiler - Visual Studio - can cost upwards of $2000 for a team),

    MinGW and Visual Studio Community are available without charge, both natively on Windows and (in MinGW's case) as a cross-compiler that runs on GNU/Linux. But they still require a $200 copy of Windows on which to test the resulting executable, with all the associated costs (even apart from that of the Windows license itself).

    hence most new apps being web apps

    Which aren't very compatible with browsers whose users who have disabled any script in the browser on grounds that pervasive monitoring of viewers' interests by ad exchanges has poisoned the well.

    and even many desktop apps are simply HTML/JS compiled against all platforms simultaneously.

    This still requires an instance of all five platforms on which to test, plus a developer license for iOS.

  35. Re:c6gunner's impersonating me & lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    APK you are pathetic.

    You vomit out off-topic lies, then chase people around semi-anonymously.

    seek help

    ZIP

  36. "ZIP" you're pathetic w/ proof hypocrite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "ZIP" you FAIL vs. me w/ proof https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... "You're a better programmer than I" & you STALK me by UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous PROVING YOU FEAR ME by you ADMITTING you have a registered 'lusr' account on /. https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... you use to downmod bomb me like the BACKSTABBING "hiding" WEEZIL you are HIDING from me - you're a "not-man" punk.

    * You're the one CHASING ME AROUND stupid - no denying it here RIGHT NOW in the fact I have to reply to your LOSER ass OR here ALSO today https://science.slashdot.org/c... you psycho loon STALKING me & also you being a hypocrite too now!

    Seek Help? I don't NEED it!

    Why?? Dumb hypocrites like YOU make it easy for me to win - how?? YOU defeat YOURSELVES for me!

    APK

    P.S.=> You know you'll have to account for this don't you? Something bad is coming your way for your bullshit (it's called karma in REAL LIFE (not /.'s EASILY sockpuppet farmed & CHEATED kind) & what goes around, comes around)... apk

    1. Re:"ZIP" you're pathetic w/ proof hypocrite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Seek Help? I don't NEED it!

      You do need some help taking the next step... which should be off a cliff, tall building, or high bridge.

  37. c6gunner's impersonating me & lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: c6gunner's name on this post as submitter yet signed "APK" https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & he ran from a fair challenge I put to him https://linux.slashdot.org/com... after insulting me.

    * I never say hosts cure Spectre/Meltdown OR it'd be on the Start64.com download page & I do NO MacOS X one!

    I cut him to pieces for his lies:

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    https://developers.slashdot.or...

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    https://news.slashdot.org/comm...

    APK

    P.S.=> You say hosts = shit https://slashdot.org/comments.... ? /.ers & security pros + RESULTS say DIFFERENT:

    1st: /.ers https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments....

    2nd: SECURITY PROS https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    3rd: REAL RESULTS w/ hosts vs. threats https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    EAT YOUR WORDS

  38. Hey "ZIP" fraidycat? You did it to yourself... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

    * I must ask - WHY do you give me guff IF you're a coder?

    APK

    P.S.=> My hobby works & well - do you work for a competitor OR advertiser/webmaster (or ARE you one of them rather)? Malware makers/botnet herders wouldn't bother - inevitably, I'll drive THEM back to REALLY EASILY SINKHOLED IP addresses (that IS on the 'uptick' by the by in many botnets/malwares - easy for ICANN etc. to BLOCK off for good)... apk

  39. APK really is pathetic and here's proof by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    * I must ask - WHY do you give me guff IF you're a coder?

    Because you make claims that you can't back up. You know nothing about securtiy but claim expertise.

    See subject & you're a liar. You have such a fragile ego that I only have to make a few short posts to have you go on a multi-day rant.

    I hope people read this and walk away from your software. Because you are putting them at risk with your lax security and personal instability. We suspect you have no limit to the nasty tricks you'd put in your software to get even.

    ZIP

    P.S. => How fun is it entertaining everyone on /. at your own expense? We all are having a big laugh over here.

  40. But "ZIP" w/ a registered /. account? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "ZIP" w/ a registered /. acct? You're a BETTER PROGRAMMER (lol, not) https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

    * IF you're such a "better programmer" why HIDE from me?

    You've ZERO to show as a coder (OR "security pro" too, lol - & you said THAT to me? Please).

    You have an account on /. YET YOU DON'T USE IT POSTING MY WAY & HIDE FROM ME https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... (admitting you have a registered /. username account)?

    You're a WEEZIL is why.

    APK

    P.S.=> I know hosts aid good security - SECURITY PROS back me https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... vs. your HOT BLOWHARD AIR & so do REGISTERED /.ers (who aren't HIDING from me by anonymous posts like you