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I recently used iCal for the first time when I needed a project planner (I usually use Entourage). It served this purpose very well, and I thought I;d give the publish feature a whirl. WOW! Amazing! So asy to use, and the web-based interface is excellent. There's a bug in showing to-dos online, however -- as in IT CAN'T. Really really nice stuff, though, and it's just another example of how great it is to use a Mac.
 
So, why are there not more Mac users?

1) most department purchases are made by bean counters. You can get a P4 box for under $1500, and usually under $1000.

2) because of the nature of business, most companies need "standards", just like MS gives.

3) since companies are running Windblows at work, most people use what they are familiar with at home.

4) many school boards buy windows because the box prices are lower.

5) because the world is mostly PC, many "specialty" programmes run on Intel boxes only. My mechanic for example, has to update his P1 75Mhz boxes this month, but must stick to a PC basis because the auto repair manuals are all PC only. Of course, no one buys a Mac because the software is not available. No one writes Mac software, because the installed client base is all Mac.
 
I just spent 2 days building 4 1U cluster rackmount machines for a client for his new render farm.

The building went fine but had a hell of a time with Windows 2000 on them. The built-in LAN on the board would not work.
Since I build a lot of Linux servers I thought I would give it a whirl just to see what it thought and low and behold everything went fine under RedHat 9.

The client says his render client does run on Linux but another runs only in Windows so eventually I did get the LAN working but only after chucking the CD-ROM instructions and figuring out an install procedure after some trial and error. 24 hours wasted trying to get Windows to see an asinine LAN chip.
I was cursing Windows the whole time.

Geez I really wish the IT people I encounter in my business would see just how stupid Windows can be. Man, Linux even saw the LAN and it worked the first time...
 
My sister just handed me her PC (again!!!) to fix. This happens about every 6 months. It was so virus laden and spyware full that I can't believe it would even boot. I re-installed windows and the software and set up the internet on it. God I can't believe the difference between mac and pc, it's been a little while since doing up a pc. The missing dlls, the "don't plug in the usb device before installing the software" dance, I found so many programs that couldn't be uninstalled because they took the program files and deleted them (a big no no on PC) which on a mac would normally be fine. Man. I hope Apple get's the lead out and promotes how great OS X is even more aggressively.
 
Please be nice to each other.

No need to have Mac is better than PC debates here or mine is bigger than yours type taunts.

Let's all be at peace with our platform and program choices to get our work and fun done. ;)
 
Pretty much everything you can do on a Mac, you can do on a PC. And vice versa. But that is with usability, cost and availability completely glossed over.

You can get something like iPhoto for a PC, but it costs you $50. Or get iMovie for a PC, but the comprable product costs $80. Or on a Mac get a video card, and see it is 5x the price of the same , but made for the PC. (They have to do something special with the Mac versions, but 5x the price is still outrageous.)

That said, has any read this opinion on MacDailyNews by SteveJack? It's titled Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness. (I find it more useful as really biased humor, rather then an actual report that you could use.)

People stick with what they know, no matter how bad it is. That and being a Mac IT guy means you lots and lots of time where nothing happens. The Macs just work.
 
Another reason why IT hates Mac might be this:
If you have standards based on Windows, there are relatively few users that need an exception granted to use a Mac. It seems at least reasonable that there would be many more exceptions granted allowing people to use PCs if Mac was the corporate standard. Reasons for granting such exceptions would be:
- interfacing with a customer that makes PCs
- Obscure proprietary software needed that has no Mac version
- In-house software which cannot be ported because the developers have left the company
- Large departmental investment in licenses for software that can be run on any Windows version but not on Mac. No budget for upgrades, never mind cross-grades.
These examples also highlight the inertia in the system.
The number of hardware purchase exceptions is probably one of the negative measures of the IT department's performance and/or security rating.

One more reason:
People like having multiple suppliers. eg. Apple has IBM and Motorola. You can always threaten to drop one supplier if the other one provides almost the same product. Since there are no Apple clones anymore, if you go with Apple you are very dependent on them. If you go with DELL you can always switch to IBM if they don't give you the prices you want. You don't even have to threaten to drop them altogether, just threaten to reduce their share of your business.

[ February 27, 2004, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: elmer ]
 
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