Posted on 04/12/2008 2:04:10 AM PDT by Swordmaker
A recent upgrade to the Mac operating system moves Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market
The 20-year death grip that Microsoft has held on the core of computing is finally weakening—pried loose with just two fingers. With one finger you press "Control" and with the other you press "right arrow." Instantly you switch from a Macintosh operating system (OS) to a Microsoft Windows OS. Then, with another two-finger press, you switch back again. So as you edit family pictures, you might use Mac's iPhoto. And when you want to access your corporate e-mail, you can switch back instantly to Microsoft Exchange.
This easy toggling on an Apple computer, enabled by a feature called Spaces, was but an interesting side note to last fall's upgrade of the Mac OS. But coupled with other recent developments, the stars are aligning in a very intriguing pattern. Apple's (AAPL) recent release of a tool kit for programmers to write applications for the iPhone will be followed by the June launch of iPhone 2.0, a software upgrade geared toward business users.
Taken together, these seemingly unrelated moves are taking the outline of a full-fledged strategy. Windows users, in the very near future, will be free to switch to Apple computers and mobile devices, drawn by a widening array of Mac software, without suffering the pain of giving up critical Windows-based applications right away. The easy virtualization of two radically different operating systems on a single desktop paves a classic migration path. Business users will be tempted. Apple is positioning itself to challenge Microsoft for overall computing dominance—even in the corporate realm.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
If you’re using standard components on your PC, the time is now. Full, hacked versions of the Mac OS are floating around on the net. But if you use cutting-edge graphics cards, weird network devices, etc., not everything will install correctly.
That’s something that can only be answered on a company by company basis.
On the other hand, small to medium businesses would be well advised to make the switch. Most don’t have a Windows domain or all the headaches and full time support staff that requires. They have workgroups of machines, and if they have to go to Vista and Office 07, they’re going to have to retrain everyone.
If you’re going to have to retrain everyone, why not move them over to a different platform while you’re at it?
Ok - please explain what you mean by a “PITA to get a MAC to properly join a Windows security domain”... I have had my little old iBook on several Windows networks with full access (just need the appropriate information). What am I missing?
That was only for a few years, basically the gap years where they had no Steve and no real direction for the company. And with good reason, Apple looked pretty seriously hosed for a while there, heck they even needed money from MS. But the years pre-Win95 and the years since OSX it’s been all about how Macs are gonna win (then it was OS2 for a bit, then Linux, then the press seemed to finally give up on predicting MS’s imminent demise, then OSX came out), and yet there’s really no solid indication of Macs really being in a position to win. Heck just look at this thread, most of the discussion is about how well Macs can run Windows, how does MS lose if most Mac machines install Windows even if it is just in VMs?
In a Windows security domain, both the user and the computer have an account in the domain. Creating a user account in the domain for you to log in with “joins” you to the domain. That’s pretty much all of the domain authentication you see happen, and it works pretty much the same on a Mac or a Windows PC. The domain account for the machine itself is the part that doesn’t work right.
You can do it today. The first step is you buy a PC with the Apple logo on it.
That’s odd — I was a kid in the early 80s. I was in a computer club at school. We always had information on programming the Apple II series. In fact, I believe the ‘OS’ was Apple BASIC.
And similarly, I remember using Object Pascal on the Macintosh. I was a PC/Commodore programmer in that era primarily however as a kid. By God, I loved the 80s. Ronaldus Magnus, and the birthing era of the PCs!
But anyway, I did note some irony in your post. Because today every Mac you buy comes with XCode and a full suite of developer tools on the OS X DVD. :)
I'm going to ask for proof that most small to medium businesses don't have a Windows domain. Even the ones that are only running on a single SBS server have a Windows domain.
I ran VPC for years and it is very dated technology. Have you run the latest Parallels or VMWare fusion. That said with MSFT budget they could easily fund an effort to clone the functionality of the leading VMs.
Personally, I think if MS continues their OS development along the lines they've started with the 2008 Server Core option, and tools like Powershell they'll do better.
“You’re half right. It wasn’t the developer aspect that gave Microsoft OS machines the edge because most consumers aren’t developers. It was simply that the price was hundreds of dollars less. Most first time computer consumers then thought “A computer is a computer is a computer” and thought that with the hundreds of dollars in savings they could buy all sorts of software, too. They entered upon the wide path and never knew anything different until relatively recently.”
Half right. MSFT cut deals with the systems suppliers which forced them to ship windows on all PCs if they wanted to ship windows on any PC. It c”ame with” and any alternative OS was an extra cost marginally supported option. Even IBM could not resist this deal of the century.
“Also, many of those web traffic stats rely on browser plugins that DO NOT INFECT a Mac or a properly locked down PC and are therefore suspicious.”
Plus I worked at one of these “research” companies and it is all bullshit. They all have agenda’s paid for by the vendors and the “stats” are built on “models”.
There are a lot of parallels to the Glowbull warming hoax. Agenda’s, bad science, marketing and profits.
I’m not talking about the OS.
IBM and Bill Gates pretty much invented that arrangement from the beginning.
“yet there’s really no solid indication of Macs really being in a position to win.”
Define win! I have no intention of driving the same kind of vehicle that most of the people around here drive. I drink Old Overholt. I like Shrub better than Junior!
Winning to me is a sustainable company delivering products I like. The hell with the majority.
No, I don’t mean the Mac version of VPC, I mean the *Windows* version they have.
It’s very interesting stuff.
Of my 100 or so small business customers, maybe 20 have a Windows domain (defined as having a domain server that’s adminning the domain). The rest just have peer workgroups and *maybe* a file server.
The problem is that in the business world, "sustainable company" and "The hell with the majority" can easily be mutually exclusive criteria.
Win is pretty obvious, win is unseat MS as the king of the hill, hit the 50%+1 mark, you know.. win.
Sustainable company is nice but all the articles are about how Mac is going to unseat Windows, and that’s what I’m talking about.
Okay. That's customers. Do the ones that have a Windows domain tend to have more machines and users than the one's who don't? How about your medium sized business customers?
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