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 ...
OK. So "those people" are 80% of your customer base, and you're ready to translate that directly into what works in a corporate environment.
Um, I think you wandered away from the conversational thread. I said that large companies would have to decide on their own, on a case by case basis, if it was worth it to them and what if any benefits they would see. Here is a quote of what I said about small to medium businesses:
“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 do not have Windows domains. They do not want Windows domains. Most cannot afford Windows domains.
Yes. In most small companies I've seen, people have their own computers and don't use other peoples' machines. They will typically have only one account with Admin privileges if it's a small company, or one or two accounts for general users and an Admin account controlled by the IT shop if it's bigger or better run. It's only when you get to medium-sized to large businesses, say 50-100 machines, that you routinely find domain controllers and roaming user profiles.
Great numbers of machines have only one account with Admin privileges and automatic login.
-ccm
Oh, forgot to mention: Windows Server 2003R2 SBS is a SICK joke for those poor people it gets played on. (Haven’t had time to eval Server 08, so I haven’t commented on it.)
He didn’t believe me. Maybe he’ll believe you...
And, of course, the headaches those people can have (and pass on to their IT consultant) are absolutely incredible. :P
I understand there’s a lot of small networks out there like that. I just don’t buy that those networks and the management costs of changing them over to this “Windows-on-Mac” model can be extrapolated to make assumptions about how it will work on a network of thousands of machines, with corporate security requirements.
I don’t think anyone’s said anything about that being an automatically good idea here. I came closest and I said that large companies would have to evaluate and see if it would work for them.
Everyone here’s been saying that small and medium business is another case entirely, though.
What posessed you to forget that? And why is that important?
Forgot to mention = hit post too f-ing fast.
And it’s important in that it’s a contributory reason why Windows domains don’t show up in the small and medium business space.
No, that is not the case. Apple certainly did not "need" an infusion of cash from Microsoft. That is the rumor that Microsoft started spreading several years after the event perhaps to save face.
Apple had almost 1.5 billion dollars in cash in the bank when Microsoft bought $150,000,000 in preferred stock as part of a lawsuit settlement that essentially Apple won. MS was required to license certain software patents from Apple for a minimum five years, purchase the preferred stock in lieu of a cash payment, and continue producing and developing MS Office for Mac for another 5 years for undisclosed yearly payments while Apple was allowed to license a few software patents from MS in perpetuity at no cost.
For Apple's part of the settlement agreement, they agreed to make Internet Explorer the default browser on their computers (but they could continue bundling Netscape Communicator in every new Mac as well), issue some paper in exchange for the $150,000,000 (which cost them nothing), and bundle trial versions of MS Office for Mac with every new Mac for a period of five years.
Microsoft sold the preferred stock on the open market about three years later for a substantial profit. They retain none of it today.
Most Macs users don't install Windows... but it is available if they need to.
I consider a Workgroup shop with few enough PCs to have their tech support outsourced to Geed Squad to be on the low end of “small”. That model falls apart well before you get to “medium”, IMHO.
How many computers do you consider a "large" network?
Geek Squad has been marketing themselves to organizations with 100+ computers of late. Just FYI.
100+ workstations is about where I make my breakpoint for “large”.
For network administration, or physical infrastructure?
Both.
Put it to you this way. If it’s starting to look like a blanket open-ended site license for Office or Windows is a cheaper option, you’re probably in the “large” company or organization class.
And you believe that in shops of 50-100 workstations it's the general rule that they run their networks without any domain security?
Around 75 or so is when they really start noticing that, but yes.
I’ve walked in on entirely too many 50+ Windows workstation sites in the course of contracts where there was no domain server at ALL. (I do contracting as well as straight up consulting.)
Most small businesses I have worked with use peer-to-peer networking. Before I arrived on the scene, most of the machines were running at administrator level, did not have passwords (or if they did, at least one machine's password, if not all of them, was "password," the network name was usually "workgroup," and they had no idea what a firewall was. If they had a hardware router, the router administrator name was "admin" and the password was also "admin."
The usual reason I was called in was because the computers were running slower than molasses in January, often took a half hour to finish booting and then were almost unusable, and the browser home page was something you would not want your children to see...
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