Mac Switchers Ping!
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Posted on 03/27/2009 9:20:42 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Everyone knows creative types love their Macs, but a new breed of Mac enthusiasts is emerging in the most unlikely place.
— CIO — At Simply RFiD, a half-dozen software developers yearned for Macs at work. They liked the power and reliability of the Apple machines. Oddly, Simply RFiD made the switch to Mac Pros for its developers to write code for Windows computers.
"We're small and don't want to deal with tech support issues, and that's what Windows has become," says Carl Brown, a software engineer and president of Simply RFiD, which helps companies use radio frequency identification technology. "The only reason why we even run Windows is because we're a Windows developer."
[ Not just the creative types but even IT pros are demanding Macs. | In another twist, iMacs are a good bang for the buck, reports CIO. ]
Let's face it: Techies love great technology, and so it's no surprise that some Windows developers prefer working on Macs, which are considered by many to be the best desktop computers on the market today. Microsoft, on the other hand, is still trying to cover up its Vista black eye. For many techies, the much maligned Vista operating system has become a symbol of backward innovation.
Macs have made giant strides in the enterprise in recent years, thanks to Vista's woes, Apple's move to the Intel platform and emerging trends such as desktop virtualization and software-as-a-service that make it easier to access applications using a non-Windows computer. All have helped kick open the corporate doors to Macs. Last year, the Yankee Group surveyed 750 senior IT executives and found that nearly 80 percent have Macs in their environment, up from 47 percent in 2006.
"We wanted to use Macs exclusively five years ago, but it wasn't feasible because there were just too many Windows applications that had to run on a PC," Brown says. "We all had Windows PCs at work and Macs at home but couldn't justify the Mac as our main PC. With Intel boxes, virtualization and SaaS, now you can."
Windows geeks wanting Macs? Most Apple enterprise enthusiasts come from creative and sales ranks, such as marketing departments and iPhone-toting execs. "I don't think we'd ever entertain rolling out Macs unless there was some kind of creative or digital component," says Michael Iacona, CIO of TMP Worldwide Advertising and Communications. "They are much more expensive" and harder to manage.
Yet there are signs that techies want their Macs, too. At Simply RFiD, .Net developers run Visual Studio in a VMware virtualization machine on a Mac Pro—a very stable and fast platform for programmers. In fact, Brown contends that VMware on a Mac Pro runs Windows better than Windows runs Windows.
Moreover, with a click of the mouse, software developers can instantly flip to the Mac OS. They can quickly open up iChat videoconferencing or tap into one of many Internet services that Simply RFiD uses, such as Google Apps for email and collaboration and Netsuite for back office functions. It helps that Macs are known for their easy interaction with Internet-based services.
Simply RFiD engineers aren't alone in their affection for the Mac. Other IT pros are demanding Macs, often spurred by an appreciation of Apple's reputable hardware and zest for technological innovation. The fact that Mac OS X is Unix-based also means many developers feel at home.
Unbreakable Windows!
Software developers, though, can be a fickle lot. For instance, Brown spent the last two days hooking up a fully patched $500 Vista machine to a $2,000 Apple monitor to see what would happen. There were a lot of annoying prompts, he says, but the system worked well enough.
So well, in fact, that his team got together to discuss the latest Windows trends—and buzz started swirling about bringing PCs back. Microsoft's Live platform, along with its shared server for small or large organizations, "looks pretty cool," Brown says. He's also encouraged by new Microsoft products that are smaller rather than bigger, a sign Microsoft is moving away from traditionally massive, monolithic applications that requre two days to patch.
"We've been watching what [Ray Ozzie, chief software architect] has done there the last few years," says Brown, "and it's kind of exciting to see that Microsoft might have a soul again."
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Nope... they are coding in the Mac environment and testing on a virtual Windows machine on the same Mac. In addition, replacing an infected or hosed Windows installation is as easy as replacing a single file with a clean backup... mere seconds.
If this is a hardware pitch only, what about the fact that an Apple is 50-100% more than the equivalent Dell machine, which from what I understand is a pretty reliable computer.
It isn't. If you truly compare equivalent machines, processor, graphjics, sound, bus speed, equipment, software, etc., the Mac is often competitive or even less expensive than the name brand PCs.
I use a computer I built myself and (free) Ubuntu.
P.S.Mac hardware is no more reliable than my hardware.
You get what you pay for.
People are running their development environment in a virtual machine because it makes sense on a lot of levels; it's easier to stage and restage, to keep consistent across the network, and to run multiple VMs at the same time.
Once you've decided to use virtualization, the Mac has the same advantages it does for anything else: Ease of use, consistency of user interface, robust hardware and lower TCO.
“I use a computer I built myself and (free) Ubuntu.”
I am IT for our small company. I run our business websites and database (100,000 records) on a Fedora machine where the hardware cost $175. Mysql, Apache, Netbeans, PHP, Linux, Open Office, Gimp. Big savings and solid as a rock. Neener, Neener, Neener Microsoft.
Here is an example. (Better Specs in red):
Dell XPS1 20"
E4500 2.2GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz bus, Intel® Core2Duo processor
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive 7200RPM.
8X Slot load CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
Integrated Intel® UMA5 graphics - shared DDR2 memory
Widescreen 20" High Definition: WSXGA (1680x1050) resolution at 16.7 million colors, Integrated camera/mic, Viewing Angle up to 80 degrees
$799
Apple 20" iMac
E8200 2.66GHz , 6MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz bus, Intel® Core2Duo processor
2GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz
320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive, 7200RPM.
8X Slot load CD/DVD Double Layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple OS X.5 Leopard full feature.
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of shared DDR3 memory
Widescreen 20" High Definition: WSXGA (1680x1050) resolution at 16.7 million colors, Integrated camera/mic, Viewing Angle up to 160 degrees
$1199
That you would have to run in a Virtual Machine... however, it could be transparent to the OS if you ran Parallels or VMWare's Fusion.
“...geeks...techies”...going from Windows to Apple? ROFL!
Someday, most of the machines connected to the Internet will go down just before an attack from a foreign enemy. After that exchange, the average IQ of Internet users will skyrocket.
(raising hand)
Guilty.
We are now using Macs at home to connect to our office via a Citrix server. It works noticeably faster and with better stability than running the app natively on the XP boxes in the office. I will never own another Windows computer as long as I live.
if your windows software development team is unable to keep their machines from getting infected with viruses...
maybe it’s time to find a new dev team, not buy new macs
I’m with you. We run Red Hat at work, with full support, mostly open-source tools. Our CM, source control, and Intel C++ compiler are licensed. At home I use Ubuntu. I’ve been a personal MS free zone for about 4 years now. Wife and oldest child just switched to MacBooks rather than go to Vista. I’m writing this on the newest computer in the house - an Asus netbook running a variant of Linux. MS - just some software that used to frustrate me. :-)
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