“The VAR Guy has a confession to make. He recently dumped Windows for an Apple MacBook. It’s a stunning move for those who have followed his career. (OK, nobody follows his career other than his parents, but just humor him for this blog.) In the 1990s, The VAR Guy was a Windows NT fanatic, writing about the operating system for Windows Magazine. At the time he kept on calling for Apple to dump MacOS and instead deploy NT on PowerMacs,” The VAR Guy writes for TechIQ.
“Fast forward to 2006. Frustrated by Windows Vista delays and constant software fixes from Microsoft, The VAR Guy recently moved to a MacBook. He reasoned that the notebook can run MacOS or Windows or most any other major operating system for that matter,” The VAR Guy writes.
The VAR Guy writes, “But once he had the MacBook in hand he made a firm decision: The system would run Mac OS … and ONLY MacOS. “
“When Vista debuts, The VAR Guy may consider putting it on his Mac Book. But in the meantime, he doesn’t miss his daily battle with Windows viruses, bugs and spyware,” The VAR Guy writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “elMACho” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: See how it works? On the day that Apple released Boot Camp, April 05, 2006, we wrote in our MacDailyNews Take, “Welcome to ‘Embrace and extinguish,’ Apple-style. The war ain’t over, folks. It never was. Now, a new chapter begins and today’s shot will be heard around the world! Don’t you just love the smell of napalm in the morning? This doesn’t hurt Microsoft (yet), but it absolutely puts Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, etc. into a world of pain… As Windows-only users buy Macs that will provide them their ‘comfort’ of Windows, they will experience Mac OS X and use it for the excellent Mac-only applications. We all know what happens when people are given the chance to really use Macs for longer than five minutes, they usually want to buy a Mac. These new Apple Mac hardware users will start out using Windows more than Mac OS X and end up using Mac OS X exclusively. Watch and see.”
Related MacDailyNews articles:
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Development approaches of Mac OS X Leopard vs. Windows Vista yield very different results – August 15, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Apple’s Mac market share rises over 24-percent year-over-year – September 21, 2006
Apple Mac’s 2007 market share climb will dumbfound almost everyone, create mayhem in PC market – September 08, 2006
Apple gaining traction as Mac market share increases – July 31, 2006
Apple market share myths deconstructed – July 22, 2006
IDC: Apple Mac attained 4.8% U.S. market share in Q2 06 – July 19, 2006
Gartner: Apple Mac grabbed 4.6% U.S. market share in Q2 06 – July 19, 2006
‘Fantastic quarter’ helps Apple double share of U.S. retail notebook market to 12% – July 19, 2006
BusinessWeek: big market-share gains coming for Apple’s Macintosh – June 15, 2006
Analyst: Apple Mac market share primed to explode; iPod Halo Effect to become increasingly important – June 13, 2006
Analysts: Apple Mac market share to surge by end of 2006 – June 07, 2006
Analysts expect Apple’s new MacBook to drive market share gains in near future – May 17, 2006
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal: ‘to take back the computer business from Microsoft’ – June 16, 2005
OK, so now apple market share is 4.8934757423% .
Way to pat yourself on the back, MDN.
I’m kidding. You guys are alright
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The so called “Embrace and Extinguish” thing worked for me. 3 years ago I got a Powerbook at work on the basis that I loved the hardware, but I was a linux user so wanted to run that on it. When I got the machine I did a dual boot Mac/Linux thing, but after about a month I found I was not booting the thing into Linux any more. 3 years later I’ve gone from a Linux guy who built his own PCs, to someone who has 3 Macs at home and 1 at work
(+ MacBook Pro coming in November at work), and I know a lot of my friends who were linux users have gone the same way. Now its happening to Windows users too. Great.
Ah, the last strand of an argument by MS zombies…
It’s a long war…but in the end…quality will win. Apple HAD to lower the price (and in many cases they have) to match or beat Dell, just to satisfy the accountants at firms that buy computers. Business at the level of large computer manufacturers is all about strategy. Apple’s market share is growing beyond any question…but the real tipping point will come once they have successfully invaded the home entertainment market and people who buy the video express (aka iTV) will slowly replace their old desktop and laptop systems with new Apple products. There is nothing Dell, HP, or Toshiba or for that matter Microsoft can do about it. They can’t drop prices on gear..their margins are small already, they can’t run OS X, they can’t get past the need for legacy compatibility, they are stuck…and stuck badly.
Once the home users get a taste of better quality for the same price…and Apple introduces a truly industrial strength replacement for an Exchange Server it’s all over.
The B-Sabre doesn’t know about you, but The B-Sabre has a hard time taking seriously anybody that refers to themselves in the Third Person when they write. The B-Sabre thinks this gets pretentious real fast…
Oh, wait a minute…
When Apple released the iMac Core2Duo, I went to Fashion Valley in San Diego and get one. The store was very full of people and may of them walk away with their mac in their hands. Mac will be the most used computer in the world once again, but instead of been a monopoly of tyranny as Microsoft that never delivered a good working system and it never have the creativity and people to design good products, Apple has been always a great company with great designers and very great products. So come on Apple and make our days.
http://web.mac.com/dunkake/iWeb/Mac/Move.html
… another Ex-PC fanatic switches …
The Jim agrees with you B-Sabre, the Jim thinks talking about yourself in the third person is the stuff of fools.
The Jim is going to have a bagel.
Seriously, come on over the water is great…
pr,
Apple certainly needs to continue to become the home pc of choice, no doubt, but I still maintain that we’ll never see any dramatic increase in real market share for the Mac until it starts getting more attention and subsequent use in the enterprise workplace. Its precisely the reason why Windows is as prolific as it is – its a “real” industrial OS, proven by the fact that almost all companies use it, period.
I need to be able to go to work for a company and have them either give me a platform choice (yeah right), or a company that’s already using Macs. This will allow Mac users to stop having to be Mac evangelists and become Mac users. When the general public sees that they really do have a choice, not just what the IT person at their company tells them is ok, then things will change relatively fast, I think. When Macs are seen as a real business machine it will have the single most profound impact on the number of actual Mac users over a given short period of time.
Apple ought to sponsor a national coming out day for former PeeCee users who have made the switch. Come on out of the closet people.
For those people who say there is no software for Mac, check out the freeware at:
web.mac.com/simon_elliott
Thanks to all the MacDailyNews users who suggested contributions.
Simon
Yes, and way to go, congradulations. But I would still prefer to extinguish something and THEN embrace it…
To: The “Vista Aint Right” Guy
Welcome to Macintosh!!!
As the old song goes:
“How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm
once they’ve seen Paris?”
The VAR Guy writes: “In the 1990s, The VAR Guy was a Windows NT fanatic, writing about the operating system for Windows Magazine. At the time he kept on calling for Apple to dump MacOS and instead deploy NT on PowerMacs”
Rainy Day’s Take: The VAR Guy did a lot of acid in the 90’s.
Serious question here. Has anyone, anywhere, done actual research into how much more cost effective a Mac network can be to run vs. a Microsoft one? I mean, nearly the same number of users, similar hardware, similar tasks, etc? If one of you could point me to that, it would make my day and help my crusade to put Macs back in my school district.
Yes, back in the mid 90’s we did such research in our own company, (the one I was working for at the time). The info is probably outdated and not much relavent anymore – except that we found that using Macs was very slightly more expensive at initial purchase, and that initial purchase expense was evened out within 3 months, usually less, as compared to Compaq computers which were the building standard of running Windows.
I can tell you now that, at the company I work for now, after the initial purchase price, it doesn’t cost them anything to run the Macs because 2 of us, one in graphics and one in editing, do all of the installing, training and support, and ongoing maintenance/upgrading – and still get our regular work load done.
Its not totally cool because time is time and quotas are quotas, but its possible. Two of us just finished installing an XSAN work group with no prior experience. I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint of heart, but with proper reading and research its totally possible.
Anyway, bottom line is, its not costing this company anything to operate it’s Macs. We currently use about 15 Macintosh computers (that will be 20 when our order of 5 MacPros is filled). In all candor, I do wish our IT people would help support because we’re reaching a kind of critical mass based around number of supporters versus number of installed machines. But it goes to show, maybe, what’s possible.
Bibliotech, the example of Macs used in the Isle of Man ( midway between England and Ireland ) is an excellent example of what can be achieved in education.
http://www.tes.co.uk/2221595
Read how just one manager and two technicians support 3,900 Macs, 115 servers, 40 networks and 300 WiFi access points spread right across the Island.
Apple also used to feature a longer version of this story on their web site, but I’m not sure if it’s still there.
The island is approximately 30 miles by 20. It’s often pointed out that it’s more than three times the size of Washington, DC
This is what you want, Winn Schwartau – Mac TCO half that of Windows
http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/06/0914235
or
http://www.networkworld.com/best/2006/022706bestbreaker-schwartau.html?page=1
There is a pdf and an excel spreadsheet on this link:
http://securityawareness.blogspot.com/2005/09/mad-as-hell-finale-recommendations-and.html
Thanks, guys. I will try to use these to good advantage. I had seen Winn’s TCO report, and it is pretty thorough.
I still would love to see someone actually do a serious, long-range study comparing two or more nearly identical businesses or school systems which would, once and for all, prove the efficacy and cost efficiency of Apple’s enterpise-ware. Anyone out there in a position to do such a study, please, post it here.
Let’s not start sucking each others dicks just yet.
With all of this embrace and extinguish talk and back slapping you’d think we were winning the war.
Why is no one mentioning the fact that Mac market share has actually gone down a bit this year. It has gone from 4% to something like 3.79%.
Seems like for every VAR Guy we get we loose 2 others…
BTW, the first sentence is from a movie…a very good movie indeed.
“K, so now apple market share is 4.8934757423% .”
Well, you have to remember that the MORONS of the world far outnumber those with the ability to think for themselves.
Just give them time though. The average Joe may be slow on the uptake, but they eventually get the message. You just have to wait for the “tipping point” to occur.
The moment when the herd stops its frenzied race towards the cliff edge and turns towards safer grazing areas. ;o)
I would say that this tipping point is within view now.
Jerry T
Yes, of course, we all know that quote from Pulp Fiction.. there was really no need to point it out.
Splitter!