“Apple could be waiting for the release of Mac OS X Jaguar to tout its credentials for business customers. But Windows switchers appear to be raising the Mac flag already in the enterprise,” David Morgenstern writes for eWeek.
MacDailyNews Take: No need to wait for Mac OS X Jaguar, as it was released on August 23, 2002. We think he means Mac OS X “Leopard,” due in “spring 2007.”
Morgenstern continues, “Believe it or not, prior to the great PC purges of the middle 1990s, the Macintosh was an enterprise computer. It’s the truth. In bygone days, a good number of corporations and academic sites did all their desktop computing on the Mac, purchase orders were cut for thousands of Macs at a time, and Apple showed its stuff in booths at enterprise-centric shows such as DBExpo. Others had a mix of Macs and PCs. Of course, this was a time when a full-fledged GUI was a novelty to those used to a DOS prompt.”
“Despite its absence from that market for some 10 to 15 years, the Mac is making a comeback, starting with former Windows users now switching platforms. While this move often comes without the blessing of IT management, the trend has already started, according to some eWEEK readers,” Morgenstern writes.
“A technical engineer at Cisco, who declined attribution…, said Cisco’s IT department officially supports Windows, a version of Linux and Solaris. ‘However, if you start attending meetings in any conference room within any Cisco building, you would begin to question just how official things are. There is a growing group of individuals, from sales to engineering to marketing that have abandoned Windows for good,’ he said. He said while Macs are officially discouraged, Cisco often allows its employees to buy a Mac instead of leasing a PC. Employees present a special circumstance to support the purchase of a Mac” Morgenstern writes.
Morgenstern writes, “He said there were “visible productivity improvements” by Mac users over Windows users within organizations at the company. This was helping to drive switchers. ‘The advantages to engineering is especially great. PC users are getting frustrated with Mac users as many engineering call flows, architectural diagrams, etc. are being whipped up in no time with [The Omni Group’s] OmniGraffl.e [Microsoft Office] Visio is nowhere as fast to work with,’ he continued.”
“The common wisdom of a homogenous computing environment seems to be cracking… Open standards are seen as a benefit and a strategic goal within organizations. The Mac plays well with others,” Morgenstern writes. “So, perhaps Cisco shows how the Mac will recover its foothold in the enterprise. Not with a big splash of acceptance, but with the slow advance towards official support… And since some of the new Mac users are C-level executives, it will become increasingly tough for the IT department to keep saying ‘no.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Shinobi” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Computerworld: Apple’s ‘consumer’ Macs are enterprise-worthy – March 09, 2007
Computerworld: Apple’s Mac OS X an ideal platform for SMBs – March 01, 2007
Apple Mac begins to catch on with corporate IT – February 28, 2007
New IBM software to help business to offer employees the choice of running Apple Macs – February 12, 2007
Gartner: Growth of Mac desktops in enterprise to hinder Linux more than Windows – January 02, 2007
Computerworld: Enterprise decision-makers should consider migrating to Mac OS X and Apple hardware – December 21, 2006
Apple’s Mac means business – December 18, 2006
Hands on: Parallels Desktop for Mac in a business setting – December 10, 2006
InfoWorld: Apple’s Mac OS X platform deserves good, hard look by enterprise – September 22, 2006
Prejudice keeps Apple Mac out of the enterprise – September 01, 2006
Boot Camp: Apple’s Trojan horse into the enterprise market? – April 05, 2006
Embrace and extinguish baby. :()
Cisco is using XServe and XServe RAIDs exclusively for their mail system. I don’t know what email server they are using, but pound for pound if you want storage that is not homebrew, XServe RAIDs are the cheapest thing you can get – and so Cisco uses them. They switched about 3 years ago…
if i find out more about the specifics, i’ll let you know.
but Cisco is very Mac friendly, as they are Linux friendly, as they should be. There’s no call in 2007 to be retarded enouhg to believe that Microsoft can provide everything to everyone… that’s so 90s. Being platform agnostic also helps any company to be more secure (no single virus/problem can take out every single computer in the enterprise) and it also makes a copmany lighter on its feet.
i’ve always said – the reason for single platform support from IT isn’t that its cheaper, its that it allows the IT geeks to be lazier – they don’t have to learn anything.. they just click and poke at Windows settings, and eventually can sorta get you there.
Any IT geek that says “i only do windows” means that if you can do linux, Mac and Windows – like me – you’re 3 times smarter than your retarded IT person.
It really IS beginning to happen.
From the top down…
As they say, this is “TEH ROXXORS”.
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A real Mac virus, eh? Mac OS X is a virus in IT departments, attaching (embracing) IT functions and replacing (extinguishing) its Windows’ counterparts. How long is it until game over time?
Thanks David. david@writerdog.com
Wow, this guy is a rube. “…absence from that market for some 10 to 15 years” Yeah, David, it was crazy how there were NO MACS for 15 years. Where did they all go? Sad times, I tell ya.
This is the typical MCSE drone in action. So myopic in their Persistent Windows State that they can be nothing but flabbergasted when they finally look up from their DLLs and notice that maybe the world does not, in fact, revolve around the shit-seller, race-to-the-bottom world of personal computing that they’ve massaged toward climax for the last decade of more.
And to hell with what IT officially supports. It’s 2007. If you can’t operate a computer well enough to stay out of trouble at the office, then you need to take a frikkin’ class. People should know how to work their systems vby now, and if you can’t figure it out, you MUST be using Windows anyway, so perhaps it’s time to end the cycle and get a machine that works.
I have just spent a glorious weekend with my new iMac 24, PS 10, and Lightroom. I love this machine, it’s a work of art. It’s the first machine I’ve had with Front Row, and I had no idea how ridiculously beautiful an entertainment interface could be. I love it. I spent half the night on friday just watching Nemo and playing with the menus. A PC using friend came over and was completely blown away by it. He couldn’t fathom that the whole machine was behind the monitor (he’s obviously never seen a current-generation iMac) and when he saw Front Row I thought his face was going to melt.
So, yes, David, The Conventional Wisdom is cracking. People are actually starting to demand more from electronics products. The era of the cheap, generic, passionless ‘tool’ is just about over. No one would buy a car built on such a philosophy, and very soon, no one will buy such a computer either.
-c
MW: ‘are’ (you ever going to shut up?)
Hey Chrissy? Don’t hold back. Tell us what you really feel about it
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…AND ANOTHER THING!!!
sorry, couldn’t resist. ;P
OmniGraffle does, in fact, rock…
Chrissy,
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I bet you’re fun to have around at parties ! ..
Windows Guy,
Mac Guy is making a play for the enterprise customer. Cancel or Allow?
<ANSWER: It doesn’t matter what Windows Guy says. Mac Guy is making headway. Microsoft is the new IBM. Yawn.>
Sounds like this ked is under 20 – at least!
@ChrissyOne
A glorious weekend with my new iMac? Work of art? Ridiculously beautiful entertainment interface?
Sounds more like a Windows Media PC to me. Apple is clearly <strike>stealing</strike> influenced by Microsoft and you fell for it hook, line and sinker. Wait until Microsoft rules the entertainment landscape and bridges computers to home entertainment. What are you going to do with your little iMac then? My Windows Media PC costs less, and I can configure it any way I want rather than Apple shove its proprietary toys down my throat. And I can play games. Games!
And don’t get me started on works of art. Us Windows enthusiasts know art. You namby-pamby Mac losers can find it here:
Cool. Who wouldn’t be proud to show off this sucker on your desk at home or at the office?
The Wow is Now.
“Apple could be waiting for the release of Mac OS X Jaguar to tout its credentials for business customers.”
Doesn’t anyone edit their work any more? Hello, fact check?!?!?!
Omnigroup make some great products. They totally take advantage of the Mac GUI. And they got Oni working on OSX without that buggy mouse issue.
Here’s to future Omni products. Keep em coming.
S
“So myopic in their Persistent Windows State that they can be nothing but flabbergasted when they finally look up from their DLLs and notice that maybe the world does not, in fact, revolve around the shit-seller, race-to-the-bottom world of personal computing that they’ve massaged toward climax for the last decade of more.”
The best sentence in an MDN post in a long time! Not quite up to William Faulkner standards, but you are getting there, Chrissy.
Also, that part about “massaged toward climax” got me kinda hot!
@ zune tang
zune tang how you define a work of art?i guess a work of art is made by someone with skills,but a dell in flames at my office or enterprise is very stupid,a imac in the enterprises makes a more calm ambient and the workflow puts ppl with pleasure to do more than one work at the witch is very good to do that more than twice a week.
the Wow at M$ was starting yesterday.
Welcome back, ironic dude!! You crack me up.
Jake
Funniest. Zune. Tang. post. EVER.
@ Cubert
Thanks, I have to admit I was kinda proud of that one. =)
@ Zune Tang
The gag is wearing thin.
-c
Welcome back Zune Tang (I think). You’ll find that there’s been no increase in the proportion of MDN readers who get satire.
Please try to keep it a little more subtle this time around. And infrequent.
Loved the picture, by the way. Gotta admit, that was good.
Zune Tang is an artist!
Is it possible that Zune Tang will be the next Andy Warhol? His performances on MDN are certainly worthy of the title “modern performance art”.
I just want you to know, Zooney, that I appreciate the sophistication of your craft!
Just wait till OS Xi Big Pussy for Office!
Gag?