“The reasons for companies to switch from Windows to Mac OS X are as personal, or unique, as is any shift in religion. For some companies, the motivation is to move away from Windows. Others are influenced by their end users’ desire for the style and functionality of the Macintosh environment. But whatever the reason for the migration, the attraction must be backed by serious number-crunching and by common sense,” Lisa Nadile reports for CIO.
“This isn’t an article about the reasons to adopt Macintoshes in an enterprise setting. We assume that you’ve already decided to do so, whether because of company IT policy or user pressure. The issue, instead, is to make the transition as seamless as possible: to bring the new systems into sync with your existing IT infrastructure, to choose appropriate applications and to cope with always-finite budgets. If you are about to make a jump to Mac OS X, either partially or in toto, people who have been there have some advice,” Nadile reports.
Nadile reports, “Companies should be open to applications from smaller companies when developing their application parity plan, advises Thomas Larkin, network technician for Olathe District Schools in Olathe, Kansas. ‘The open-source community is a great resource for applications, and the user community can pretty much answer any questions out there,’ he says.”
“Executives should be looking for data compatibility when looking for applications on the Mac OS X platform, rather than looking for all the same software, says Jeremy Reichman, senior desktop systems engineer for the Rochester Institute of Technology. Reichman helps support about 15,000 students and 3,300 staff, 17 percent of whom use Macs,” Nadile reports.
Nadile reports, “Apple has its own Open Directory architecture. It can work in concert with Active Directory to provide features that Active Directory does not specifically make available to Mac OS X clients, according to Reichman.”
“Wilkes University decided to switch its 1,700 computers completely to Macs, phasing in Mac Intel-based systems over the next three years. Key to the plan is to use Boot Camp to support Windows users who may be reluctant to switch. Students and staff will soon be able to sit down in front of just about any computer on campus and choose which operating system they wish to use,” Nadile reports.
Much more in the full article here.
No MDN take ?
“the attraction must be backed by serious number-crunching and by common sense”
Switching to Macs is common sense
Now this is real news for education.
In doing this the students will get the best Open experience we can give them.
Way to go.
The article makes it sound more like ‘Putting up with Macs in the Enterprise….’
Strange how the statement ‘…Macs require a greater density of field associates’ is at odds with the more *generally accepted* view that it is the opposite. As it suggested, those darn ‘creatives’ have a lot to answer for!
“We assume that you’ve already decided to do so, whether because of company IT policy or user pressure.”
I love that line
http://mytop-in.net/go/030207160042.html
http://www.topping.com.ua/go/030207160042.html
/
x
“Students and staff will soon be able to sit down in front of just about any computer on campus and choose which operating system they wish to use”
Hello, Apple! Major selling point for the education market here.
And, xxxxxx, would you just stop!
The article is not as positive as it seems… Drhufufur’s comments are more accurate. What is more interesting is to read the CIO commentary that follows the article. There you find people who have really done what the author merely theorizes about. There take is much more positive.
MDN magic word: reason
>And, xxxxxx, would you just stop!<
Yeah thats gotta be DLMeyer posting as xxxxx.
You know how HE just cant resist spamming !
Turn off Java, y’all.
“Reichman helps support about 15,000 students and 3,300 staff, 17 percent of whom use Macs,””
Some of the regular posters on here were earlier bemoaning the complaints from gamers that wanted to see the Mac as a viable front line gaming computer. It’s not right now and while the Mac does get some of the more popular games, many never make it others get here but are very tardy and Windows gamers have already moved on from some games by the time they get to the Mac, or expansions for games never make it, or sometimes ports aren’t very skillfully done.. etc.
Bottom line, Macs are 2nd class citizens for games..
“stop playing games on computer go outside get a life” was the battle cry from Busting Skulls, and various others..
NOTE SOMETHING that I quoted above ^^
17% of students use Macs.
That’s students, as in the future of computing. That means future Mac marketshare, that means more software and hardware that could be compatible with Macs but won’t be because of lack of marketshare..
You want students to be higher than 17%? You want 50% or more of the future of computing?
Games.
I rest. My. Case.
Those of you saying “get a life” come up with a coherent counterpoint to that, or forever STFU about “get a life and stop playing games on computers”
Thank you.
Also, I should add that another huge thing Apple needs to do to get some Marketshare is release iChat for Windows so that Mac users can talk to their windows friends using high quality video chat. It doesn’t need feature parity, but there needs to be a way to get it to work seamlessly at least for audio and video.
Plus iChat should be able to be expanded beyond AOL chat space. MSN, Yahoo, etc, should be able to work with iChat directly or through some forms of expandability or plug ins.
Games and communication is how Apple can capture more of the youth over from the Dark Side, and the more students they can grab, the more of the future of the Market they can grab.
head:
“Yeah thats gotta be DLMeyer posting as xxxxx.
You know how HE just cant resist spamming !”
DLMeyer posts relevant, on-topic points that are well written, coherent, and intelligent.
Your post here is an example of spamming, as you’ve made the point before, making it redundant on top of being off topic, irrelevant, and also wrong, since xxxx posted links without any context or post to go along with the links, DLMeyer never posts a link to his website without a written post to go with it.
@twilightmoon@mac.com
Admittedly, Apple has some catching up to do in the games department. But this article is about Mac integration into IT of businesses, most of whom, I assume, will not want a sizable number of personnel wasting valuable company time playing games.
Gamers: say whatever you want (stfu, whatever) to us who live in the real world. Spend your educational years playing games if you want. But you will find out that your job at Mc
Donalds won’t pay you enough to buy the games, and you won’t be allowed to play computer games while you are building Big Macs.
I am a teacher, and two days ago had a student tell me with a straight face that he should not have to take a final test because he stayed up until 4 playing games on his computer. I would say this affects 20-25% of the students in high school.
So, do you think I have a high opinion of gamers?
“DLMeyer posts relevant, on-topic points that are well written, coherent, and intelligent.”
twighlightmoon is DLMeyer…
And I am zune tang…
@ kenh: Would you have felt better if your student had stayed up late watching TV or going out to see a movie or dancing, or hanging out with friends? Maybe we should just do away with all forms of recreation, would that make you feel better? Oh, and while we’re at it eliminate all printed books minus textbooks.
Let’s eliminate MDN too, as this site clearly does not help get any “real” work done.
@ Stab the Man: Read any of my posts, and read any of DLMeyers. If you still think we’re the same person based on our posting style, the things we each say, etc, then you’re welcome to your tin foil hat opinion. I don’t think an intelligent person would have any trouble differentiating between us tho.
twilight…
Did you just equate videogames with a SOCIAL LIFE?
You lost the argument right there. Socializing is important. If video games went away tomorrow the world would be a better place.
Mike is right, if video games went away tomorrow, socializing would be back!
Gamers don’t understand, they are locked in that bubble that they are afraid to come out of for fear of actually having to do something real. They live in a fantasy world by choice.
Hey, um, Twighlight?
Look beneath that post. See my next post? And if you think that one’s true, then I’ve got a pair of tin foil underwear, found one night on the streets of New York, I’d like to sell you. They hum when you wear them.
Really.
Oh. And I am Spartacus.
“Read any of my posts, and read any of DLMeyers. If you still think we’re the same person based on our posting style, the things we each say, etc, then you’re welcome to your tin foil hat opinion. I don’t think an intelligent person would have any trouble differentiating between us tho.”
“DLMeyer posts relevant, on-topic points that are well written, coherent, and intelligent.”
Yours must be the other ones.
And I’m dannilynn’s father. oh wait! Darn! Larry pulled the rugs out from underneath me… Can I be Zune Tang?:)
I have always wanted to be “the freak guy stuck in the 80’s” in taco bell commercial acting like hes a cool wigger
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@mike , kenh: “Mike is right, if video games went away tomorrow, socializing would be back!”
This reminds me of a Sat Night Live episode with William Shatner telling a bunch of “Trekkie” nerds to get a life, and asking if they ever kissed a girl??
I would never presume to want to make someone play a video game if they didn’t want to, I’m only saying Mac users should have the same choices as other PC users. I also mentioned chat services too like Yahoo and MSN, and making iChat PC compatible. So I’m obviously not against being social.