“Auto Warehousing Co. CIO Dale Frantz says his decision to go from a Windows shop to one powered by Apple [Mac] is based on time and labor spent maintaining Windows,” Larry Dignan blogs for ZDNet.
Dignan reports, “I emailed Frantz to get some more color on his decision. Without offering specific return targets he did tie up a the loose ends. Instead of interpreting his remarks and paraphrasing I thought it was best to let him tell it.”
We did a study to analyze the actual cost of “Windows” maintenance and support… When the analysis was complete, the results were unbelievable – simply unbelievable how much time, effort and money we were investing into the care and feeding of Windows on a PC. When you add that internal support cost into the ROI calculation for Macs the results were undeniable.
We found the true cost to support a single PC in the shop environment to greatly outweigh the minimal difference in hardware/software cost between a Mac and PC with Vista. It is our belief that we will achieve a significant savings with this move to Macs on the shop floor, as well as increase system reliability and user satisfaction.
Much more in the full article here.
@jay:
“SQL Server only runs on various versions of Doze.”
True, but they don’t need to run the SQL Server client under Windows on the client if they are running a Java based app. All database functions would occur on the server and all clients could be OS X based.
hmmm–my post regarding the timeliness of this news seems to have ‘poofed’
@Jay:
“There are no plans to move away from Microsoft SQL Server, only to rewrite the client app in Java.”
I concede the point that they are staying on MS servers. What about the rest of the client machines? The client machines will make up the bulk of the operating systems that are in use. Rewriting the client app in Java would imply that they are in fact trying to be able to run the client app on other platforms. It makes no sense to rewrite the client app and continue running on Windows in a virtual environment. They will run it natively, unless I am missing something. If so, please let me know where they say otherwise.
Maybe this is somewhat a case of wait and see? I’ll admit the real possibility exists that I don’t fully understand the article, as my background is hardware, not so much the software side.
For now, I just don’t see a smoking gun for OS X down the road here; however I appreciate the clarifications following my posts.
Oh yeah Digg really makes a difference for the 5 people that use that site..
At work I have a PC with XP. I used to have PC’s at home but I switched to OS X about 6 months ago. Here are some examples of things that don’t work right on my PC. Now mind you, I have 15+ years experience building and fixing PCs.
1. If Internet Explorer is open, I have several programs that will not launch. Try and fix that problem.
2.If my logitech connect utility is running in the background, then my stamps.com program won’t work. Again, just try and figure out why and what the connection is.
3. Adobe acrobat prof 8 doesn’t work right on my pc. I have latest update of software and yet the program constantly freezes up. Reason: The logitech mouse. So, I have second mouse plugged in that isn’t wireless when I want to use Acrobat pro 8.
4. Other weird shit: when spysweeper is updating itself, everything on my system crawls to a halt.
5. Other random BS too numerous to list here.
The boss has graciously allowed me to get a Mac for work. I think I will wait for the next model coming in August.
This story is entirely true. Just a VERY small sampling of what is wrong with the Windows environment.
@Jay,
It is clear that it is the “care and feeding of Windows” that is the impetus for change. Running XP on Macs wouldn’t change a thing. Of course they are switching to OS X as part of the process, not just Macs.
@ Quevar
“What about the rest of the client machines?”
Good question. Apparently:
“it will take 12 to 18 months to rewrite the VIPS client software to run on Macintosh machines, and Frantz doesn’t want to delay the cost savings and efficiency enhancements tied to the migration to Apple hardware. So in the interim, AWC will continue to run VIPS on Windows using software from Renton, Wash.-based Parallels Inc. that lets Macs run Windows applications in a virtual environment.”
This is from Computerworld. Computerworld has run several stories on this move. ZDNet are late to the game. See especially:
Mac Attack! An enterprise PC shop switches to Apple:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=298043
and
Editorial: Tale of an IT Hero:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=298572
This has come about partly because of “Microsoft’s extremely poor judgment in selecting AWC as a target in a software-licensing intimidation campaign”.
More fool them. Now AWC has looked into it and found there are solutions that are both better and cheaper and that don’t expose a company to sole reliance on the bully-boy of the industry.
Jay: Nowhere does it say this company is switching from Doze to OS X. They are only switching from PC hardware to Apple hardware, NOT moving away from XP, now or as far as I can see, ever.They plainly state thet are staying in the Doze environment.
Uh, it’s a read between the lines thing.
You’re right in a few things. For example, they have some custom software which is being rewritten in Java so that “it can run on the front end on Apple Macs.” In the meantime, they will be running Windows on their Macs via Parallels.
So, yes, they will be using Mac OS X (otherwise, why would they be running Parallels?).
@ Zune Tang
and Rosey thanks you very much….
@whatever
“Oh yeah Digg really makes a difference for the 5 people that use that site..”
huh? Last I heard digg.com is one of the most popular sites out there… I just submitted the story to help spread the word.
I switched to Mac from an Amiga, in 1991 (Quadra), Mac has been born again (Mr Jobs infusion) it has only made my experience all the more satisfying
Now we know that they know what we have know all the time…
Since your business systems no longer runs on the OS you stop billing or collecting money from clients. Eventually you start having to fire people because you have no cashflow. You have to maintain less systems, so IT costs drop and you can fire some IT people. Eventually after a few rounds of layoffs, you shut your company’s doors and your IT costs have reached the magic number, $0. A move to Apple really does save IT costs!
@HowItWorks
WOW, where can I get some of the drugs you’re using???!!!????!!!!
Oh, I see, they can only be ordered online from a windoze pc 🙁
@HowItWorks
WOW, where can I get some of the drugs you’re using???!!!????!!!!
Oh, I see, they can only be ordered online from a windoze pc 🙁
@HowItWorks
WOW, where can I get some of the drugs you’re using???!!!????!!!!
Oh, I see, they can only be ordered online from a windoze pc 🙁
@HowItWorks
WOW, where can I get some of the drugs you’re using???!!!????!!!!
Oh, I see, they can only be ordered online from a windoze pc 🙁
@anthony007
They said that the most annoying non-smokers are ex-smokers…
1. Firefox or Opera?
2. Their recent drivers suck big time, you should check their support forum, I use the previous version (3.30).
3. Just uninstall the goddamn ’50MB’ mouse drivers, you won’t die just because you can’t use the 9th mouse button.
4. Use spybot or Window defender?
5. Maybe reformat the computer and try to spot the culprit by installing and testing your softwares one by one?
—
My Network Engineer skill’s is way above me. But his computer is crawling like snail the most time.
Reason? Since he is a genius, and geniuses like to make things complicated, he installed gazillionth of those freeware networking tools and apply a lot of those system tweaks scattering on the net to to ‘enhance his productivity’ which in turns backfired on him.
Solution: reformat the computer, and stick with the most important apps. (no more shaddy freeware apps or tweaks)
Sorry double post,
FYI: I’m a switcher too, And I really love my mac. To the point of not turn my fully performing Vista box except if it is really urgent.
But I don’t think that your reasons are strong enough for expert like you (there are solutions or at least workarounds for them), except for the fact that they had traumatized you. (Trauma is a big nullifier for any reasoning)
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