informit.com — Macs have never been considered business machines and yet record numbers of small and mid-size businesses are running on Mac OS X today. Ryan Faas illustrates why the idea that Macs aren't up to the needs of business computing is indeed a myth by pointing out top business tools that exist for Mac users.
Apr 20, 2007 View in Crawl 4
combatchuckApr 21, 2007
I LIKE CHEESE.
yoshokunApr 21, 2007
While I am a fan of Apple, I think that article illustrates the biggest failure of Apple in business - no notable enterprise tools. Apple Remote Desktop is a great tool, don't get me wrong, but the plethora of network admin tools that are available for Windows overwhelmingly out-shadows the handful of apps available for the Mac enterprise admin.One could argue that a Mac network wouldn't require as many tools, and I would agree, but the fact of the matter is that Active Directory is still the best game in town with the competition at a distant second (sorry OpenLDAP).All this article proves is that Mac is great for the < 50 employee small business types needing generic tools and the noticeable lack of enterprise tools only further highlights the fact that they don't exist.
ilobmirtApr 21, 2007
Ever since mac got its Unix makeover, I became confident in its abilities to be used as an administrative tool.For example, you have the terminal (bash terminal to be precise) in which you can execute most (if not all) of the bash commands available to a generic linux distro. It is in my belief that the bash console gives you the most administrative power over your local computer. Combine that with the event-oriented nature of apple script and you could do things such as...* Creating a profanity filter for all new documents saved after a certain date.* Changing ownership of any new application installed on the computer*... dang the possibilities are frying my brain :P (not really awake yet)With a few teaks to the system, you can run a great deal of the administrative tools found on any linux distro.And of course... good luck with transitioning from a windows environment. There may be one or more applications that can't be ported over to the mac natively. At best, try emulation or just keep 1 single windows box for application remoting while saving work in a network accessible folder. I will provide you a link to do the later of the two windows migration options. Hopefully, this would translate to mac users as well.<a class="user" href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=361528&highlight=rdesktop">http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=361528&highlight=rdesktop</a>
masterofnoneApr 21, 2007
see? it's columns like this that invite derision. this is like telling people you've got a big penis. first, it shouldn't matter. second, people probably won't believe you.the reality is, if you're working in a creative field ALL of the apps you use are business apps. And all those apps were on the mac first and have always beeen better on a mac.
blackeagleApr 21, 2007
ya sure what ever you sheep say
lovethecoastApr 21, 2007
I'd like to see a definition of "record numbers" -- I mean, if you went from "0 to 1" that would be a record, as would "5,000 to 10,000". Using this phrase without backing it up is a common practice used by scammers.As to the topic at hand, I hope Mac (and Linux) continue to gain marketshare -- more competition is always good for the pocketbook and for new innovative features.
wiseweaselApr 21, 2007
Until licensing costs for keeping up with MS software become cost-prohibitive, or a new version of Windows breaks their custom apps... It's silly to think businesses are incapable of migrating if they have enough incentive.
callaway7Apr 23, 2007
I'm sure it's quite possible for a number of companies. I don't think the issue is so much finding the apps, it's more about change and dealing with it. You have to retrain folks to a certain extent (support, administrative, operational, etc). Even if the OSX equivalent is not that much different, people in general can be a real pain in the ass when it's just the smallest of changes. So do we keep paying money and moving along as we are or do we do a complete turnaround and risk upsetting the monotony of everyone's daily lives?