# Why don't more corporate IT groups standardize around Macs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 29, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345 "2009-11-29T17:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/21 "2009-11-30T05:22:20Z")
Beyond what’s already been said, we have an additional reason for sticking with Windows at our company: I am on a software development team that, among other things, writes software that is intended to be run on our clients’ Windows PCs. So it’s best if we write that software on Windows as well. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/22 "2009-11-30T08:10:19Z")
Here is an anecdotal reason. Remembering that Singapore is small and hence doesn’t have many Mac retailers, which could be the reason for what happened. A high school here wanted to have a lab of Mac machines for their students to do video editing and etc. However, the distributor here was, according to my colleague, rude, insufferable and inefficient. “It as if they know Mac is in a premium and wants to take their own sweet time” he said. The second reason is you can throw together a workstation under USD 500, but a Mac costs so much more. Heck, if you are willing to go open source, you can get a typical office workstation (which can’t play any cutting edge games or do 3d modeling) way cheap ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/23 "2009-11-30T08:56:01Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > My antivirus software says my contract is expired and wants me to renew, but their renewal process ends with Internet Explorer saying it can’t display the web page… That sounds like a problem with the web page or the server it’s hosted on rather than a problem with the PC. If so, you would get the same result trying to view that web page under Safari on a Mac. Also, have a look at some PC message boards for Mac users. Macs have problems as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/24 "2009-11-30T12:43:54Z")
> [@CrazyChop](#): > > Here is an anecdotal reason. Remembering that Singapore is small and hence doesn’t have many Mac retailers, which could be the reason for what happened. A high school here wanted to have a lab of Mac machines for their students to do video editing and etc. However, the distributor here was, according to my colleague, rude, insufferable and inefficient. “It as if they know Mac is in a premium and wants to take their own sweet time” he said. > > The second reason is you can throw together a workstation under USD 500, but a Mac costs so much more. Heck, if you are willing to go open source, you can get a typical office workstation (which can’t play any cutting edge games or do 3d modeling) way cheap That is an issue for us, with Far East operations. Manufacturers that work well in the U.S. are lousy in the Far East (and vice versa). Apple is one that is difficult to work with in the U.S. - but they are impossible to work with in the Far East. ---
**Author:** ![BKReporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@BKReporter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BKReporter)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/25 "2009-11-30T15:19:59Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > When I was in journalism school there were but two PCs in the building. The professor’s offices, the newsroom, the classrooms, the ad shop and the business office were all full of Macs. It was affordable because the department had an educational deal with Apple. > > The Web server and the workstation I used to work on the Web site were both PCs (thank goodness). > > There were two IT guys to run the department and trust me, they were plenty busy fixing all of those Macs. There were also plenty of broken down Macs in the newsroom and the classrooms at all times. It was the same thing at my journalism school in the late 90s. Nary a PC to be found in the department. It had to do partly with the education deal from Apple. But Macs also work better for certain graphic and page design functions, which is why at almost every newspaper I’ve ever worked at the photographers and page designers use them. However, the reporters and most everyone else whose job doesn’t involve a lot of graphic wizardry use PCs. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/26 "2009-11-30T22:04:32Z")
I’d love to know why everyone thinks Macs are better for Graphics, because anything that is available for a Mac is available for a PC. And then some. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/27 "2009-11-30T22:09:28Z")
I can speak for the initial install. iLife is far and away better than ANYTHING you can get for cheap or free for the PC. I can’t speak for the high power professional stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/28 "2009-11-30T22:21:49Z")
Well, if there exists some ‘high power professional stuff’ for a Mac, then it makes business sense to sell it on the PC too doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/29 "2009-11-30T23:02:44Z")
ahem. Since when did business sense ever enter into things IT? 😉 You are debating something that really doesn’t need debating. There are good PCs and there are good Macs and folks that determine they need one over the other. Shall we cut out the dreary middle part and determine the debate will continue without us? ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/30 "2009-12-01T04:38:06Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I’d love to know why everyone thinks Macs are better for Graphics, because anything that is available for a Mac is available for a PC. And then some. The only thing I know first-hand is that the graphics on Mac are ‘more accurate’ - I think it is either because the OS choose to use a color format closer to print media (and that you don’t have to figure out which combo of monitor and graphics card to get). Digital artists I know prefer Mac because of many tools such as picking a color from any windows are built into the OS, not in some third party tool. But I have met other artists/designers who work solely off PC too. For development of software, the only time you need a Mac is when you are doing iPhone stuff or Mac-OS software. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/31 "2009-12-01T04:50:27Z")
By and large aren’t Macs sold pretty much as a software/hardware package? Windows, is only an operating system. Something I’m curious about is all the talk about how ‘safe’ macs are. If I were to write a virus, I think I’d write it for the operating system that is on 90% of all computers. I suspect if Mac OS (Leopard is it?) were running on 50% of the computers they wouldn’t be as ‘safe’. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/32 "2009-12-01T07:10:09Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > I’m responsible for the selection of hardware, software and infrastructure at my company at the strategic level, and I’ve been doing it for more than ten years now. > > The primary reason for not using Macs is simply market share. There are more applications for Windows machines, and the hardware is a commodity item. My $1000 i7 Dell machine would cost twice as much if it were a Mac, and would only run a few of the applications that we require. We have a few Macs in the test lab for browser compatibility, but they’re not very useful for what we do. One of my programmers has only a Mac at home, and he has no end of trouble. He can’t even connect to our VPN (which I inherited; there’s no way I would have gone with that proprietary appliance box if it had been my call). > > I’ve owned Macs, I like using Macs, but they just don’t make sense from a strategic perspective for us. Or for many businesses, for that matter. I had performed a similar role at a large company. I agree with **Cerowyn** ’s points and those that others have made, but for us there was another problem with Apple: you become locked to the platform. With Wintel systems, we were free to chose our hardware vendor; and we used that freedom to leverage better deals with our vendors. If Dell did not give us good service, we could go with HP, or IBM, or any number of other suppliers. This was also true to a much smaller degree with Microsoft. They knew that we could go with Linux or Solaris without losing any of our capital hardware outlay. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/33 "2009-12-01T08:59:04Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Well, if there exists some ‘high power professional stuff’ for a Mac, then it makes business sense to sell it on the PC too doesn’t it? Not really, since a lot of the best software comes directly from Apple. They want you to use their software, but only on their hardware. And I gotta say, Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio really can’t be beat. Easy to use, easy to learn, but with a lot of depth of control. There’s a reason that so many filmmakers, photographers, graphic artists, audio engineers, etc. use Macs and Mac software: it just works. (HAHA I couldn’t resist adding that!) Srsly, tho, I’ve done LOTS of audio recording, mixing and mastering on both PCs (10 years) and my Mac (just over a year). There’s no way in hell I’m ever going back to a PC or any of the old software I used to use. I’m waaaaay too happy with my Mac stuff. As for the OP and IT, I think many have said it already: PCs are cheaper, and a business wants to get the job done with as little capital outlay as possible. Now that so many businesses have spent the last 20+ years locking themselves into the cheapest solution available, that’s the system that the vast majority of people are familiar with. So now it’s this self-perpetuating cycle. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/34 "2009-12-01T15:00:53Z")
I’m a Mac user. If I were running IT for a fortune 10 company, I’d have to settle on Windows or Linux, though, or offer self-support only for those that wanted to use Macs. It would be irresponsible to settle on a single vendor. In the case of Windows or Linux PCs, though, if Dell went out of business we could get the same hardware from someone else. I have to use Windows at work. Certainly I’d prefer a Mac, and could use my VM for the few applications that are truly Windows only. Most of our legacy applications, though, are truly legacy – as long as I have a terminal emulator, it doesn’t matter what my platform is. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/35 "2009-12-01T18:21:51Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > For just one example - do Mac OS’s have built-in remote access ability? (No really, That’s not a rhetorical question) Of course they do. Personally, _ssh_ and shell scripting is more than sufficient for most of what I need to do. As with any \*NIX system (that I’ve used), OS X comes with both client and server software as part of the default install. On the other hand, pre-Vista Windows systems (I’m ignorant of both Vista and Windows 7) do not come with an ssh server – I have to install [cygwin](http://www.cygwin.com/) to get the functionality I desire. If you’re really curious about Apple-supplied Mac system administration functionality, I’d suggest taking a gander at their [Server Features](http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/) page. > [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > More people don’t pick Apple because they typically already HAVE that infrastructure built under windows and are unwilling/unable to migrate to a different platform. Exactly that. OTOH, for entirely new installations, ISTM that there are three bugbears: (1) the purchasing cost of new equipment, (2) specific software required (not _functionality_, mind you), and (3) user familiarity. I think it would be a (relative) dream to administer a homogenous Mac office. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/36 "2009-12-03T23:02:28Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Something I’m curious about is all the talk about how ‘safe’ macs are. If I were to write a virus, I think I’d write it for the operating system that is on 90% of all computers. I suspect if Mac OS (Leopard is it?) were running on 50% of the computers they wouldn’t be as ‘safe’. This discussion starts lots of holy wars, and obviously it lends itself mainly to speculation. That said, the numbers don’t add up: there are hundreds of thousands of active viruses, etc. for Windows, and close to zero for the Mac. I would argue that market share alone doesn’t account for such a discrepancy: no other form of software has such an unbalanced ratio between the platforms, even games (for whose absence the Mac is much maligned). ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/37 "2009-12-03T23:20:17Z")
Last week I took delivery of a new iMac. I was able to use Apple’s “Migration Assistant” to smoothly transplant my entire user directory and all my installed applications–even my desktop backgrpund and the locations of the icons on it–from my old Mac over to the new computer, and it went without a hitch, and only a couple of minor niggles: one program, SMCFanControl, politely quit after informing me that it was not yet able to cope with the new hardware; and my VMWare Fusion virtual machines all had to be stopped and restarted. I’ve done a number of user transplants from one Windows machine to another, and it has never been so smooth: I’ve always had to copy my user data over and then reinstall many apps. The only smooth way to transplant a Windows machine is to copy a complete disk image, and that raises other issues. Unless there’s an easier way I don’t know of, this seems to be one area that Macs have it over Windows machines. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/38 "2009-12-04T17:43:48Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I was able to use Apple’s “Migration Assistant” to smoothly transplant my entire user directory and all my installed applications… There are some things that Macs have that Apple, quite simply, just got right. Migration Assistant is most definitely one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/39 "2009-12-04T17:45:00Z")
And it’s that way, in large part, due to the BSD underthings that make it work. Transferring user accounts from linux box to linux box is falling-off-a-log easy. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345/40 "2009-12-04T19:51:10Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > …the BSD underthings that make it work. Mmmm…all that [UNIX-y goodness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy), but gussied up in a little black dress. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-corporate-it-groups-standardize-around-macs/519345.md?page=1)