*>>The key issue I've seen with Macs recently is their newfound bipolar disorder. One day they're a Mac, the next day they're a PC. Good luck accounting for that in your asset database.*
Tell me about it... I know of a small organization (~65 people) that starting migrating to Macs in mass, because they felt it would improve productivity. (Actually, it's a well known secret that the top management was tired of trying to integrate their iPhones with the PC infrastructure, so they just made a big switch for everyone). Problem was that they couldn't change over the IT department, since all it was doing was .NET and Flash development (7 people), and the department that did their call center had a special PC-only app (11 people), and they one IT guy who was good with Mac support left, so they have about 50% of the company running on PCs, and about 45% running on Mac hardware booting into XP or Win7 most/all of the time. And the senior managers are running their Macs as they could have been without the expense of the useless switch. *ASB *(My XeeSM Profile) <http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker> *Exploiting Technology for Business Advantage...* * * On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 6:37 PM, Brian Desmond <[email protected]>wrote: > My experience having worked for one of the largest school districts in the > US is that the solution you outlined doesn't really scale. I've seen it work > well for relatively small environments but once you introduce a large number > of Mac machines, things get difficult. When the solution works, you're still > looking at some significant management overhead and duplication of > infrastructure. > > The key issue I've seen with Macs recently is their newfound bipolar > disorder. One day they're a Mac, the next day they're a PC. Good luck > accounting for that in your asset database. > > Thanks, > Brian Desmond > [email protected] > > c - 312.731.3132 > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 11:54 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: Mac and Windows mix > > Macs are not the burden you make them sound to be. > > Integrating a Mac into a windows network is never going to be painless; the > two systems are inherently different. If what you want is a Windows > experience from your Mac, install Windows. > > Now not everybody likes MacOS X, but the same can be said for Windows. > Insert the problem of subjective preference here. > > Personally, I love working on my iMac, and managing the other Macs in our > district is very easy if you use the provided Apple tools: Mac OS X server, > Open Directory, and Apple Remote Desktop. > > Then again, I hate how a Mac _can_ cost 2x as much as a comparable PC. I do > like that software upgrades are cheaper for Mac, but I don't like how apple > drops support for anything that is not the current generation or the > previous one. If you're 2 generations back, you're out of luck. > > What can a Mac do that a PC Can't? Nothing. But I would argue that > competition is one of the pillars of innovation. Without Mac OS X competing > against Windows, what would Windows look like today? > > > --Matt Ross > Ephrata School District > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: James Hill > [mailto:[email protected]] > To: NT System Admin Issues > [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 > 19:28:49 -0700 > Subject: RE: Mac and Windows mix > > > > We have pretty much eliminated all of the Mac's here. > > > > We didn't have 3rd party products to manage them so they always > > required so much manual interaction. Any global change we made we > > could easily automate with PC's thanks to group policy etc but it was > > always a manual change for the Mac's. > > > > They really aren't a corporate product imo. You only have to look to > > Apple for a corporate grade management solution to realise that it > doesn't exist. > > > > They do indeed need patching (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222) and > > there is AV products for them. Symantec has one for example. > > Personally I think the day is coming when someone will write a decent > > bit of malware/virus for them and 99% plus will get caught out by it. > > There is a very misguided opinion amongst the Apple community that > > they are safe. Apple's false advertising only strengthens this. The > > facts are that Mac's are more vulnerable than the PC world > > http://www.crn.com/security/226200083 > > > > More importantly, what is the need for the Mac's in the first place? > > For us they were only sued for Adobe CS, which runs just fine on PC's. > > In fact these days Adobe is more behind the PC world than the Mac. > > For example, 64bit Photoshop was first on PC, had to wait for CS5 for Mac > to get it. > > That's without going into the Flash debate :) > > > > > > > > > > > > From: David Lum [mailto:[email protected]] > > Sent: Saturday, 4 September 2010 6:07 AM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: Mac and Windows mix > > > > I would like to hear from those of you who have a mixed Windows/Mac > > environments: How do you handle management of the diverse environment? > > Presumably with Mac's there is no patching or AV. Can you use GPO's on > > them in any fashion (wondering if there's some add-in to allow > equivalency). > > David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
