Macs Are Not for Serious Business Use
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a ton of experience with Macs, so it’s certainly possible I’m missing something important.
But…
The more experience I have with them, the more I am convinced that they just aren’t built for business use. Maybe that’s not Apple’s fault entirely. At the very least, software companies who cater to business aren’t interested in building quality business products for Macs.
You can tell when Microsoft wants you to do something a certain way. They try to make that method easy while making other methods more difficult.
If Apple works the same way, then they really don’t want you to be part of a business network with centralized authentication and policy management. (Or use any kind of non-superficial security.) They really don’t want you to be able to use robust backup and restore software. Nor do they want you to be able to run or access large databases.
So, Mac-aficionados (notice I didn’t use the other term), what am I missing here?
Sadly, you are mistaken and I say this not being a MAC user myself! “It is a poor workman that blames his tools” as they say. I know many people that run their businesses on MACs. Like everything else in life there are both Pros and Cons to MACs, like PCs. One is not better than the other, it simply depends on your needs.
MACs are outstanding for multimedia and are more stable. You don’t hear of MAC users getting blue screens of death, do you! I know some very seasoned deveopers that use MACs with a virtualizer to run MS software because it actually run smoother than on PCs, go figure?!
Of course on the flip side of things, MACs are significantly more expensive, smaller screen sizes, less software available (although that has greatly improved over the years – for instance you can’t get MS Access).
They both have their place in our beautiful computing world!
Hey, QB. I completely agree. I hope you’ll forgive me if I indulge in a bit of hyperbole now and then!
I think it’s not blaming the tool so much as using the right tool for the job. Macs are ok for small businesses and certain tasks in larger enterprises, but they are very poorly designed for the true enterprise environment. They are difficult to manage, support, and secure. That might only be because they have such a small slice of the market pie that few people want to put the effort into creating enterprise-class apps that work well on a Mac. There’s just no money in it.
Apple’s historic aversion to backwards compatibility is another big problem for Macs in big business and in small businesses who aren’t flush with cash.
Maybe someday that will change, but I don’t see it happening this year.