Little Green Apples

Fast forward several years and now I have become the die hard "Microsoft" guy. About 2 to 3 times a week I have a conversation with someone, usually an executive, that has determined what they need to make sure their computer systems never fail is a sleek new Mac. After discussing with them that they are going to be disappointed with a Mac in a business environment, I'm usually told well you better figure it out. This is about the time I have to divulge the secret of how to get a Mac to work well in an enterprise. There are actually two ways to do it.

The unrealistic option
Apple does make servers, so it may be possible to replace your entire corporate server plant. Oh, and you will need to replace all of your desktops too. You might even get lucky and find out that your line of business applications have a Mac version. If not you can probably convert them to a web based app which should work. Normally this option is way too expensive. Generally when this option is offered I get a response stating that I am being uncooperative. And maybe I am so let's forget this option.

The Catch 22
Ok, so the real answer on how to best use your new Mac on your Windows network, drum roll please . . . It's easy, run Windows on your Mac. There are several different ways to do this, and each has advantages and disadvantages, but all have the same result, Windows on a Mac. Now this may sound cool at first but let's analyze it a little.

A nice sleek expensive Mac was purchased to run an easier to use, state of the art, big cat operating system (Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion) all so it can run Windows. But before you can run Windows you need to buy a license for it. And more than likely you not going to want reboot to run Windows so you’re going to need another application like Parallels or VMware. So add to the cost of the Mac about $400 to $500 so it can run Windows. Then keep in mind that you are going to need to keep track of 2 operating systems, 2 files systems, 2 sets of applications, etc. This can be challenging for anyone, not to mention someone that just wants to use a computer without thinking about things like what OS should I use.

Good news, kind of . . .
Apple used to include a free program called Samba with the Mac. This allowed the Mac to connect to Windows file servers so files could be shared across both platforms, but it didn't help with applications-only files. It was also not easy to manage in a large scale implementation meaning it requires manual configuration on each Mac. Now with the release of Apple's new OS named Lion, they created their own connector for Microsoft's Active Directory. However, the version that shipped with Lion is broken. Apple is aware of it, and they are working on a fix for it. But even this still won't fix the application problem.

The bottom line
I always take a lot of heat for this, and I'm usually accused of being an Apple hater. But my job is to tell you what the best IT decision to make is. Unfortunately, Mac computers are not ready for the business world in most circumstances. They will drive up your costs and make your user experience less than desirable. However, for home/personal use, they are a great solution. If I could justify the price, I'd have 3 or 4 myself.

Oh, and I wrote this on an iPad.