As an office drone myself, I'm all for something that increases Macs in the enterprise, but mark my words: Some Windows zealot will point to the existence of this organization as "proof" that Macs are hard to integrate into the workplace. "You need a whole consortium just to get them to work!"

That's BS, of course, but that doesn't mean it won't be said.

These guys seem to be doing the job that Apple should do. It is most likely self-serving, though, as they are all selling Mac-oriented, enterprise-level products.

In the end, it may provide an easy pitch for low- or mid-level, Mac-friendly IT managers to argue for Mac deployment. Oftentimes, in these situations, the most difficult part is not sweet-talking some senior IT suit (or CIO) into accepting an idea about a migration to Macs; it is preparation of a formalised proposal with actual solutions for standard enterprise IT problems and tasks.

As for the windows zealot, it doesn't even require an argument. The consortium offers a turn-key solution, so integration is a no-brainer.

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jimothy wrote:
...Some Windows zealot will point to the existence of this organization as "proof" that Macs are hard to integrate into the workplace. "You need a whole consortium just to get them to work!";

Do you mean a consortium to get the Macs to work or a consortium to get the Windows zealots to work?

I know what you mean and in the past I fought IT for the right to use my Apple II and later my Mac. I was lucky in that my supervisor backed me and we would both open up on the nerds when they would come slithering in the office.

It's a daily struggle here where I work: IT wants everyone to have the same setup on every desk. (Understandable, but not everyone does the same job, you know!) And management sees the Mac as just another "brand" of computer like Dell or HP, so they really don't get why the "Apples" are better.

So I'm all for any informational ammo I can use to keep the Macs we have, let alone adding any new ones.

Buy both your hardware AND operating system AND most of your software from the SAME company.

Apple is a brand, like Dell, or HP. You could take a Dell and run mac OS on it.

The sole reason that many large businesses don't use Macs for their information workers is that there is only ONE supplier for hardware.

Who wants to be held hostage by one hardware supplier? Not me! If Dell can't deliver, I can always go to HP or any other number of "PC" suppliers.

Besides that, why overpay for Apple hardware when you're still going to need a Windows license to run all of those custom applications that will _never_ be ported to the Mac?

Just do what I did -- go over the IT departments head and ask the VP, who loves Mac, if you can have one.

Worked for me.

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Guest wrote:
Apple is a brand, like Dell, or HP. You could take a Dell and run mac OS on it.

Not legally, mind you.

But this does bring up an interesting distinction. Are we talking about bringing Apple computers into enterprise, or the Mac OS into enterprise? There is a big difference.

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Guest wrote:

Besides that, why overpay for Apple hardware when you're still going to need a Windows license to run all of those custom applications that will _never_ be ported to the Mac?

So those people who use custom applications are locked into one vendor.

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The sole reason that many large businesses don't use Macs for their information workers is that there is only ONE supplier for hardware.

Still they use ONE supplier for their OS, Microsoft. Same problem, no solution whether they switch or not.

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Guest wrote:
Just do what I did -- go over the IT departments head and ask the VP, who loves Mac, if you can have one.

Worked for me.

That's what I need. I Mac loving VP. Alas, we've got the opposite problem.

It's OK to run windows apps on a Mac but copy and paste is typically the only way to integrate applications in each of the bubbles.

OpenSpan (www.openspan.com) creates API's into windows desktop applications on the windows side, then exposes those API's as web services and the MAC can integrate the windows applications in real-time as well...

I swtiched from PC to MAC 2 months ago after being with PC's since forever!! I'll never go back but love to run PC software in the virtualized bubble.

At least disclose that you work for openspan. It will allow readers to understand your perspective.

Oops, sorry, thought it was obvious but YES DO work for OpenSpan.

However, my switch to MAC was to see what I was missing. If anyone tries to snatch my MAC back, I'll chop their fingers off