Attitudes change towards Windows and Macs
With major new product releases looming on the horizon, AccountingWEB’s recent coverage of the computer industry’s two main camps has uncovered an interesting shift in accountancy’s hardware habits.
For the past two decades, the Apple Macintosh has been a minority interest among accountants, isolated away among those who serve the creative industries that tend to use Macs.
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If you have to use a VM, then why bother?
Sure, you can install a Virtual Machine and run Windows on a Mac, but doesn't that rather defeat the whole purpose of the exercise?
1. If you want to use a Mac to run a VM of Windows Vista, then you need to buy a copy of Windows Vista - your costs just got higher as you've now paid for two operating systems on the one computer. (and you're now using the Vista front-end, not OSX so no 'ease of use' benefits)
2. If you intend to run some native Apple applications (Office, for example) and some Vista applications - you now have to switch between the two different OS designs - are you not increasing your training costs and reducing productivity a bit?
3. Macs are certainly less subject to viruses (not immune, by the way), but a copy of Vista in a VM on a Mac will NOT be magically protected by the Mac OS - You should still install anti-virus in your VM if you intend to use it for anything important - so back to square one again.
4. Mac hardware is high quality, but you can buy PC's of equal quality - Remember Macs use the same basic electronics as a PC now - they use Intel processors, not pixie-dust. If you buy a PC for £200, then you have to expect poor build quality, but at least you've been given the choice. Maybe the problem is that Mac users HAVE to buy good hardware, whereas PC users succumb to the temptation of cheap kit, and suffer the consequences.
5. Drivers have certainly been a real bugbear for Vista - but again, it's a matter of "you pays your money...." Apple achieves its quality by only permitting OSX to run on hardware it has manufactured itself. Windows runs on a VAST range of different makes of hardware, in infinite combinations. Driver issues are the primary cause of unreliability in PC's but those drivers are not written by Microsoft - they're written by the hardware manufacturers, who don't always do a very good job. Many of Vista's early problems, by the way, were triggered by the technical changes Microsoft introduced to try and force an improvement in the quality of 3rd-party drivers. I'll bet they wish they hadn't bothered at times....
6. iLife? iPhoto? Are we not talking about the Mac as a business tool here? What's the relevence of these applications in an office?
Did that sound like a rant? maybe a bit!
Mac's are fantastic, gorgeous, a joy to use. I recommended one to a relative over a PC recently because they were the sort of people who just wanted to do the usual home-computing stuff - A Mac will be a huge success for them, and they'll never have day's problem with it.
BUT - we're all trying run businesses, and most of the stuff you need is PC-based.
If your business can operate in a pure Mac environment, then go for it, but if it can't, then why spend all the extra cash and end up with, essentially, a gorgeous looking Windows Vista box that can switch hats at the weekend to organise your photos?
Horses for courses - why buy a dressage horse and ask it to pull a plough?
Couldn't have put it better myself
Charles, I fully agree with you on this one!