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TCO: New research finds Macs in the enterprise easier, cheaper to manage than Windows PCs
  • Virtualization is actually a boon for the Mac at the client end. There's no way to run OS X on a virtual machine (.), but Macs can run Windows VMs with fewer support hassles than Windows boxes. Citrix has had a Mac client for at least a decade, and they're even promising a client for the iPad.
  • 198 Is there a way to convert audio files in Mac OS X or the command line without using iTunes? 11 Is this an example of a zeugma?

A main characteristic of the Roman imperial army was its small size. Only between 400'000 and 450'000 soldiers (i.e. Between 5 and 7.5 ‰ of the empire's inhabitants) were responsible for the security of an area of over 5 million km 2 and frontiers of (roughly estimated) 15'000 km. Roman North Africa was, as is well known, an extreme example of this situation, with only one legion, legio III.


ZDNet News & Blogs ^ 3/18/2010 by David Morgenstern

Posted on 03/19/2010 3:15:37 AM PDT by Swordmaker

Shocking: A recent survey of enterprise IT managers that administer both PCs and Macs finds that Macs have a better TOC (total cost of ownership) than Windows boxes, and require less user training and help.

The respondents were given the option to select from a range of cost differences. Not only did the administrators across the board say that Macs were less expensive, in all but one category the majority of administrators who said Macs cost less said they were more than 20 percent less expensive to manage than PCs. Of those who asserted that PCs cost less, the majority always asserted that PCs were between 0 and 20 percent less expensive to manage than Macs.

The Enterprise Desktop Alliance survey took results from organizations that had 50 or more servers or over 100 Macs, what the organization said were enterprises, academic sites and government agencies.

The figures that pop out from the chart are those for the time spent troubleshooting problems (16 vs 65 percent, PC and Macs, respectively), dealing with help desk calls (16 vs 54 percent), training users (16 vs 48 percent) and managing system configs. (25 vs 50 percent).

At the Macworld Expo last month, I spoke to T. Reid Lewis, president of the EDA and CEO of Group Logic, a maker of network software and Mac integration products such as ExtremeZ-IP. He pointed out that important enterprise service and back-end platform companies were coming on board the multiplatform bandwagon. That includes IBM, which joined the EDA in Feb. Big Blue’s Informix database, Rational software delivery automationware and Lotus messaging and collaboration platform support Macs, and the company had a booth at the Expo.

Absolute Software, the maker of LoJack and Absolute Manage also joined the EDA in Feb.

Macs are coming into the enterprise and support for them in familiar software management and delivery consoles is catching up. While IT management remains suspicious of the Mac platform and most admins focus on Microsoft certification programs rather than Mac OS X certifications, users continue to purchase Macs and request support.

According to Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray analyst, the year-to-year retail sales of Macs climbed 39 percent during January and February. He said this means some 2.8 to 2.9 million Macs were be sold in the quarter.

Another recent EDA survey found that 66 percent of IT administrators in large organizations that currently have both Macs and PCs will increase the number of Macs in their sites. The reasons? In addition to the ease of support (and the associated cost reductions found in the survey above), user preference, and increased productivity.

We can point to many places for the rise in the Mac’s status: Apple’s continuing execution on its Mac OS X platform; the company’s focus on hardware quality and technological advances in a time when PC makers have raced to the bottom of the market with netbooks and crappy low-cost systems; support for Intel processors and Windows virtualization; the halo effect of the iPod and iPhone platforms; the terrible introduction of Windows Vista; the Apple Store strategy; or others.

Whatever the combination of reasons or just the fact that the Mac is better, users seem to have shaken off the past FUD from Redmond and Intel that fell on the Apple platform. I spoke to a white-collar professional yesterday who is looking at buying a new notebook. He has never used anything other than a PC. But now, he’s seriously looking at a Mac. I told him to go to the local Apple retail store and get a tour.

IT managers will have to deal. They can be thankful that integration is easier than ever and getting better all the time.

TOPICS:Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
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1posted on 03/19/2010 3:15:37 AM PDTby Swordmaker
To: ~Kim4VRWC's~; 1234; 50mm; Abundy; Action-America; acoulterfan; AFreeBird; Airwinger; Aliska; ...
THIS article is not a surprise to those of us who work with BOTH Windows and Macs... sort of Dog Bites Man news... but to Windows only people it's kind of a shock... PING!

TOTAL OWNERSHIP COST
Macs Cost LESS than PCs
Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

Swordmaker's BACK!

2posted on 03/19/2010 3:20:48 AM PDTby Swordmaker(Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE isAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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Macs rock. Just the facts!


3posted on 03/19/2010 3:29:27 AM PDTby TheStickman
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I don’t have an apple yet, but it doesn’t surprise me. Microsoft seems to be wandering in the wilderness when it comes to windows these days.


[Post Reply Private Reply To 1 View Replies]

I have only owned one PC. I buckled under the pressure to replace my aging, yet fully functional Mac SE with a Dell something or other.

It is truly amazing how many little tiny pieces a PC breaks into when you clobber it with a sledgehammer

:)


[Post Reply Private Reply To 2 View Replies]
WHAT A SURPRISE!!! A group that sells Mac 'solutions to the enterprise' thinks Macs are great.

From their website: 'Making it easy to deploy, integrate and manage Macs in a Windows environment.'

And global warming is real, too.

6posted on 03/19/2010 3:51:04 AM PDTby Wonder Warthog
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Got to remember that the it was to folks who do graphic designs/multimedia work.


7posted on 03/19/2010 4:06:49 AM PDTby Biggirl('Jesus talked to us as individuals'-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!=^..^^..^^..^^..^^..^=)
[Post Reply Private Reply To 1 View Replies]

My faithful 15 inch MacBook Pro with Intel chip runs without complaint day after day, year after year. I keep the OS up to date (Snow Leopard), and upgrading so far has been painless

I have a Dell Studio 8000 which I use for various tasks around home. Just converted to Windows 7, and am still trying to find my way.

I like the Studio 8000, and love the MacBook Pro.


[Post Reply Private Reply To 3 View Replies]
One gaping hole in the enterprise lineup for Apple is that VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is a big buzzword amongst upper management types. There is currently no way to run OSX virtually, as Apple ties the Mac to the hardware. I'm not really sure how far VDI is going to go, as it really harkens back a lot to greenscreen days, but it's a checkboox that PHBs are looking at these day.

Off-topic, but last night I installed the VMWare workstation 7.1 beta on my Fedora12 desktop last night after having spent way too much time trying to get Server running. OMG, but that was the easiest vmware installation I've ever seen on Linux! For once, no patching was required. So far haven't hit any bugs, and have done some initial testing with both some pre-existing VMs and built a couple of new Fedora VMs. Overall, things seem to finally be coming together for VMWare on Linux. It's always pissed me off that you had to jump through hoops on previous versions considering VMWare itself is built on Linux.

9posted on 03/19/2010 7:14:14 AM PDTby zeugma(Proofread a page a day: http://www.pgdp.net/)
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'Swordmaker's BACK! '

..and kickin' off with three new Mac Pings, to boot!

As the drunken Scotsman said when awoke on the roadside,

'Well, Laddie, I denna ken where ye've been -- but I see ye won first prize!'

Welcome BACK! '-)

10posted on 03/19/2010 9:13:38 AM PDTby TXnMA(D'Aleo re Hansen's 'GISS' temperature database: 'Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!')
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For you.

11posted on 03/19/2010 9:43:53 AM PDTby martin_fierro(< :)~)
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'Swordmaker's BACK!'
Yay!
12posted on 03/19/2010 9:49:46 AM PDTby RightOnTheLeftCoast(Obama: running for re-election in '12 or running for Mahdi now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi])
[Post Reply Private Reply To 2 View Replies]
One gaping hole in the enterprise lineup for Apple is that VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is a big buzzword amongst upper management types. There is currently no way to run OSX virtually, as Apple ties the Mac to the hardware.

Virtualization is actually a boon for the Mac at the client end. There's no way to run OS X on a virtual machine (*), but Macs can run Windows VMs with fewer support hassles than Windows boxes. Citrix has had a Mac client for at least a decade, and they're even promising a client for the iPad.

It's not a recipe for the Mac to take over a dominant position in enterprise computing, but that's not a very realistic near-term goal anyway. With virtualization, companies can continue to develop enterprise applications on Windows, and then run them on Macs or Linux or whatever.

* Macs support netbooting, which is kinda close enough to a virtual machine, but it only runs on Mac clients.

13posted on 03/19/2010 11:34:33 AM PDTby ReignOfError
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Well, where the hell have YOU been?


14posted on 03/19/2010 3:19:53 PM PDTby SunkenCiv(http://themagicnegro.com/)
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Captain Obvious phoned this in.


15posted on 03/19/2010 3:25:23 PM PDTby SunkenCiv(http://themagicnegro.com/)
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The other thing is that if Apple wants to gain server share at some point, they are going to have to allow virtualization, which is becoming more and more common for many reasons, including the need to prevent “server sprawl.”

That said, I do believe that a Mac network would be easier to maintain than a Windows network. Mac networks of any size don’t really exist, though, outside of academia and the occasional design house. This is partially because vertical apps are largely written in VB/ASP/.NET by foreigners generating code out of a framework.

Also, VMware had better get on the ball. While VMware workstation may work well on Fedora, other VMware products are really falling behind on Linux support, and even the browser interface is buggy, which affects everyone. There are other virtualization options which will become more attractive if VMware doesn’t clean up its act.


16posted on 03/19/2010 3:31:40 PM PDTby B Knotts(Calvin Coolidge Republican)
[Post Reply Private Reply To 9 View Replies]
The other thing is that if Apple wants to gain server share at some point, they are going to have to allow virtualization, which is becoming more and more common for many reasons, including the need to prevent “server sprawl.”

I absolutely agree (see post 9 of this thread).

Funny thing is, 'server sprawl' is being replaced by 'vm sprawl', because there is still a mentality amongst a lot of folks that you dedicate a box to a task. I've seen this where I work in a big way. The amount of resources wasted because of this mind-set is staggering. One of the things that has really annoyed me with the advent of virtualization in our organization is that it masks inefficiency, and poor design. We see these glowing reports about the huge number of servers being consolodated by our windows support group, (Hey! We're getting 40-1 consolidation on our servers!) yet no thought is given to the millions of dollars this group has wasted over the years because of their poor planning and other choices made. Over on the unix side of the house on the other hand, we're lucky to get 5-1 consolidation because we've been taking full advantage of our available hardware for years. Rather than having 40 individual webservers with maybe one or two apps on them, we run 40-50 sites apache servers on each box, so naturally you're not going to gain a hell of a lot when you move them to a VM farm.

I'm a big supporter of virtualization because it makes it much easier to take advantage of the advances that have come from the incredible increases in horsepower you see in hardware these days, but I think folk would do well to take a look at some of their other assumptions as well.

17posted on 03/19/2010 6:50:59 PM PDTby zeugma(Proofread a page a day: http://www.pgdp.net/)
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Also, VMware had better get on the ball. While VMware workstation may work well on Fedora, other VMware products are really falling behind on Linux support, and even the browser interface is buggy, which affects everyone. There are other virtualization options which will become more attractive if VMware doesn’t clean up its act.

Meant to comment on this as well, but it looks like I had an ADD moment. I also agree with you about VMWare's linux support. I don't really think the other offerings have quite caught up with VMWare yet in most ways, though I see a place for them in an enterprise. Zen, in particular is some cool tech, but I personally like the greater degree of separation of instances provided through offerings more similar to VMWare.

One of our older VM farms has been experiencing regular catastrophic failures in recent months. I don't really know the cause, but when I chart our uptime stats for our unix servers, it is obvious which ones are VMs and which are still physical (200+days vs less than 30 on average. -We've got servers that have been up for 800+ days and I can tell you that they sure as hell aren't VMs.)

18posted on 03/19/2010 6:58:04 PM PDTby zeugma(Proofread a page a day: http://www.pgdp.net/)

Zeugma Mac Os Download

[Post Reply Private Reply To 16 View Replies]

A lot of the reason this happens is due to the Windows philosophy of each application having its own dedicated machine.

Ask a Microsoft guy to lay out a basic network, and he’s going to recommend a AD/domain controller, app server and terminal server, each on their own dedicated machine.

At least with virtualization, this can be one or two machines instead of three.


19posted on 03/19/2010 7:08:55 PM PDTby B Knotts(Calvin Coolidge Republican)
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A lot of the reason this happens is due to the Windows philosophy of each application having its own dedicated machine.

Agreed. I think it points up a decided weakness in the architecture. The reason they insist on laying stuff out like this is because bad things happen for them when they don't. Once bitten twice shy.

At least with virtualization, this can be one or two machines instead of three.

Yup, but I'd say that it is basically covering up decisions made for their underlying tech. I'm always astounded when windows guys recommend 3rd party apps on windows boxes for something that is a native unix app. For instance we recently had a requirement to build out an FTP server. I'm not going to go into the fundamental insanity of running FTP in 2010 (anonymous FTP yes, but anytthing else is as fundamentally insane as using telnetd), but the requirement was there nonetheless. The recommendation from the windows guys was a dedicated server running some 3rd party app that I can't recall at the moment. We recommended an existing server running vsftp.

It's definitely a different mentality, and one that costs corporate America a lot of money every day.

20posted on 03/19/2010 8:12:45 PM PDTby zeugma(Proofread a page a day: http://www.pgdp.net/)
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บริการ ติดโพย (PopThai)เป็นบริการเปิดพจนานุกรมอัตโนมัติ โดยผู้ใช้สามารถป้อนข้อความ (ทีละประโยค หรือ เป็นหน้าเลยก็ได้ ไม่จำเป็นต้องทีละคำสองคำ)หรือป้อนเว็บ URL ระบบจะไปดึงเนื้อหาเว็บนั้นๆ มาแล้วทำการแนบความหมายของคำหรือวลีภาษาต่างประเทศ(ปัจจุบันสนับสนุน ภาษาอังกฤษ, ญี่ปุ่นและเยอรมัน)ติดกับเนื้อหานั้นๆ และจะแสดงผลความหมายเมื่อเอาเมาส์ไปวางเหนือคำหนึ่งๆช่วยให้สามารถเข้าใจเนื้อหาของเวบภาษาต่างประเทศได้สะดวกและรวดเร็วยิ่งขึ้น

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วิธีใช้

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ในกรณีที่ท่านใส่ URL ระบบจะไปทำการดาวน์โหลดเนื้อหาของหน้านั้นๆ มาและแนบความหมาย พร้อมแก้ไขลิงค์ต่างๆ ให้เป็นผ่านบริการ PopThai เพื่อที่ว่าเมื่อท่านกดที่ลิงค์ใดๆ ต่อไปจากเพจนั้นๆ ก็จะมีการแนบความหมายมาให้ด้วยในทันที

Zeugma Mosaic Museum

เพื่อเพิ่มความสะดวกในการใช้ท่านสามารถใช้ PopThai ผ่าน Longdo Toolbar โดยเมื่อท่านเปิดดูเว็บไซต์ใดๆ อยู่ตามปกติ และต้องการใช้บริการ PopThai สำหรับหน้านั้นๆ สามารถทำได้ทันที โดยคลิกที่ปุ่ม PopThai บน Toolbar รายละเอียดเพิ่มเติมโปรดอ่านที่ Longdo Toolbar

คำเตือน ในกรณีของ URL นี้ ถึงแม้ทางผู้ดูแลระบบลองดูจะได้ทำการทดสอบกับหลายเว็บไซต์แล้วก็ตาม ยังมีบางเว็บไซต์ที่ข้อมูลเวลาที่ระบบไปโหลดมาจะแตกต่างจากที่ท่านเปิดดูโดยใช้ browser โดยตรง โปรดระวังด้วย และไม่ควรใช้กับหน้าเว็บไซต์ที่ต้องการความถูกต้องสูง)

Problems & TODO

  • inflected word support (German)
  • support HTTP POST
  • other foreign language support (Japanese, French)