[clue-talk] the cult of mac

[Nate Duehr]

David L. Willson wrote:
> Kevin,
> 
> Your "points of freedom" are actually points of ROI, but I suppose you knew that.  I
> never meant to argue that Mac had a low ROI, though.

We could go down this ROI path as a topic, also.

I know at least one small company of about 200 people (maybe 400?) that 
has a single "techie".

They're all Mac, Mac desktops, Mac servers, and the "techie" does 
everything -- IP phones, Macs, servers, and connectivity.

They pay him a decent salary, and don't have an "IT Department" at all.

They pay more up front for hardware and AppleCare to Apple, but their 
overall IT budget is very likely to be quite a bit lower than a similar 
sized Windows shop.

Even if the overall price ends up similar, they probably appreciate the 
"one-stop shopping" of their single IT guy.  He talks about needing a 
young helper from time to time, but I know him well, and if he really 
needed someone, he'd have the authority to hire.  He hasn't in the five 
or more years I've known him.

Their website and other public services run on platforms that started on 
Linux, and were ported to Mac.  (Apache, etc.)

That should scare the hell out of many Windows professionals.  But it 
doesn't.

Mostly because of inertia.  Their bosses are so "comfortable" with the 
"way things are", including giant help desks, ticket tracking systems, 
and "procedures" for handling Windows desktop systems -- that they 
honestly can't imagine there's a real alternative out there.

In fact, the CIO are probably bonused on how well the "support systems" 
work instead of trying to take the company off of continual life-support.

Nate