Actually... More like a few months since they got out of their heavy hardware business. Those Linux servers you spoke of... They also sold the blades themselves. They just sold that piece off to Lenovo within the past year. The company I work for had a $5 billion agreement for all IBM hardware and services, blanket license and not per user... From after the Lenovo Thinkpad sale. This is the garbage front end of Lotus and Sametime... And a good backend of servers and blade center hardware.
IBM to Purchase Up to 200,000 Macs, With 50-75% of Employees Ultimately Switching From Lenovo
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Actually... More like a few months since they got out of their heavy hardware business. Those Linux servers you spoke of... They also sold the blades themselves. They just sold that piece off to Lenovo within the past year. The company I work for had a $5 billion agreement for all IBM hardware and services, blanket license and not per user... From after the Lenovo Thinkpad sale. This is the garbage front end of Lotus and Sametime... And a good backend of servers and blade center hardware.
Shirasaki
macrumors P6
I would almost forget this if you didn't mention.
If I am asked to do so, I would better seek for a new job before settling down.
montycat
macrumors 6502
I think this relationship will ultimately be very fruitful (pun slightly intended...). IBM services, backend platforms, expertise in the enterprise/big gov space with Apple providing an improved user facing experience and the client side platforms (iOS/OSX). This seems like a "Yeah, we're serious" sort of move
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IBM would likely not buy these direct from Apple. They would go through their contracted suppliers like all other equipment orders. For example they would buy through CDW.
Shirasaki
macrumors P6
So, basically apple wins this contract, due to various reasons, and windows 10 is more dangerous than before on enterprise market since mac is participating enterprise side OS war.
I use both systems side by side. Personally thinking, either is good for personal use but Windows is slightly better than enterprise use. However when throwing this to massive enterprise such as IBM, everything could happen, and result is often unexpected. I now have no idea what it would be because I have zero experience on such case.
I use both systems side by side. Personally thinking, either is good for personal use but Windows is slightly better than enterprise use. However when throwing this to massive enterprise such as IBM, everything could happen, and result is often unexpected. I now have no idea what it would be because I have zero experience on such case.
Steve121178
macrumors 604
You don't have a clue what you are talking about. ThinkPad's are still the best Windows machines on the market.
The Apple IBM partnership of the 90's was a huge culture clash. It lead to a corporate divorce with the equivalent drama of a fourth generation Hamptons wife kicked to the curb by a new money husband from Brooklyn.
While Apple had the no respect for presidence, the IBM corporate (whom still insisted wearing suits and ties in Cupertino) scene kept on stalling innovations for "avoiding distribution disruptions" that frustrated the hell out of Apple engineers wearing tie-dye.
The PowerPC eventually came out and it did fine for a while. Supposedly, when Steve came back, some say Steve accused IBM that the IBM-Apple partnership was in fact a plan for IBM to destroy Apple from the beginning. Allegedly, Steve even quoted the old Machiavellian line "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." to describe the partnership.
This lead to Steve not welcome at any IBM facility and all dialog with IBM executives had an IBM corporate attorney in tow. I can just imagine how double crease those attorneys dressed.
Steve's comeback was first with the iMac to out fashion IBM. Then he wanted anything IBM out of the Mac. This lead to the Intel processor switch and the head spinning switch of OS X to the Intel instruction set.
The rest is history.
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brdeveloper
macrumors 68030
The problem with Lenovos is not the hardware, but Windows. At work, I'm not using the Windows license that came with my desktop machine. I installed Ubuntu. After you're used to the POSIX structure, it's hard going back to Program Files and the limited command set provided by Windows. Ok, you can install Cygwin, but it needs emulating a POSIX directory structure. It doesn't look as natural and straightforward.
I still have a Win 8.1 virtual machine for running a few apps, but Windows looks like an adware/spyware/bloatware farm. A default Ubuntu installation needs just 4GB of disk space. It grows up as long as you install apps, but it you can use it perfectly with a 128GB SSD. Windows makes a computer just a web browsing machine with 128GB.
I still have a Win 8.1 virtual machine for running a few apps, but Windows looks like an adware/spyware/bloatware farm. A default Ubuntu installation needs just 4GB of disk space. It grows up as long as you install apps, but it you can use it perfectly with a 128GB SSD. Windows makes a computer just a web browsing machine with 128GB.
Exactly. I would have bought a ThinkPad mobile workstation a long time ago if it came with a proper OS with a good commercial ecosystem.
At least I don't care about iTunes anymore since I started using syncable streaming and got rid of my iPad and iPhone.
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If what your doing us slow on Mac and PC it sounds like the problem is more to do with the companies programs and processes than the hardware it's running on
D.T.
macrumors G4
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Thanks my fellow Floridian
I'm in the very early stages of shopping a GT500 convertible, tossed this logo up after a little goofing around in the car thread Who could have imagined such a twist back in 1984?
Makes sense though - my MacBook Pro running Windows 7 under Boot Camp is hands down the best Windows PC I've ever had. And the list price when I bought it was pretty close to the list price of the comparable generation and closest spec match HP provided by my employer around the same time. The MacBook significanly outperforms the HP in most respects though, especially the SSD and retina display - my HP just can't touch what those can do.
For something that Apple seemed to kind of back into half heartedly, Boot Camp is one of the most useful but most under appreciated and underutilized assets in the computers industry today.
Makes sense though - my MacBook Pro running Windows 7 under Boot Camp is hands down the best Windows PC I've ever had. And the list price when I bought it was pretty close to the list price of the comparable generation and closest spec match HP provided by my employer around the same time. The MacBook significanly outperforms the HP in most respects though, especially the SSD and retina display - my HP just can't touch what those can do.
For something that Apple seemed to kind of back into half heartedly, Boot Camp is one of the most useful but most under appreciated and underutilized assets in the computers industry today.
ardent73
macrumors regular
Also, the majority of them won't be running windows; I'm sure some have been waiting to ditch Microsoft ever since they bailed on OS/2.
canman4PM
macrumors 6502
There are PC fanboys?
Shirasaki
macrumors P6
I do agree Lenovo has trashed thinkpad brand. It has no idea how to maintain and improve this brand.
Different cultures do tend to use different tools and different kinds of people also. In reality, tools have everything to do with culture.
Uhmm, no. That is not what culture would be. Actually, you are the one linking things together in some strange way. Culture influences tools and tools influence culture. Also, people using PCs in general are indeed different from those using Macs. Why would people buy Macs otherwise? If we agree that there are differences, then certainly from a certain perspective, one type of people is better than the other. Of course, this shouldn't be construed (like you are doing) as being a better person. There's nothing arrogant to think that someone is smarter, if they are, and that doesn't make them a better person, just a smarter one.
Thinkpads have been getting worse and worse over the years and frankly the only thing special about them was the good build quality and some features, such as Wacom digitizers.
Well, that is precisely where we disagree - a Mac environment is more efficient. I am constantly bewildered by how people can find Windows to be any good. In my experience, MacOS has been consistently better for everything, from writing and design to building a network and coding. I have always had less problems with the Macs. Heck, Microsoft can't get two consecutive versions of Windows right.
Also, how is an iMac a ton of money and not good for 3D? When we compare spec for spec, Macs are hardly that expensive and when you throw in the resale value it evens out pretty nicely (if not being cheaper).
76ShovelHead
macrumors 6502a
This is pretty cool news. I wonder if this rekindled relationship will lead back to PowerPC Macs. I for one wish to see Apple take over enterprise applications. More specifically, there are currently no applications of Macs in the pharmacy to my knowledge, and moving from Company A which utilized W7 to Company B where I now must stare at XP all day, I really want to see third parties developing software for the platform. As one member posted before me, if given the choice, the Operating system I stare at for 8+ hours a day is as imperative as the shoes I stand in the duration of my shift.
Although I gues it means, in an ironic quirk of fate, that an IBM Compatible is now a Mac and not a PC lol.
throAU
macrumors G4
Yeah, I wasn't counting the server side. But good point. Wasn't actually aware they had given that up as well.
Either way, their bread and butter these days is consulting and putting pieces together and support. Any and all hardware they sell is just to support the solution. The "IBM PC" is no more.
As far as apple ditching "IBM" cpus goes - that was always going to happen as soon as power consumption became important due to simple economies of scale. Intel/Motorola (the other members in the PowerPC alliance) have a server focus, and the Apple portable market was small enough to be insignificant and not worth spending anywhere near the resources that intel could bring to bear on mobile processors.
The Intel Core onwards CPUs killed PPC macs, not anything else. Simply due to far better performance per watt at a time when mobile was becoming more important, and it was simply not worth it for Motorola/IBM to try to compete. PPC was a drop in the ocean as far as portable go and the ROI was simply not there for them to bother.
Since then i don't see anyone catching intel in performance per watt. ARM may become more competitive in terms of an OEM's ability to customise, but intel have the best fabs in the world and a massive budget. They're cruising at the moment, their nearest competitor in this space, AMD is basically broke.
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AtomicGrog
macrumors regular
Hope IBM don't do what i know one company did... buy old stock, put windows on it and then wonder why they couldn't upgrade due to bootcamp issues. Was a significant number if machines, 20k+
throAU
macrumors G4
Hope IBM don't do what i know one company did... buy old stock, put windows on it and then wonder why they couldn't upgrade due to bootcamp issues. Was a significant number if machines, 20k+
I guarantee you that if IBM are buying Macs it is to run OS X on them out of the box. Doing anything else would just be a support nightmare and any serious enterprise simply will not do that, they'll just buy PCs instead and deal with the crappy hardware if need be. Some PC hardware is OK, and it's certainly more than "good enough" to not justify shoe-horning Windows onto a bunch of Macs (and paying for the licenses to do so).
The whole "win" from the mac is reduced support. There's no way an enterprise would go mac and then screw that up.