Who uses their MacBook for Work/business?

[GfulDedFan]

Mine's been at work for a couple years. I access our Linux server wirelessly using Terminal. I'm emulating Wyse 60 and using a telnet connection. It wasn't easy but thanks to my genius son, it works perfectly. The Mac alternatives are fairly costly. I have Parallels/xp for my personal Quicken '07 only.

When I introduced my MacBook to my workplace, I had hopes of replacing all of our pc boxes and notebooks but over the course of the last couple years, I've felt that it's a little cost prohibitive. And then there's the learning (or refuse to learn) curve.

Works for me.

 

[UnderLoK]

Let's sum this up: Everybody who uses a Mac for or at work can only do so because the Mac either runs Windows natively, in a VM or because they can use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Client to connect to a Microsoft Windows Terminal Server. In other words, the Mac only works because you are using it as a Windows PC with an Apple label.

Lucky me that there's a lot of Unix/Linux stuff running at my current company to which I can connect through VPN and ssh -- meaning Unix connecting to Unix. For the rest, I'm in the same boat as everybody else and have to fire up Vista either in VMWare Fusion or natively. Or I just use it on my quite nice Dell XPS (provided by the company).

However, all this stuff is more a case against Macs than for them: The machine is only then really useful when you use Windows on it. That is not what I would call a strong selling point for Apple. It rather shows Apple's greatest weakness: That they are not a player in the business class.

Them not going after business is no accident. They can't compete in the space as the major players only make money through HUGE volume and that isn't a game that Apple plays. They learned their lesson a very long time ago.

Having said that, if you run/manage a *nix network then your good to go. If it's Windows you have to VM. Those are really the only 2 cut/dry scenarios as everything else "depends".

 

[Richard1028]

Them not going after business is no accident. They can't compete in the space as the major players only make money through HUGE volume and that isn't a game that Apple plays. They learned their lesson a very long time ago.

I feel that Jobs and his rebellious "computer for the rest of us" crap screwed this up in the eighties. The guy just didn't understand business back then. (e.g. his stubborn refusal to include a numeric keypad in the early macs).

Even though 10% market share ain't bad these days... I don't ever see Apple as nothing more than a niche market in the corporate world (like Linux). But if Win7 is another dog they'll certainly gain even more.

 

[polaris20]

Let's sum this up: Everybody who uses a Mac for or at work can only do so because the Mac either runs Windows natively, in a VM or because they can use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Client to connect to a Microsoft Windows Terminal Server. In other words, the Mac only works because you are using it as a Windows PC with an Apple label.

Lucky me that there's a lot of Unix/Linux stuff running at my current company to which I can connect through VPN and ssh -- meaning Unix connecting to Unix. For the rest, I'm in the same boat as everybody else and have to fire up Vista either in VMWare Fusion or natively. Or I just use it on my quite nice Dell XPS (provided by the company).

However, all this stuff is more a case against Macs than for them: The machine is only then really useful when you use Windows on it. That is not what I would call a strong selling point for Apple. It rather shows Apple's greatest weakness: That they are not a player in the business class.

So because you can interface with Linux/Unix servers, Windows servers, run virtual machines for testing, MS Office, and most VPN's, this is a case against Macs in business?

Gotcha. I guess all the increased productivity of the last 7 months has been my imagination.