[X4U] Trying to get a Mac Laptop approved - Part 1

[Daly Jessup]

>  >> I have copied the response from my company's IT Manager.  He has
>  >> refused my request for my laptop replacement to be a Mac.

My own company, probably a small- to mid-sized company (about 18,000 
employees, I think) has a majority of PCs and several hundred 
engineers and artists running Macs. There's an active discussion list 
populated by Mac  Users, who help each other with issues such as VPN 
from away to the company network, working with Outlook "Invitations," 
and so on.

It's not that it is problem-free, and sometimes the solutions sound 
pretty "techie" to me, but they all manage to work it out. And I.T. 
is slightly supportive. But on the whole, they do manage. Mostly, the 
issues on our rather arcane issues. I know that for myself, when I 
need to reach my work computer from  a Mac, I juse use the VPN client 
they provide, and it's easy. I can work on my work computer just by 
knowing its IP address and password.

And when they have to reach strange Unix-only applications on the 
work network, they sometimes have issues, but they always work it 
out. But they are serious geeks. If your needs a relatively simple, 
it should not be a big deal.

Actually I have a vague memory of a few of them trying to do Outlook 
"invitations" stuff with the Mac, and it being problematical. Most 
people I know who use Eudora on their PCs, still use Outlook just for 
the calendar. My company seems to have lots and lots of meetings and 
so that's a big deal.

Anyway,I can just say that I inherited a G5 from an artist who always 
uses Macs there, and it just goes on the main intranet without 
problem and traverses the Windows/Unix networks without any issue. 
And this is in straight OS X 10.4.11, I believe. No Parallels, VMWare 
Fusion, or CrossOver, or any of that, involved.

The thing is, he is right that they have a supply chain that does not 
involve components for Macs, so you would be asking them to find new 
suppliers and the like. Perhaps this depends on how big your company 
is, and how big a deal it is to add another supplier?

My feeling is that his explanations sound reasonable but that in 
fact, they would be negligible in practice.  Macs are pretty clever 
at networking. But remember, when you ask for an update to Photoshop 
or to Office, or anything like that, you would be asking for some 
product that they would have to purchase as a single item, not as a 
corporate purchase.

So he may still have a point, unless they have a group of other Mac 
users they aren't telling you about!

Daly
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