Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Enterprise, Apple, MacBook
CIO likes MacBook
It isn't newsworthy when a Windows users, formerly biased against Macs in the enterprise, changes his mind. Unless, of course, that Windows users happens to be John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and CareGroup. This man isn't your typical user.As part of an article for CIO Halamka tried out 3 different machines for a month each to evaluate whether they would be viable replacements for his Windows machine. The first was a MacBook (couldn't they have sprung for a MacBook Pro?), the second a ThinkPad running RedHat, and the third a Dell subnotebook running Windows XP. The twist being that after Halamka shares his thoughts with CIO magazine an expert in each machine type comments on his experiences. The Mac expert is the always dashing Jason Snell from Macworld.
The conclusion? The Dell subnotebook running OS X would be Halamka's ideal machine (he likes the fact that the Dell is smaller and puts out less heat), sadly that doesn't exist. Read the whole article for all the gory details.
[via Daring Fireball]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff said 9:55PM on 11-28-2006
Correction - should be Dell subnotebook running XP and not OS X.
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Brad said 11:45PM on 11-28-2006
OK. so he likes Dell, and Apple really isnt into the whole super tiny notebook game. but I think it would be a bad idea for Apple to license OSX and would be against its current policies to do *almost* everything for itself hardware, software, ipod, apple stores, apple care etc.... I really would rather not see a dell running OSX, Then when the Dells crap out Apple gets the blame.
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Justin B said 10:20PM on 11-28-2006
read more carefully before you start issuing corrections for people, yes?
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David Cake said 11:31PM on 11-28-2006
Why do CIOs seem to make dumb decisions? This article answers it pretty well - a big name CIO needs a stunt like this before he even tries Firefox. Its pretty obvious that prior to this stunt, this guy was desperately out of touch with anything outside his organisation.
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michael said 12:31AM on 11-29-2006
this article loses a lot of sauce with comments like (and i apologize for the long cut-and-paste here_:
The fact that he can easily change the OS's underlying file structure with a simple right click enabled him to configure his XP desktop to look like the desktop on his MacBook. He was so taken with the MacBook's clean user interface that he wanted to replicate it on his Dell, so he created a short cut that takes him to all the files he's working on. The only other items on his Dell desktop—as on his Mac—are a trash can and a launch bar with icons for his e-mail client, Firefox client, a calculator, a notepad and wide area network wireless connectivity.
this "change the underlying file structure" bit was also tossed about in the OSX likes department, but with less description. I think pretty much anybody reading this website knows you don't have to "modify the underlying FS" in Windows or OSX to change the number of icons on the desktop. You right-click in a few places (excuse me: Ctrl-click)
if that wasn't bad enough, the article basically blames Apple for the problems/featureset of Entourage, which as we know, is a Microsoft Product. Yes, Entourage can only be found on a Mac, and is one of the only Exchange solutions for the platform.
What I'm getting at here is not the "his views of Windows are biased" or the "his views of OSX are biased" rant that would be so easy to do. Instead, I offer that this article is nearly valueless, and worse, actually could have negative ramifications. Shitty articles with inaccurate information and copious use of buzzwords read by gullible CIOs are the bane of sysadmin/it manager/tech wonks world wide.
My boss wants a blackberry because he's got compensation issues, not because he's got email to read in the toilet. Could be that he read an article in CIO mag once about how blackberry's will increase productivity no matter what, deployment, security and usability issues be damned.
I'm not sure what my actual point is here, just that the article is reminiscent of too many CIOs I've known (and surely, that you've known), who see buzzword 'X' tossed about in a smashingly non-technical article, and demands it be rolled out. I still have XML coming out of my ears after the internets brief flirtation with it a few years ago (of course, thanks to AJAX, it's back again).
(CAVEAT: I use a Dell d420, same notebook listed in the article as being his preferred hardware platform. Being a dork, my Windows doesn't crash, and only gets rebooted on patch days, if that. That said, if apple made anything resembling it, I'd probably pay whatever it cost.)
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brandon said 12:53AM on 11-29-2006
Mac OS X: Looking Better for Business page says:
"Halamka prized the fact that his MacBook didn't crash or freeze once during the month he used it."
Mac OS X workarounds page says:
"For example, CareGroup's Juniper Networks' VPN wasn't compatible with the MacBook, and it crashed the computer the first time he tried to connect"
Seems a little contradictory doesn't it?? The article itself seems more than a little embellished upon and very fluff-y.
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ian Patterson said 3:14AM on 11-29-2006
Fascinating article - and a really interesting place to find it.
Its also worth reading the page by page comments from readers on th CIO site. Some - both by content and by who are making them - are really encouraging that there is growing acceptance of Mac OS X inside some sectors of the enterprise.
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