Mac networks

[hobowankenobi]

Any organization that is planning to switch platforms, needs to procure at least a couple test machines and run them. Alot.

Test MS Office, as well as competitors, both from Apple and others including Open Office. The testers must be power users that really can really test the extreme use example for the organization, and rigorously evaluate the options.

They must also be open-minded....as any testers that are not open to change, and don't have the ability (because of bias or preferences) to do a thorough, exhaustive, and well documented test are of little value, and can actually do great harm.

A bad evaluation is just a waste of time and resources. It might actually be worse and more costly than doing nothing at all. Don't underestimate the value and importance a rigorous testing.

Next, an evaluation report should be compiled listing pros and cons of all things tested. There will always be both.

Beyond Office software options, don't forget about:

- Desktop management/IT acceptance and support
- Security requirements
- Network services (file servers, backups, etc.)
- Other software and peripheral (printers, scanners, etc.) compatibility
- User desire/support needs/productivity
- The opportunity to move away from legacy hardware, software, and old/out-dated workflow and processes.

Asking other to guess.....is a good start.....but is no way to proceed. Or succeed. IT buy in in particular will be key. Any decent IT department that wants to kill a platform....will kill it. Guaranteed.

Info like the IBM switch to Macs is available, and gives some insight as to what can be achieved in larger orgs with good planning and roll out.

 

[Les Kern]

How much better is it over 2011?

Light Years. That being said, if the functionality 11 brings you is all you need, it will be fine for the foreseeable future. And 16 requires a more modern machine. Dog-slow on anything 4-5 years old or older. And of note: the learning curve, while not particularly steep, it is annoying and frustrating.

 

[campyguy]

My small company and I aren't all Mac, rather about 50/50 Win PC and Mac. Lots of solid advice here in this thread, will add a couple of bits here...

I've moved us to Office 365, iPhones/iPads, Mac Mini Servers and Linux Servers connected to Synology NAS devices with backups to Amazon S3 (I personally backup to Amazon's Cloud service - I got a free stackable year for each of the AppleCare purchases I bought on Prime and jump on the 1-day $5 sale for an additional year). On the Macs (including my own) we use Word/Excel/Access/Outlook 2016 in Parallels Desktop VMs with Win 10 Pro; Office 2016 was pretty solid from Day 1 in Windows, and the Mac suite seems like most of it is just an afterthought - Office 365 gives us the flexibility to pick our OS and gives us access on the few iPad Pros we use, and I will not put my business operations on the Mac Office platform any time soon. In the Mac suite, Word is serviceable but Excel is and always has been gimped - and I've been using those apps on the Mac since the late '80s...

Regarding trying the new Office products, I'd offer not signing up for a trial of the Office suite but, rather, sign up for a trial of Office 365, choosing the Business Premium trial option that includes 5 installs. The Mini Servers (2012) are mostly for caching and deploying iOS files and hosting a music library.

And look at Apple's Joint Venture Program for some or all of your employees (https://www.apple.com/retail/business/jointventure/terms.html) - we use it not for all of but rather for some of our not-Mac savvy personnel, and we REALLY like the Stay Running service that's part of this program even though we always have a backup Mac and PC laptop available as part of my S*** Happens Program in my company.

 

[jwolf6589]

Light Years. That being said, if the functionality 11 brings you is all you need, it will be fine for the foreseeable future. And 16 requires a more modern machine. Dog-slow on anything 4-5 years old or older. And of note: the learning curve, while not particularly steep, it is annoying and frustrating.

Even on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro with 8 Gigs of RAM?

 

[Mikael H]

Even on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro with 8 Gigs of RAM?

It worked fine on my mid-range mid 2010 MBP with (aftermarket) SSD and 8 GB of RAM.

 

[Les Kern]

Even on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro with 8 Gigs of RAM?

"Working" is a relative term. Yes, all the features work, it's just that on some older machines, like my 3.2GhZ 2009 Pro, windows open slow and there is stuttering. On my newer machines it's "okay" but on my i7 PC it's lightning fast.

 

[jwolf6589]

"Working" is a relative term. Yes, all the features work, it's just that on some older machines, like my 3.2GhZ 2009 Pro, windows open slow and there is stuttering. On my newer machines it's "okay" but on my i7 PC it's lightning fast.

Then I may stick with Office 2011 then. Its not it does not do the job as it does and satisfies me with its feature set. The majority of companies run Windows Office and even then not all of them are using the latest version. At my job for example they have Office 2010 on Windows 7 on all their workstations.

 

[kiwipeso1]

Any work at a company with a all Mac network? If so do macs have this problem or limitation that Windows has?

At my job like most we have a PC network. I can work on one PC and save files to my desktop but when I log onto another PC I do not see those files or saved I.E. Settings and bookmarks. Do Macs have this limitation?

Use chrome for shared bookmarks and browser settings across all devices.

As far as common files go, you'd want a server set to share user accounts across the network computers.
This can be done with microsoft active directory I think on the windows side, and os x server on the reliable side of the network.
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It's a shame the Mac versions of MsOffice are so scaled back compared to Windows as we rely on them and Outlook heavy around here. Does your company use Outlook for mail?

You'd be better off standardising on thunderbird for mail and calendars than rely on outlook.
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I thought abut that, but knowing Apple's history of business products that have vanished (remember AppleWorks?) I am not sure. MS Office is used by millions of corporations around the world and is not going anywhere.

I would agree that microsoft's software is not going anywhere in terms of usefulness.

 

[Altemose]

Then I may stick with Office 2011 then. Its not it does not do the job as it does and satisfies me with its feature set. The majority of companies run Windows Office and even then not all of them are using the latest version. At my job for example they have Office 2010 on Windows 7 on all their workstations.

Ever since Microsoft introduced the Open XML file scheme in Office 2007 and 2008, most of the latest suites will open documents and files without issues. There are also compatability packs for Office 2003 and 2004 to allow them to open the newer style formats. At this point, you need to use your discretion rather than asking your question in multiple threads twice. Office 2011 is not getting any new features, it will merely be security and bug fixes from now one. You asked about running the newer Office programs on Windows in Boot Camp, which I strongly discourage simply because you are adding a layer of complexity and a layer of things to go wrong.

I can guarantee you that Office 2016 for Mac will do everything you need it to. Therefore, do not be quick to dump 2011 to go jump on the Windows bandwagon and get Office 2013 only to realize it is comparable to the latest suite for Mac. That would make no sense, and add complexity along the way which is never a good thing in the long run.

Use chrome for shared bookmarks and browser settings across all devices.

As far as common files go, you'd want a server set to share user accounts across the network computers.
This can be done with microsoft active directory I think on the windows side, and os x server on the reliable side of the network.

Chrome and Google Apps will handle a lot of the syncs like you said, but having roaming profiles is usually a mess on both OS X and Windows.

You'd be better off standardising on thunderbird for mail and calendars than rely on outlook.

Actually, it would be much better to standardize on Gmail, Google Calendar, and one suite of web applications rather than migrating to a third party local program. That being said, Thunderbird is a great client but it is not as good as using a web service for reliability, simplicity, and flexibility.