Do you use a Mac for a non design or non video use? Like in inventory control, shipping, finance, and the like? In shipping it would be difficult since neither FedEx nor UPS make Mac versions so you would need Parallels. But I imagine a few may use Macs in inventory but I can’t imagine anyone not using MS Office since it’s the most powerful. Perhaps most on this board are in the design field since few corporations use Macs in the fields I mentioned. Maybe this will change in the future. Yes Office for Mac is not nearly as nice as Office for Windows and perhaps this is one reason few use Macs in the business world.
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Who uses Macs in the business world?
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Macs in banking, yep. Not as easy to manage in an enterprise as Windows but doable for those who want them.
Our front of house clients are all iMacs (running Windows 7), but they're slowly being phased out for HP all in ones.
All of the infrastructure here is based on Windows Server, there is no provision for MacOS.
All of the infrastructure here is based on Windows Server, there is no provision for MacOS.
I work in corporate communications in a FTSE 100 company here in the UK. I use the classic 15in MacBook Pro. The workplace uses Office 365 for everything and is nearly all PCs.
The biggest challenge is the weakness of Microsoft's tools. Skype for Business is just awful, for example. Some days it's essentially unusable. Other Mac users I know use it on their phones instead.
But I get by, and Office does seem to be getting better nowadays (although I'm not a power user). I'm forced to use Chrome for browsing because Safari is just pathetic when it comes to SaaS. I laugh when anybody says Safari is a "proper" browser. Maybe if all you do is visit CNN. For work tasks it's really in the dark ages. Some of the SaaS I use won't even work with it. Other sites like Office 365 are just slow. It's like comparing a pedal bike to a car. Both will get to from one place to another, but a car is the only serious option if you work using it.
My workplace forces us to use McAfee antivirus, which is just a pile of excrement on the Mac. It drives me insane each and every day. I've read somewhere that it scans every single file that's created or modified. So if you do something as innocent as open Spotlight, which means a config file is written to in order to record the window position, you can get the pinwheel and a freeze. But if I remove the antivirus then my Mac is blocked from accessing the VPN.
The biggest challenge is the weakness of Microsoft's tools. Skype for Business is just awful, for example. Some days it's essentially unusable. Other Mac users I know use it on their phones instead.
But I get by, and Office does seem to be getting better nowadays (although I'm not a power user). I'm forced to use Chrome for browsing because Safari is just pathetic when it comes to SaaS. I laugh when anybody says Safari is a "proper" browser. Maybe if all you do is visit CNN. For work tasks it's really in the dark ages. Some of the SaaS I use won't even work with it. Other sites like Office 365 are just slow. It's like comparing a pedal bike to a car. Both will get to from one place to another, but a car is the only serious option if you work using it.
My workplace forces us to use McAfee antivirus, which is just a pile of excrement on the Mac. It drives me insane each and every day. I've read somewhere that it scans every single file that's created or modified. So if you do something as innocent as open Spotlight, which means a config file is written to in order to record the window position, you can get the pinwheel and a freeze. But if I remove the antivirus then my Mac is blocked from accessing the VPN.
Only to access my work VM when I'm at home. But Citrix support for OS X was (is?) patchy so I'm on a Linux box now running a Win VM, because company has no Linux support. For portability I might move back to the MacBook Pro, but I'd add a Win VM, that way I don't have to add company malware to my Mac and I avoid the Citrix issues.
So while I have used Mac hardware, all the software is Windows.
So while I have used Mac hardware, all the software is Windows.
When I was at IBM there were 2,000 Mac users in 2009, now the Mac is IBM's standard work laptop but they also have Windows but users have a choice and many choose the Mac. When I moved to Adobe, it was about 70% Mac versus 30 Windows. At other software companies I have worked it's been mixed between both but I do see it growing particularly when the company develops a Mac version which kind of requires the technical sales personnel to need a Mac so they can demo the Mac version as well as the Windows or even the Linux version of their software. That is the case where I now work. Many of the consultants are looking at the MacBook Pro so they can run Windows and Linux versions of our server software as well as the Mac and Windows Desktop software.
No idea, I know that they use macs, but my interactions with them is limited to handling certain portal pages.
IT admin here. I use my Mac primarily. A lot of Office 365, so there's app support. Aside from that, I have to Remote Desktop into the Windows servers I administer. I do use VMware Fusion for when I need a Windows machine.
There are definitely places like that, just as there are places where it's all Macs, and certainly some that have some mix too.
Nope, Macs are in the minority, hence their meager 10% (or there abouts) marketshare.
That doesn't really change what I mentioned about there being companies (or at least sometimes divisions in case of large companies) that mostly use one type or another--either mostly just Macs or mostly PCs--just as there are those that are mixed to one degree or another.
Well we're a creative agency to be fair, but the Editors and graphic artists are all on Macs, Office staff are a mix of Windows/Macs depending on their preferences or what their role is.
All machines are bound to a Windows Server 2012 Active Directory domain controller.
We (the IT guys) all use MacBook Pro's and connect to the Windows/Mac/Linux servers via that.
I'd never use a Windows PC to administer the network.
All machines are bound to a Windows Server 2012 Active Directory domain controller.
We (the IT guys) all use MacBook Pro's and connect to the Windows/Mac/Linux servers via that.
I'd never use a Windows PC to administer the network.
I work for a Windows-using company but bought my own MBP. I just prefer the user experience and the workflow.
I successfully used Keynote presentations as a kind of trojan horse to get my company to keep more Macs around. It was a PC-centric company but we had a few Macs around for product testing purposes. I built a few really good Keynote decks (miles ahead of anything you can do on PowerPoint) and of course the only way to view them natively is with a Mac. Next thing you know, several departments buy Macs both for this reason and also because more and more people are bringing iPhones into the workplace and they work really well together. They even started running most of the conference room screens off Mac Minis mounted behind the monitors, and it started getting more common for people to BYOD or request a "floater" Mac laptop for certain things.
I ended up of course transitioning to using a Mac 95% of the time, but with a PC off to the side I could use to get into certain systems (like frickin' Sharepoint, ugh) which didn't play well at all with a Mac. Other than that, I was mostly working in Adobe CC apps which of course work very well cross-platform, and I even got Mail, Calendar and Contacts to tie into our Exchange stuff quite smoothly. I prided myself on very rarely having to bug the IT guys, particularly once they gave me Admin access on the Mac. This might be confirmation bias in my own thinking, but it certainly seemed like my coworkers on their high-end PC laptops were constantly having network difficulties and just generally needed more maintenance.
I ended up of course transitioning to using a Mac 95% of the time, but with a PC off to the side I could use to get into certain systems (like frickin' Sharepoint, ugh) which didn't play well at all with a Mac. Other than that, I was mostly working in Adobe CC apps which of course work very well cross-platform, and I even got Mail, Calendar and Contacts to tie into our Exchange stuff quite smoothly. I prided myself on very rarely having to bug the IT guys, particularly once they gave me Admin access on the Mac. This might be confirmation bias in my own thinking, but it certainly seemed like my coworkers on their high-end PC laptops were constantly having network difficulties and just generally needed more maintenance.
Although Apple 'bridges that gap" as well by allowing Mac's connecting to Activate Directory.. (AD) .
A few modifications in Users & Groups, and your all set.
https://www.portalguard.com/blog/20...irectory-integration-how-to-bind-a-mac-to-ad/
I'm not in a commercial company but I work in hospitals and at a university on the clinical/research side.
Hospitals, as far as I experienced, use commercial EHR software on Windows desktops or, better still, personalized web apps that run on everything, so many of them have Windows desktops everywhere and/or iPads to get things done at the bedside (some hospitals give an iPad to each doc and some to the nursing staff, so they are always and everywhere connected during the shift). The Office365 platform is heavily and widely used, especially Exchange, but this isn't much of a problem since I can sync most things with my Apple personal devices (which I obviously don't use with the EHR and patient's data, maybe in the future it will be possible but at the moment I see too many security problems).
The university makes heavy use of the Office 365 and of the Azure platforms. I can access resources and get work done from Windows or from macOS/iOS, so having only Apple personal devices is not a problem. Hardware is fully Windows as far it is provided from them, but a ton of us have personal Apple devices and we use them almost exclusively as the provided Windows 10 boxes are slow AF, have horrible keyboards and especially mices, and the list could go on.
I prefer using Macs because if I need Windows I can install it alongside macOS, create a virtual machine with it or RDP into a Windows computer. I've done all three things and they have worked really well, with an almost indistinguishable experience from that of native Windows hardware. On top of versatility I get great displays and powerful, beautiful all-in-ones as desktops and excellent battery life and great build quality on mobile, plus perfect integration between them and my iPhone. In the end I'm interested in getting stuff done peacefully and quickly, especially when number crunching statistical data of trials and studies.
That said, equipping with Macs an entire hospital or university would be very costly and basically useless. I could see a small-to-medium practice going all-Mac, or a private group of providers, but iMacs in clinical settings would be basically wasted (I'm of the opinion that in clinical setting nothing more than an iPad is really needed... keyboards, mices and cables are a receptacle for bacteria and other crappy beasts, and we do very basic things with the software, except for the radiologists who need dedicated workstations... some get iMacs and MacPros, some get Lenovo, Dell or HP, with a majority toward the second for economic reasons).
More than this, most staff wouldn't get the difference between a fork and a cutter, IT-wise. New generations are better at this, many of them owned Macs when they were studying for their degrees and use an iPhone every other minute, so they have a basic idea of what software/icon does what, of the window management works (different full screen), how to right click, how to use shortcuts... but I see so many unbelievable things even with Windows that I'm not sure spending hundreds of thousands of whatever currency would result in a better level of care and more efficient time spent in front of the computers. This is why I think the iPads are the way to go: you just touch what you want to execute and you can't mess with the device or the OS settings, you don't have to power monitors on or off (scary stuff), you can't download your daughter's engagement party invitation PDF on the ward computer and you don't have to reboot that often (in some services I think we get months of uptime on some machines), and last but not least they use way less energy.
Anyway, that's just my take. I know of universities that use Macs everywhere, but I suppose they still have a lot of Windows-based apps and services, especially in the technical departments.
Hospitals, as far as I experienced, use commercial EHR software on Windows desktops or, better still, personalized web apps that run on everything, so many of them have Windows desktops everywhere and/or iPads to get things done at the bedside (some hospitals give an iPad to each doc and some to the nursing staff, so they are always and everywhere connected during the shift). The Office365 platform is heavily and widely used, especially Exchange, but this isn't much of a problem since I can sync most things with my Apple personal devices (which I obviously don't use with the EHR and patient's data, maybe in the future it will be possible but at the moment I see too many security problems).
The university makes heavy use of the Office 365 and of the Azure platforms. I can access resources and get work done from Windows or from macOS/iOS, so having only Apple personal devices is not a problem. Hardware is fully Windows as far it is provided from them, but a ton of us have personal Apple devices and we use them almost exclusively as the provided Windows 10 boxes are slow AF, have horrible keyboards and especially mices, and the list could go on.
I prefer using Macs because if I need Windows I can install it alongside macOS, create a virtual machine with it or RDP into a Windows computer. I've done all three things and they have worked really well, with an almost indistinguishable experience from that of native Windows hardware. On top of versatility I get great displays and powerful, beautiful all-in-ones as desktops and excellent battery life and great build quality on mobile, plus perfect integration between them and my iPhone. In the end I'm interested in getting stuff done peacefully and quickly, especially when number crunching statistical data of trials and studies.
That said, equipping with Macs an entire hospital or university would be very costly and basically useless. I could see a small-to-medium practice going all-Mac, or a private group of providers, but iMacs in clinical settings would be basically wasted (I'm of the opinion that in clinical setting nothing more than an iPad is really needed... keyboards, mices and cables are a receptacle for bacteria and other crappy beasts, and we do very basic things with the software, except for the radiologists who need dedicated workstations... some get iMacs and MacPros, some get Lenovo, Dell or HP, with a majority toward the second for economic reasons).
More than this, most staff wouldn't get the difference between a fork and a cutter, IT-wise. New generations are better at this, many of them owned Macs when they were studying for their degrees and use an iPhone every other minute, so they have a basic idea of what software/icon does what, of the window management works (different full screen), how to right click, how to use shortcuts... but I see so many unbelievable things even with Windows that I'm not sure spending hundreds of thousands of whatever currency would result in a better level of care and more efficient time spent in front of the computers. This is why I think the iPads are the way to go: you just touch what you want to execute and you can't mess with the device or the OS settings, you don't have to power monitors on or off (scary stuff), you can't download your daughter's engagement party invitation PDF on the ward computer and you don't have to reboot that often (in some services I think we get months of uptime on some machines), and last but not least they use way less energy.
Anyway, that's just my take. I know of universities that use Macs everywhere, but I suppose they still have a lot of Windows-based apps and services, especially in the technical departments.
I work in home entertainment I.e. publishing movies on BR and DVD!
I’m all Mac but I’m very surprised that the majority of our industry is on windows including the design and production departments.
I’m all Mac but I’m very surprised that the majority of our industry is on windows including the design and production departments.
You shouldn't be surprised. Many video suites are cross platform, and Windows generally offers better performance for less money.
And it's "BD", not "BR".
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I get that but following the Mac ads of for creators etc I always assumed everyone would be on Macs.
and yes its BD, my bad habit as internally people tend to write BR or BLU