German company switching 12,000 desktops from PC to Mac

http://www.9to5mac.com/axel-springer-mac

by cmcginnis • 18 years ago

13 33 18 years ago

josefresco7• 18 years ago

More interesting is this "Until now the highest profile switcher has been Auto Warehouse Co. which is in the midst of a switch of 1000 desktops"

That's it?!? And they're not even done, which means the largest installation is now under 1K.

Shows how far the Mac platform has to go in the 9-5 world.

axod• 18 years ago

mac dominates the design/music/film industries though

josefresco7• 18 years ago

Any evidence to back this up? I'm a web designer, I know a ton of other designers and they are all either multi-OS capable or fall firstly into the PC camp.

The posers (fresh out of school, concerned about image/style still) usually are using Macs.

/ducks

reazalun2• 18 years ago

Contrary to popular belief, actually Linux dominates the film industry.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT5611327583.html

jonknee• 18 years ago

It doesn't mean the largest installation is under 1,000. It means the largest all at once switch was 1,000 (at least that was publicized, these things aren't always). Switching from one platform to another is pretty rare.

cstejerean2• 18 years ago

I wonder just how fun a corporate, locked-down, Mac will be.

josefresco7• 18 years ago

About as fun as a corporate, locked-down PC is.

cstejerean2• 18 years ago

That's what I'm afraid of. I was hoping people would be less likely to completely hose a Mac and therefore there would be a lower need for draconian restrictions.

gaius5• 18 years ago

You know, back in the day, it was normal for everyone to have two computers on their desktop. There would be a generic PC running Windows with a 14" monitor for word processing and email, and there would be another machine for "actual work". If you were an engineer, it might be a SPARC or RS/6000 workstation. If you were a designer, probably a Mac or an SGI.

Nowadays you can get one box to do everything, a Mac is a Unix workstation that can run a PC in a VM. Why wouldn't organizations switch?

reazalun2• 18 years ago

Can someone explain to me why designers should use Mac? I can't see any significant differences between Photoshop and Illustrator run in Windows and Mac.

josefresco7• 18 years ago

Shhhh, there isn't. But don't bring that up because it's very cool to use a Mac, it makes you so creative and cutting edge. Rainbows and unicorns and dogs shitting ice cream and all that.

TweedHeads• 18 years ago

What's the name of your guide dog?

omouse• 18 years ago

There used to be a difference and Adobe and Apple were very good friends many moons ago. Some people can't help but cling to a past where Windows was still only glare on Bill Gates's glasses. (I probably have my history wrong, but you get what I mean)

gaius5• 18 years ago

I didn't say anything about who should do anything. Just telling you how it actually was.

Certainly, back then, if you needed colour management, Mac was by far the easiest/cheapest solution.

modoc4• 18 years ago

I can't tell you why they SHOULD, but I can tell you why some might want to:

Personal OS/Interface preference. I've used Windows 2k and XP for years. I find the OS X interface to be cleaner, easier, and faster to use. I just prefer it. Just like I prefer my new car over my old one. No logic, no stats, just what I feel happier/more comfortable using.

OS Level ColorSync support, which extends through screen calibration, printers, Safari, Preview, Photoshop, etc...

Built-in screen calibration. No, it's not as good as a $ hardware/software package, but it's pretty good, and good enough for web work certainly.

The ability to run any OS/browser combination easily (Parallels or VM Ware). Macs aren't a majority, but they're up there, and depending on your site's demographic, making sure stuff looks right/works on the Mac can be very important. I run OS X/Safari, OS X/Firefox, WinXP/IE6, WinXP/IE7, WinXP/Firefox, Vista/IE7, Vista/Firefox, etc... on my Mac very easily. I can also run my Windows VM at whatever screen size/resolution I want to see how things will look on a 1024/768 display, without hosing my main display/work area.

For whatever reason, using Photoshop on a Mac is easier/better looking for me. I can't back that up, but it's a strong difference for me.

Apple displays generally have better color gamut, than the displays from major PC vendors. Even the photographers I know who choose to use Windows (which is fine), usually use Apple displays, unless their using a very high buck non-consumer display.

I'm sure other folks are much happier using PCs, which is fine. These are just some of my reasons.

mattmaroon2• 18 years ago

They wouldn't switch because of the tremendous cost involved. You have to replace a bunch of already functioning boxes, and for what?

You'd have to expect a pretty large decrease in IT support staff to recoup that cost. For businesses, it's all about the bottom line on the spreadsheet, and the cost of switching from any one OS to another is rarely going to be justified.

Much more likely is a company supporting both for a time, and switching over to the new OS on all new purchases, or allowing employees to choose.

gaius5• 18 years ago

But most companies (in my experience, before some little punk says "but where's your data") tend to replace all their kit every 3-5 years anyway. Those "old" computers didn't suddenly get slower. Unless you're in a business where raw CPU grunt matters, there's no real reason, but they do it anyway.

It's funny, loads of companies in the late 90s ripped out their Unix CAD workstations and replaced them with high-end PCs running NT . No-one batted an eyelid at that. Now we're talking about replacing average PCs with Unix workstations and everyone's like shyeah right.

j2d2• 18 years ago

Lots and lots of vba written for Excel.

meisterix• 18 years ago

by the way, it's not any company. it's axel springer, one of the largest media-companies in germany

ojbyrne• 18 years ago

That's a newspaper/magazine publisher. I find this hilarious, because back in the day (mid-nineties) most companies in that industry used Macs. Many IT departments probably completed the switchover to PCs in the early part of this decade (standardization was probably the primary reason) - and now they have to switch back.

DanielH• 18 years ago

You are right!

They switched some years ago for the exact same reasons they mention now from Mac to Windows PCs.

German company switching 12,000 desktops from PC to Mac

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