Chad Dickerson, the CTO of Inforworld, has been spent the last year managing his magazine’s IT infrastructure from a PowerBook. In an article for his magazine, he says that he has embraced his PowerBook, though he can’t quite ditch his IBM ThinkPad. While he has been able to use Mac OS X to work in and manage a mixed network of Windows and Linux computers, he has found some specialty software and other specialty tasks he still needs his ThinkPad to do. From the article:
About a year ago, I enthusiastically switched to OS X running on a PowerBook laptop. Since then I’ve experienced the ups and downs of managing enterprise IT from a PowerBook. As a personal device, my PowerBook has become the center of my digital life in a way that my Windows laptop never did, mainly because I love the look and feel. Yet running OS X in a typical enterprise is not problem-free. A positive experience, yes, but not perfect.
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In the end, the sheer elegance of OS X prevents me from dismissing it as just another operating system. I can’t offer the Mac my full and blind devotion as long as I have to keep my ThinkPad close by to run IT. But I’m keeping my PowerBook closer.
The full article has details and specifics about his experience, and we recommend the article as a very interesting read, especially for those considering using Mac OS X in an enterprise environment. We’d also like to thank the many Observers who wrote in to tell us about the article.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Mr. Dickerson’s experience is an invaluable one for anyone in the enterprise space wanting to Switch. There are many barriers to entry for making such a move, at least on the perception side of things, and Mr. Dickerson’s choice to be a guinea pig allows others to see that there isn’t as much risk in migrating to OS X, yet there is much potential reward.
For instance, he said, "My PowerBook has become the center of my digital life in a way that my Windows laptop never did." That’s a very powerful statement, at least in our opinion, and one that might possibly resonate with some folks. Then again, the idea of enjoying your computer is something that is honestly alien to so many Windows users that many people simply have to use a Mac to understand what Mr. Dickerson is talking about.
Overall, though, this article is terrific exposure for the Mac platform in the IT world, and it adds to the momentum that Apple seems to be building.