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Macs or PCs: What IT Admins Think

I've been seeing more Macs on laps lately, not just Windows-dominated industry events, but even some of my close friends and the companies they work for. Windows 7 managed to chunk out some market share from Apple, but don't let that fool you, as Microsoft's OSes overall have been in a slight but noticeable decline.

What's making things complicated is the enterprise, where IT admins are turning around and saying that Macs are easier to manage. Maybe this report is laden with heaps of bias, so take it for what it's worth. So, I ask you, readers of MCPmag.com, to chime in if you're experiencing first hand what this report is claiming. Share your experiences here.

Posted by Michael Domingo on 03/09/2010 at 5:37 PM


Reader Comments:

Wed, Mar 10, 2010

Is there centralized patching for Macs like WSUS? Group policy that can enforce settings on mass amounts of Macs? Full Active Directory, office, and Exchange integration? In small quantities Macs are probably manageable but past that they exponentially become a pain.

Wed, Mar 10, 2010 Oliver Stuttgart, Germany

At large companies with standardized hardware and automated OS / application installations the computer platform itself is not the main source of support costs. With more and more corporate applications being accessed via a web browser this trend is increasing. At most enterprises the single largest support cost is password resets (including passwords for various resources). I doubt that the Mac / Windows debate is taking place at any large companies. The debate is over thin clients, linux and virtual machines.

Wed, Mar 10, 2010 WS Northwest US

It's been awhile since I supported a Mac environment, but in the places I used to consult I found that there were far fewer help calls from Mac clients than PCs, and those calls were also more easily resolved. I have heard similar comments from other sys/network admins. Given the number of issues I still encounter from PC users every day, I would expect this to still be true. In fact, at my last job the help desk person changed his entire household over to Macs because they were easier to deal with than the PCs at work.

Wed, Mar 10, 2010 Jim Hutto Denver

I've been in IT for 18 years. Most of my experience has been with PC's. About 6 years ago, our Graphics Dept decided that they had to have Mac's. So, we purchased them and I started my learning curve. It took me a while to learn how to make them work on our network, but it's basically only in sharing files. Email is another thing. Office for the mac is a different animal. And I've had both of the Mac's systems crash. So much for not having problems. I had to buy new hard drives and start from scatch. If mac's are going to enter the enterprise, then they will have to provide better intergration with Active Directory and Email on exchange. Until that happens, they are just spitting in the wind.

Wed, Mar 10, 2010

If any vendor controls every aspect of a system you'd expect fewer problems. Numbers can also be skewed especially when comparing 95% of computers to 5% of computers. All things have pros and cons and since various users have various requirements they will see different pros and cons. Which computer is better? The one that you enjoy more.

Wed, Mar 10, 2010 John Case Ohio

I work at a High School and we have a 1 to 1 laptop program. This past year we switched to Macbook laptops for our incoming students. So far I must say that management and troubleshooting is much easier. I've been troubleshooting Windows systems since the early 90's, so I have spent time in the trenches. I'm not saying that Macs are without headache, they just are easier to troubleshoot.

Tue, Mar 9, 2010 John

The reality is, with just around 5% market share, the number of problems you are going to see in relation to a pc are going to be much much less. Most of the problems in the Win world are due to poorly managed systems. If and when the number of macs increases significantly, the same proliferation of problems is sure to follow. These biased reviews by one side or the other are really getting old.

Tue, Mar 9, 2010 Don S. California

Middle school with about 1100 computers: probably 700 PC to 400 Macs. PCs have higher expectations: AD sign-on results in mapped drives, SharePoint, and portable experience (My Documents, favorites). Macs can get similar results with more effort, but these users care less: these students aren't big on collaboration. Total support labor time/cost is a wash, in both hardware and software domains.

Tue, Mar 9, 2010 Teddy Rodriquez

While I no longer support or work on Win desktops, I used to do both. Now I have multiple Macs at home that I work on (and support) and can see why an admin's life would be easier. Easy installs and updates, no app conflicts or viruses so far (18 months), 99.99% uptime and great support. Yes I spent more $$ but as they say, "I'm worth it!" I've also got Fusion for the times when I need a Win app and it works well. I am also testing out hosted virtual desktops and that looks promising, especially for our admins because if there is a Win problem you can just log out and log back in and get a fresh image.

Tue, Mar 9, 2010

I'm an IT Admin and while I agree that there are more Macs then in the past. There are still issues for us. There is still no easy Encryption other than PGP. With VDI being more and more talked about, does it really matter what computer I deploy to users? I do see more Enterprise software companies making Mac aware software. I'm sure within 2 years the MacOS will be Enterprise ready.

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