A bit of a rant

[samsonite2010]

Hi there,

I felt like posting here to let off a bit of steam.

Recently a question was asked to a group about setting up an 8 person company with Apple Macs, the person in question thought that this was not the best way to go, partly due to cost and partly due to the Mac not having the right software. The only reason why Macs came into the equation is that the director of the company bought a Mac and loves it and it is stated that he only uses it for internet and photos...

The discussion became a Mac vs. Windows debate and I mention Linux because I thought that in a small firm where budget it is a concern, it would be a good option. One of the older members of the group who is a Mac fan, spouted forth many "statistics" that he said proved that Macs were the cheapest to run over the long term and Linux was really expensive due to being unstable and having high support costs!

I was a bit dumbfounded and asked the guy to qualify his statistics, but they were a bit misleading. It appeared that all companies he has worked with have found Macs to be the answer and the others to be failures. He reckoned he had been tracking Linux costs for 25 years - I pointed out that Linux was under 20 years old...

This was making me a bit annoyed as you can imagine - this guy seemed to have the audience hooked, but he clearly knows very little. He went on to conclude that Linux is only for Computer Science students and is merely a home-brew OS not fit for any business purpose. What?! I thought huge companies like Amazon and Google for starters used it? He also said that because only a few OSs are UNIX certified like OS X and Solaris, all other Linux versions are bad and if any Linux software runs on them it is purely coincidence.

Sorry for the long post, but please tell me that Linux is used for serious business? I did tell this guy that maybe if you implement a system properly then it seems to work better.

Rant over!

[HROAdmin26]

Google is your friend.

IBM and Linux - Sales and Internally
IBM - Linux Case Studies

Google Platform

Servers are commodity-class x86 PCs running customized versions of Linux.

How Linux Saved Amazon Millions

Linux in Government

[samsonite2010]

I did mention Amazon and Google and provided links, but the guy continued to tell the group about how Linux is not even a consideration because apparently you need an army of Linux engineers to support even the smallest company...

I don't think this guy will ever listen, he thinks that Macs have already taken over the world and that they are the cheapest systems and do not even need IT support...

[Dapper Dan]

I would take a laptop to this "committee" loaded with Linux and let them see for themselves. Seeing is believing.

[elija]

I would take a laptop to this "committee" loaded with Linux and let them see for themselves. Seeing is believing.

Better yet; skin it up with Mac4Lin

[PrinceSharma]

That guy, my friend, is a tired old guy, who is scared to look beyond his circle.
Get this friggin' committee a Laptop loaded with CentOS or SL, and let them check out rest of the things.

[elija]

That guy, my friend, is a tired old guy, who is scared to look beyond his circle.
Get this friggin' committee a Laptop loaded with CentOS or SL, and let them check out rest of the things.

It's true; you will find people like that everywhere. The problem is that they often get listened to because they shout the loudest. Here's a tongue in cheek way to deal with him.

1. Tell everyone that you are prepared to bring in a laptop and Linux operating system at your own expense. (Test your chosen distro first )

2. Tell everyone that as the operating system is only a couple of months old that you will only put it up against the latest version of Mac OS as you want to be fair.

3. Ask the dinosaur if he is prepared to bring a laptop and the latest Mac OS at his own expense ready for the challenge.

4. Bring in your laptop and show every one how easy it is to install and use.

5. Wait for the dinosaur to not bring in the latest Mac OS and say quite clearly "Surely it couldn't cost more than Linux?"

Take the above advice at your own risk. You will get away with step 4.
Take the advice below at your own risk

Another way to wind up people like that is to point out the Mas OS is nothing but BSD in lipstick - and anyway wouldn't we all prefer to use real computers?

[samsonite2010]

Actually, I showed them everything and even the Cairo Dock and everyone sees that there are no known problems.

The dinosaur simply comes up with:

Linux is not real UNIX like OSX is which means it is just a home-brew system that requires a team of support engineers just to support one desktop machine. He reckons he has the facts from his 30+ years of working in the business - longer than I have been alive - I said his stats were irrelevant and he said all stats stand true today: The Mac is the only good OS... this guy must be on the payroll...

I am not sure how true his statements are although I have corrected his historic stats where he has been wrong and he has palmed them off as a slip of the tongue.

Personally, I cannot say facts without knowing them for sure - I have stated the facts about all the big organizations using Linux and have been for 10 years and have saved money, but the guy keeps saying that the opposite has been proved.

The funny thing (kind of) is that the committee is thinking of going Windows instead (they already are on Windows, but as I say, the director has a Mac Book and thinks they are cool, so asked about changing everyone else).

[TaZMAniac]

Throw it to the bean counters. Give them the facts.
Cost of Mac pc's, OS upgrade costs, software costs and the fact that Mac's use proprietary hardware that costs much more then a standard pc along with support costs should you run into a problem that can't be solved by online forums.

I've done some researching and it is true that small businesses are deploying Mac's instead of Linux pc's. One article I read gave an interesting analogy.
Mac's are more of a point and click, do things automatically and can be compared to a car with an automatic transmission.

Linux on the other hand still requires some manual configuration and can be balky at times. But it is highly configurable. More so then a Mac or a Windows machine. You could compare Linux to a car with a manual transmission.

Bottom line is that while a car with an automatic transmission is nice to drive, a car with a manual transmission can be better controlled by the driver.
You can tell Linux exactly what to do or what not to do.

Another article I read that spoke about offices deploying Mac's in their corporations said that about 22% of the businesses used their Mac's for virtual environments and were using them to run Windows. What a waste!

I also found some interesting links that you may find useful.

Choosing Linux as a Strategic Platform: An IDC Technology Spotlight | Symantec Connect

Ten Reasons to Dump Windows and Use Linux - PCWorld Business Center

50 Places Linux is Running That You Might Not Expect

The last link while not technically informative is the one that got me really thinking.
Libraries and public schools are using Linux to save money.
Both of those facilities do not have a huge IT staff. In fact there is a large city some distance from me that has at least 20 school buildings in addition to a central office, offices in many of the schools, warehouse and maintenance department.
The IT staff consists of a dozen people and they have actually been less stressed since deploying Linux in their school system.

I also feel that finding good online help (Like that found in this fine forum) is easier with Linux then it is with a Mac.
Believe me, you will need help with certain problems no matter which OS you use and I would put my money on the Linux community on getting your problem solved faster.

What I would do is ask Mr. Mac if he knows how to set up a corporate network, security, user rights and deploy software and updates across a network.
People like him are scared of anything that is not point and click and will scream the loudest for the easiest but not always the best solution.

[Segfault]

BBC News - In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers

Click on OS button. Seems this crappy almost unmaintainable OS is ... absolute leader when it comes to real computing?

Edit: I don't see Mac ... need a magnifying glass perhaps?