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Comment by WorldWideWayne | Hacker News Reader

Lots of businesses build their own software. Do you think it's easier to deploy private software onto an iPad or a Windows machine?

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Probably the same. Apple[1] has done a lot of work on this the last few years and IBM[2] is making huge bets on iOS.

[1] http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/it/management.html

[2] http://www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/us/en/mobilefirst-for-ios/

Ok. Easier to build for? In a business environment that's running all Windows servers and workstations? I don't know any small or medium sized businesses that employ iOS devs in-house...

You need Macs to build iOS software. Meanwhile, you can find Visual Studio already being employed in most business IT shops to build custom desktop and web software. I can't remember the last time I saw a job ad for an iOS developer that wasn't for a one-off gig or a mobile apps shop (or a marketing agency).

I've found that most servers in business environments are Linux-based, not Windows-based. It's significantly cheaper to spin up CentOS licenses for cost centers.

Shipments of Windows servers has been dominating for years - http://www.computerworld.com/article/2469469/network-softwar...

Those statistics are old and useless. How many linux servers are "sold" before use?

They're better than bullshit anecdotes.

iPad also has the advantage of being sexy these days even to more old fashioned types. See the push to use them in 1:1 programs in high schools, even though the amount of writing/typing involved in most high school classes would seem to recommend something with a good keyboard...

Business environment is not Windows servers and workstations anymore. It's web apps, services and APIs. If it all Windows & MS stack, you better be worried.

If you're building your own software why pick one or the other when you can just build a web app and call it a day? When you're building a new app from scratch for your company why on earth would you go native unless you absolutely had to?

On a large scale, an iPad. Enterprise certs make this easy.

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