IBM considering switch to Macs | Hacker News Reader

IBM considering switch to Macs

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44 pointsjiparker23 comments

I'm very hopeful but somewhat skeptical. They also said they'd quit windows several years ago but haven't gotten close.

I just quit IBM in January. I brought my own mac in and used that exclusively. My boss did as well. There was a small but strong community of mac users. It was not common to use a mac, but no one minded.

It would be really awesome if you could choose. Using a Mac at IBM, even though it was completely unsupported, was easier than windows.

There are a lot of compatibility and VNC tools because everyone I worked with had to do most of their work on Unix. With X11 everything just worked very smoothly on mac.

I work at a engineering company even bigger than IBM, and what we have here is crazy:

There is a corporate Windows network and all computers come pre-damaged with a special "Corporate Image" that we are all obligated to run: it's Windows XP with tons of stuff specific to the company: it even keeps a special wallpaper along with the screensaver that you cannot change. And, of course, there are plethora of daemons running: spying on what you do, anti-viruses, etc. And this image won't run under VM.

Well... these beautiful and powerful workstations that we get from the company aren't really used by engineers: they sit in the dark corners of our offices only to be used to read "corporate email" once a day. Everyone is either on MBP+OSX or ThinkPad+Ubuntu like me, connected to our own "engineering network" we built for ourselves with our own internet gateway, using gmail and IM to communicate.

From what I hear, AMD in Austin runs exactly the same way. This is probably why their CPUs suck lately.

This truly is pathetic. The price you pay for being acquired.

How do you guys pipe in the internet? (what do you mean with "your own internet gateway".

That sucks balls that you guys have to go to so much trouble to get your work with your computers how you like them.

At least you engineers are a tight-knit group and can do this. Thinks of all the poor fellows who can't do this! (either for computer proficiency or group-size or whatever)

This quote probably summarizes why a lot of people are switching:

Said another: "I have been a true PC stalwart for 2+ decades, but after trying Vista, I’m ready for a change."

Vista drove me to try Linux and I doubt I'm going back any time soon.

Doesn't mean a lot; I'm sure IBM has considered millions of options in the last week. They have people who think about people thinking about ideas.

They also are always looking to the future and don't mess around.

If MS releases another Vista (or worse) in a couple of years, do you think they'll stick with windows?

no my friend just got out of alpha works; and they used linux very heavily. see http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource

- any company that is spending money with little to no (gauranteed) return; is ahead of the curve.

Sorry, but I have to correct. I was a lead on packager on one of our projects to alphaWorks, I was working in the emerging standards department. The peace, love, free software and standards side of the business.

I hear lotus notes is multi-threaded now. :)

ok, then maybe it will be ubuntu or something else. My point was that IBM won't stand for another vista. Especially if they 're paying for it and they love opensource like you said

If only they had done this when I was working there in 2001-2002. Oh well, better late than never.

Now if my current employer let me use a Mac as my primary machine...

Isn't IBM also just-as-long-time Linux supporter?

Not to mention their long time PowerPC relationship with Apple.

If 18 of the 24 said that the Mac offered a "better or best experience" compared to their existing computer (i.e. the IBM Thinkpad), but 15 of the 18 (83%) already had "moderate or expert knowledge of the [Mac] platform" - does IBM have enough unbiased data to make an educated decision?

It depends what decision you are talking about:

Can Mac experts use Macs productively? Can we switch all employees to Macs? etc.

Good question. The answer is yes, because the time to invest in moderate or expert knowledge of the mac is a good price to pay for years of the better experience. Further, this would suggest that they do it as soon as possible, because they will maximize good computer experience that way.

It's similar to switching from qwerty to dvorak on the keyboard. If you only type qwerty, then in order to type as fast at dvorak as you do with qwerty, you must use dvorak for 18 hours. After that, it's faster, and more ergonomic. The best decision is to bite the bullet and switch right away.

For pretty much everywhere the MS --> Mac move is considered, isn't the big sticking point Exchange Server?

AFAICT, everything else has a good replacement. It's the email server that has everyone locked-in, right? I'm not a Mac user though, ... maybe OS X can talk to exchange?

IBM doesn't use Exchange since IBM makes Lotus Notes, which works fine on OS X.

Exchange options I know of for a Mac:

* Microsoft Entourage

* Outlook Web Access

* The open source Gnome email client Evolution now runs on a Mac, and it can connect to Exchange (actually, it scrapes Outlook Web Access)

* I believe you can configure Exchange to support IMAP connections

* Parallels and VMWare Fusion allow you to run Outlook for Windows

In 2004 IBM was considering a switch to linux. I hope they are successful with the mac push.

"First, our chairman has challenged the IT organization, and indeed all of IBM, to move to a Linux based desktop before the end of 2005. This means replacing productivity, web access and viewing tools with open standards based equivalents."

http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2004/01/07/inter...

I guess Apple supports see this as a win, I see it as a death sentence. Big Business will kill the Mac, power to the people

Apple seems too consumer focused to start putting in all sorts of crap just because someone from Walmart corporate suggested it.

I will believe it when i see it. that said, I seriously doubt it.

I've considered it, too - but then I decided against it...

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