<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Always Flyin:
Re the Apple suggestions, I realize it's like arguing religion with a born again Christian, but the reality is that corporate America, i.e., over 90%, run Windows based PCs. It is extremely difficult to marry an Apple into that family, and technical support within the company is usually not geared to do so.
Apples are very fine stand-alone machine, and are fine if it is an all-Apple network at the office, but they don't mix well with Windows based PCs.
The reality for most employees at most companies is that they need a Windows based PC.</font>
I'm not sure what functions you're thinking of that are not compatible these days. Pre-OS X there were some issues, and Pre-Steve Jobs' Return there were more. But today, it's pretty much seamless. VPN, networking, sharing files, file compatibility, printing, even SAP and Exchange play nice on Macs these days. In fact, Apple is one of SAP's biggest accounts.
Apple's rackmount XServes and RAIDs have even been
certified by Microsoft to integrate into Windows environments without issue.
From Apple's Switch FAQ...
Networking in a Wintel Environment
An excellent site going over Mac compatibility in a Wintel environment
Column entitled "Can Macs and PCs Really Get Along?"
Coursey's ZDNet column about switching to the Mac for 3 months. He ended up switching permanently and wrote a book to help others migrate platforms.
[This message has been edited by swise (edited Jan 12, 2004).]