Top 10 Reasons to Keep Macintosh Out of Your Business

We have customers ask us many times about the one or two Macs they have in their company. Some are examining whether or not to add more or replace Windows computers with a Mac. After decades in this business and experience with all versions of Mac and Windows, I would say that replacement would be a mistake.
Here are the top reasons for not only not putting in Macs in your business, but also removing the ones you have.

1. Security- I hear many times that the reason you want a Mac in your office is because they're more secure than Windows. There are less viruses and other malware because they are less of a target. I will give them that for that reason alone. Unix, the base that Mac is built on, is not any more secure than any other OS, but Windows does have more malware out there so I can understand why someone would claim such a thing. However, almost no one has a Mac server. Even Apple abandoned the X Serve and just allows you to upgrade a client to a server version lacking many features found in the Windows server version. That means you probably have a Windows server in your network. I can tell you from experience I have lowered the security on many parts of a Windows server so the Mac can communicate with it. That makes your entire network less secure.

2. Support- Apple Care is not only difficult to deal with, it is not well supported on a Windows network. Apple will point the problems back to Microsoft when there is a problem with connectivity or speed. I've gotten more assistance from Microsoft trying to fix these issues than I have from Apple in the past. Apple is so difficult to deal with many vendors looking to sell Apple anything will just avoid them such as happened with the Kinect interface that Microsoft eventually bought and used in Xbox and other applications. When the iPhone had a connectivity problem in version 4, Steve Jobs said you were holding it wrong. Apple rarely claims to have made a mistake despite millions of people saying otherwise.

3. Speed- Connectivity between an Apple Mac and a Windows server is much slower than the same connection with a Windows computer and a Windows server. Why? Buried in the documentation you get with a Mac is a little known statement about this. They don't support anything above 20 Mbs when connecting to SMB Windows shares. You may get more than that, but that's the speed they guarantee. Whenever I do side by side testing, I always get better speed from a Windows client PC to the server than from a Mac. Business owners get that time equals money.

4. Applications- For business, there are many more times the amount of applications for a Windows client than a Mac. Most of the time I see Macs using remote desktop to go into a Windows server or computer in order to run the business applications, and that costs more money and time to support them.The few applications like Adobe and other graphics and video applications people used to justify Macs are now available for Windows and cost much less.

5. Money- Speaking of money, the cost of a Mac is at least double and sometimes more when comparing to a Windows computer. Yes I hear that the TCO is lower due to less viruses but when you add in the lack of support from Apple on a Windows network, the lack of knowledge by Apple employees, the lack of Apple technicians, and the excellent AV that is out there for Windows, I am not seeing this cost savings for my clients of which people speak.

6. Functionality- I hear from many Apple evangelists that Macs don't crash as often and just work better. That may be true for people who have no training. Of course Mac is going to work better for the uninformed. It is way simpler to use. My mom has one and she loves it. If you insist on your employees getting trained to use the high tech equipment you give them, Windows not only work better than Macs due to the above reasons, but Windows PCs will make your business more money. Instead of saying why it is they can't run an application because it doesn't exist on the Mac platform, they can be out selling or consulting. And do you really want employees who refuse or are incapable of being properly trained?

7. The End of Macs?- In the WSJ and other reputable publications, there have been reports that Apple is no longer giving their top people to manage the Mac. Here's one from the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/technology/ct-how-apple-alienated-mac-loyalists-blm-bsi-20161225-story.html
I have also spoken with an Apple insider, who wants to remain anonymous, and he said that he believes the end is near for Macintosh.

8. Virtualization- You cannot create virtual desktops using the Mac, and you can't make a virtual machine using it legally. You can only legally install Mac SW on a Mac. Since 10% of the PCs in businesses are moving to virtual desktops each year, adding Macs would be a huge mistake since you can't do it.

9. Cloudy- You also can't move Macs to your Azure cloud or take advantage of many application virtualization products that are coming out. Mac is being left in the dust.

10. IT Hates it- Unless you have hired one of the few people who loves Mac in your business (which should make you concerned they don't understand Windows servers), your IT employee or consultant likely hates the fact you have them. You can't control them with Active Directory Group Policies, Mac problems used by untrained staff take up way more time compared to Windows PCs used by staff who understand computers, you have to purchase special licenses to make them work (like remote desktop and other backup products), you have to lower security, you can't push out security updates, and you can't image them in batches using Deployment Services in Windows Server and most other deployment products.

There are so many more reasons to not have a Mac in your business, but I risk making it personal, so I will stop here with some form of my detached dignity hopefully still intact.

10 million hits!

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Dr. Keith Ablow is selling what now?

I was reading about Dr Keith Ablow in a Fox News column about his views that Hillary Clinton is a shameless liar.

I then recalled I saw him selling diet pills on TV commercials. I thought I would use the internets to take a look at what it is and if it's legitimate, or snake oil.
I went to the website for the product called Golo, and wow is it ever expensive. $40 for a 30 day supply.

So what's in this magic diet pill anyway? Once again I used my Google Fu to find a website. They call the diet pill Golo. Golo's website makes you watch a convoluted movie in order to find out what's in it, and it doesn't answer in plain English. I found a website called suplementpolice.com . It told me that the diet pill has the following:
— Magnesium: 60 mg
— Zinc: 5 mg
— Magnesium: (as magnesium oxide) 30 mg
— Zinc: (as zinc oxide) 5 mg
— Chromium: (as Chromium Nicotinate Glycinate) 70 mcg
— Proprietary Blend 405mg: Banaba Leaf Extract, Inositol, Rhodiola Root Extract, Barberry Bark Extract, Gardenia Fruit Extract, Salacia Bark Extract, Apple Fruit Extract.

I did some further analysis on each of the ingredients and found only one that really has any seeming ability to fight off the dreaded insulin resistance that he talks about.

The ingredient is Salacia Bark Extract. According to Web MD and other websites, it has been used for centuries for people with diabetes. It naturally lowers your sugar levels, but should it be used by the average overweight person without a prescription?

I'm no doctor, so don't take my word for it, but if someone who is overweight and has type 2 diabetes and they take this pill without realizing their blood sugar levels, I can only imagine the horrors of what might happen. I lost a friend to type 1 diabetes when he couldn't reach his medicine in time in the middle of the night. He was found just a foot or so from his pill bottle, and with no strength to open it, he died alone at age 30.
I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone else (except maybe Putin or Assad).
The other odd thing about Salacia is that it only costs a few bucks a month. The other ingredients don't seem to do anything for weight loss, but might make a decent vitamin supplement that you may already be getting.
This Doctor is trying to sway our presidential election by calling Clinton a shameless liar while he bloats the price of a well known cheap supplement and calls it a "diet pill".
Who's the shameless liar now?

VTech called me years before they got hacked

Being in IT consulting I never know who will call me out of the blue.
About ten years ago I got a call from VTech about their computer network. I was reminded of this when I read about VTech getting hacked recently.

Their US HQ isn't far from where my office is so I drove over to see them in Beaverton on Nimbus to review the problem.

At that time they were having tremendous problems with their Active Directory. I didn't sign any non disclosure documents with them but I won't give away too much of their setup either. They were having replication issues between their main office and all their satellite offices. This basically means that if they create a new user or computer object in active directory in one location it doesn't replicate to the other locations timely, or at all.

Over time this not only can cause problems with users and devices logging in, but if their domain controllers don't communicate on a regular basis they can go into a tombstone state. This means that they no longer recognize each other as being in charge and start fighting with each other.

On top of that they had DNS issues because they were using a Unix server to resolve DNS names instead of a Windows server. This required many changes to the Unix server they didn't want to do themselves. They also didn't want to move to a Windows DNS server because they didn't know the ramifications even though I explained it to them. I gave them the quote to fix their issues and they balked.

It was going to take weeks and some downtime to fix it right and they didn't like that either, so they declined. I assumed they found another consultant at some point but about a year or so later they called me back in. They had the exact same problems and needed me to re quote it all to fix it again. This time they were in even worse shape so the quote turned out to be even higher.

They once again declined and decided to try to figure it out themselves or just let it be.
I ended up never working on a single device or software issue.

I could tell they were very distressed over this but I couldn't help them if they didn't have the money or desire to fix it. Now it will cost them millions of dollars to fix their security, among other things, and they are facing jail time in Asian countries. They also have lost the customer's trust.

Let this be a lesson to all companies that your network and your security is more than just a couple of server boxes that sit in a dusty hot closet. Many companies go out of business by treating their IT like the trash.

They also make the mistake of putting everything in the cloud with companies that are getting hacked themselves. With some thoughtful planning, and spending a little money now, you can literally save your company from being destroyed.

Apple will stop making Macintosh?

Rumors are swirling around Apple as the Macintosh division is emptying out according to our sources. They are moving over to other new and exciting projects that actually make money, or will soon like the Apple car. That will likely mean the end of Macintosh. 

Apple has never really cracked the 10% saturation point with personal computers so it would make sense that it's time to stop making the Mac. Mac was my first personal computers in the days when PCs were called IBM clones and Apple computers were just Macs.

I loved it because I didn't have to be a programmer to use it.

I tried a short stint with Basic on a Timex Sinclair and hated it.

So why do I not have a problem with Apple killing off the Mac? Since I use computers in the enterprise clients with Macs drive us crazy. It is like putting a Chevy engine in a Ford car. Yes you can get it to work,  but it will never work correctly.

There are non stop problems with errors, timeouts, and the worst is that Apple locks down the speed to 20 Mbs no matter how fast your connection is.

If they want to keep it as a home computer that is fine by me, but I  hope it does a horrible death soon in companies that use them. Nothing can repay the hours of banging my head over Apple's incompetence. 

How about Dell buying HP's computer business?

Dell has done very well after going private. HP has not done so well staying public. Dell bought EMC which is great for EMC. EMC would have collapsed eventually otherwise. Why? because SMB and Mid Market are not buying them anymore. They are going to the cloud. Enterprise will still buy them if they have a compelling reason to not move to Amazon or Azure's cloud.

HP hasn't been able to figure out what people or businesses want in the computer industry since Fiorina took over Compaq.  They are only making money in the consulting business, so dump it like IBM did on Lenovo (which BTW Lenovo is doing horribly with that decision).

The thing is that Dell would be the perfect buyer. Michael Dell still knows how to sell computers and he would be the only one who could save it in America. Some Chinese companies could also keep it going but won't do it as well.

Now that IBM have figured out that service is the only way to go let's go back and find out how that happened. IBM bought the Management and Consulting services division at PriceWaterhouse before the merger with Cooper and Lybrand. They did that after Anderson Consulting was forced to split up their consulting practice from their audit practice after getting caught in the middle of the Enron scandal. They were burning the paperwork like Nazis at the end of WW2. I don't say that lightly either. The Nazis killed millions of people, but Enron, assisted by Anderson, ruined the lives of countless people and burned their retirement savings. This caused millions of people to die early deaths from stress and poverty. Yet we didn't hang any of them. Pity.

I am glad I was able to restore the email files from the Enron criminals that helped put them away. And that is your six degrees of separation for the day.

Don't feel bad for Sony

Months ago Sony was hacked and caused them a huge loss with the Playstation unit when it was taken down for over a week, again.
People started feeling bad for Sony and their PS4's started outselling the Xbox One.
I personally don't think you should feel bad for Sony. Their former CEO called Americans "Lazy" among other things.
They created a virus on their music CDs, when people used to buy that stuff. The virus would activate when you put the disc in your computer so you wouldn't copy their music. It was so good that many of the advanced virus threats we have today were built on that virus written several years ago.
Now they have purchased a a company that is a gaming service called OnLive. They are grabbing the patents and shutting down the service. Not only that but they have no plans to refund anyone for what they have prepaid for the gaming service. I think the FTC will have something to say about that.
No more feeling sorry for them. Their lax security cost millions of people their identities, and they are acting just like many of Putin's oligarchs.