It cannot be denied that Apple, which has long been a ghost in the mainstream corporate infrastructure, has begun casting a shadow as several corporate customers look at Mac platforms as a realistic alternative to Windows as well as Linux. With more and more customers having a successful experience, usage of the Mac is said to have doubled in the last year.
Apple is constantly upgrading in order to meet the demands of their growing user base.
The latest entry into Apple’s growing list of corporate customers is Axel Springer, the German newspaper publisher, who is said to be replacing all their PCs with the complete range of Apple’s products, including MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini as well as Mac Pro desktops. The transition is said to take place over a period of five years on about 12,000 PCs. According to Heise Online, the German magazine, Axel Springer is Apple’s second largest client after Google.
Things are changing for the Mac in the corporate scenario. Google lets its employees use what they wish to run; either the Mac, Windows or Linux. IBM too has been experimenting with Macs.
With the increase in Mac users, especially Mac notebook users, there are five companies that formed an alliance to promote the Mac to corporate customers. These companies are Parallels, Group Logic, Atempo, Centrify and LANrev. These companies concentrate on the technology between the Mac OS X and Windows. They realize that many people think that the Mac is harder to use and support, and they intend on educating corporate users about the ease of use of the Mac.
Since most corporations are already using Windows, the major issue for those that are planning on using the Mac in an environment almost exclusively Windows, is what the potential shift to the Macs entails; whether they should have two teams, one supporting the Windows and the other supporting the Mac. Most users are also concerned that the software will be different or that it may not be possible to share files with other PC users. People wonder about the differences in using the Macintosh operating system and Windows.
The most common difference is the Windows operating system, from which people would switch to Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard.
Although the Mac and Windows user interfaces are similar in several ways, they do have small variations that require some re-learning. Of course, all the Macs now can run Windows and other Windows programs, along with the Mac operating system.
For the new Mac buyers that are switching from several years of using Windows, this tip sheet can help.
While Windows has a menu bar for each of its programs, on the Mac, there is a single menu bar that keeps changing based on the program being used.
The Dock on the Mac is similar to Windows Task Bar. While the task bar holds icons that represent open windows, the Dock holds icons of programs that are used most frequently. The icons of programs can be simply dragged on and off the Dock.
The difference between Windows and the Mac is the lack of Start Menu on the Mac. All the functions of the start menu are either on the Apple menu or the Dock.
System preferences is the Mac version of the control panel in the Windows. This can be launched either from the Apple menu or the Dock.
The usual Windows keyboard commands, such as Ctrl-P changes to Command-P on the Mac. The Command keys are used instead of the Control keys.
When switching programs in Windows, Alt and Tab are used, to display all the running program icons. On the Mac, the same can be done by using the Command and Tab together. However, the Mac also has another great feature, “Expose,” which displays all the open windows in miniature on one screen.
Many people believe that the Mac does not have a right-click function, which is a wrong notion. This can be done with the use of a mouse or even by using the control key on the Mac.
Microsoft Office 2008 has been specifically created for the Mac and is interoperable with Microsoft Office for the PC. Instead of Outlook, it has Entourage, which is almost the same.
For those that wish to do presentations, Keynote 08 is much better than PowerPoint and if the files need to be shared with someone else, all that needs to be done is to export the file as a .ppt file.
With a better understanding of Mac among people, many corporate users are showing a keen interest in the Mac and are beginning to look at it as a business machine. With Apple all out to woo the customers; the Mac may soon be a big part of the corporate world.
