Watching the commercial for the new Macbook Air for the 400th time is not what necessarily bothered me. This new system is cool, very lightweight, and let's face it Mac computers are pretty. I have had firsthand experience with the new Macbook Air and they are nice! No, I think what bothers me is the music on the Macbook Air commercial, New Soul (the name of the song). If there is one thing I have learned about any Mac commercial is that they have the uncanny ability to make me dislike certain songs - songs that I may have found myself liking if only I had been exposed to them in a different manner. Once I hear the same clip from the same song for the 400th time I can effectively say I will never like that song. Unfortunately, due to Apple's repetitve mass marketing efforts, pretty much any song from any Apple commercial I would now rather not hear.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised then when I walked into a client's office to find him with his freshly unpacked Macbook Air, whistling that tune - asking me to connect it to his Windows network. Don't get me wrong, I love Mac computers. I am not a fanatical Windows user who hates any other system. Actually, I think most people fall into Pro-Microsoft or Anti-Microsoft but I couldn't really care one way or another. What I do care about is the fact that this business owner who wanted me to connect up his new Macbook Air now expected to be able to access everything on his company network seemlessly as if he had a Windows XP computer sitting in front of him. Well without getting into the gory details, let's just say it took much more training and time then he wanted to spend on it and eventually he just took it home to use as a home computer; effectively replacing it with a new Dell laptop.
Does Mac have a place in the business networking environment? I get asked this a lot because more people are starting to see the value and steadiness (and simplicity!) of the Mac. My answer is typically "no" to these people. Can it be done? Absolutely. Is it seemless? Nope! Most (above 80%) small businesses that run at least one server do so on a Microsoft operating system. Mac and Windows, althought competitors, can talk to each other but it isn't seemless. The next natural question then is "Well can't I run an Apple server?" Sure, and this practice is becoming a little more common, but for simplicity, support, and familiarity most people want to stick with Windows.
In a business, I tell people that if you are going to purchase and use a Mac then it should be for graphics and multimedia purposes (even though a PC can handle these functions just fine). Other than that, until Mac makes more of a footprint in the market share then my clients will not be the pioneers who are forging ahead with this effort. Simply put: for small business networks, use Microsoft products. Cost is relatively low, and provided the design is sound you will have a network that hums along with no problems.
Mac is beautiful, but it's not curtains for Windows. Not just yet.
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