I have come up with a list: Here's my concerns about bringing Mac into our Windows workplace: * Group Policy (specifically our Computer Use Policy banner, and we have browser favorites pushed as well) * Browser support (means IE is no longer the our only officially supported browser for internal w/ SharePoint, etc) * Login scripts * SMS reporting on hardware and software * Patching (Shockwave, Flash, etc).
Can centrally manage these for Macs? Yes. Using only our current tools? Nope. I don't have a heartache with a mix of Mac and Windows, I have a heartache of people in my company thinking it adds no discernable management overhead or cost. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:mr...@ephrataschools.org] Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 9:54 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Mac and Windows mix Macs are not the burden you make them sound to be. Integrating a Mac into a windows network is never going to be painless; the two systems are inherently different. If what you want is a Windows experience from your Mac, install Windows. Now not everybody likes MacOS X, but the same can be said for Windows. Insert the problem of subjective preference here. Personally, I love working on my iMac, and managing the other Macs in our district is very easy if you use the provided Apple tools: Mac OS X server, Open Directory, and Apple Remote Desktop. Then again, I hate how a Mac _can_ cost 2x as much as a comparable PC. I do like that software upgrades are cheaper for Mac, but I don't like how apple drops support for anything that is not the current generation or the previous one. If you're 2 generations back, you're out of luck. What can a Mac do that a PC Can't? Nothing. But I would argue that competition is one of the pillars of innovation. Without Mac OS X competing against Windows, what would Windows look like today? --Matt Ross Ephrata School District ----- Original Message ----- From: James Hill [mailto:james.h...@superamart.com.au] To: NT System Admin Issues [mailto:ntsysad...@lyris.sunbelt-software.com] Sent: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:28:49 -0700 Subject: RE: Mac and Windows mix > We have pretty much eliminated all of the Mac's here. > > We didn't have 3rd party products to manage them so they always required so > much manual interaction. Any global change we made we could easily automate > with PC's thanks to group policy etc but it was always a manual change for > the Mac's. > > They really aren't a corporate product imo. You only have to look to Apple > for a corporate grade management solution to realise that it doesn't exist. > > They do indeed need patching (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222) and there > is AV products for them. Symantec has one for example. Personally I think > the day is coming when someone will write a decent bit of malware/virus for > them and 99% plus will get caught out by it. There is a very misguided > opinion amongst the Apple community that they are safe. Apple's false > advertising only strengthens this. The facts are that Mac's are more > vulnerable than the PC world http://www.crn.com/security/226200083 > > More importantly, what is the need for the Mac's in the first place? For us > they were only sued for Adobe CS, which runs just fine on PC's. In fact > these days Adobe is more behind the PC world than the Mac. For example, > 64bit Photoshop was first on PC, had to wait for CS5 for Mac to get it. > That's without going into the Flash debate :) > > > > > > From: David Lum [mailto:david....@nwea.org] > Sent: Saturday, 4 September 2010 6:07 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Mac and Windows mix > > I would like to hear from those of you who have a mixed Windows/Mac > environments: How do you handle management of the diverse environment? > Presumably with Mac's there is no patching or AV. Can you use GPO's on them > in any fashion (wondering if there's some add-in to allow equivalency). > David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER > NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION > (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to > listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com<mailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com> > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
