they want me to swith to PC from Mac...HELP!

hi everyone
i'm a designer (12 years experience on mainly Mac but have used PC) for a company that is now starting to make noises about swapping from Mac to PC. this has entered into their heads due to the fact that the server we use never seems adequate to accommodate our files and because all the IT boys don't understand the macs. in a nutshell, i need some solid proof (and not just my own bias opinion) on why we should stick with Macs.
the first i can think of is that all our files, fonts and software from day one is Mac so we would still need a mac to retrieve and use these files, yeah?
anything else anyone can add?... HELP!

kazzan said:

i need some solid proof (and not just my own bias opinion) on why we should stick with Macs.
the first i can think of is that all our files, fonts and software from day one is Mac so we would still need a mac to retrieve and use these files, yeah?

Click to expand...

Not really. If for instance, you use Adobe software, it is cross-system compatible. It works the same way in Windows as it does on a Mac.
There is no advantage to using a Mac over a Windows system for design work.
Granted, there was in the past, but nowadays it really makes no difference.
It all comes down to personal preference.

Sounds like the problem is with your IT staff and not with the computers themselves.

What are the primary benefits they hope to glean from switching? What exactly are the problems that are making them consider such a huge expenditure? I can't imagine a company would spend so much money replacing all of their workstations and software just because they were having a problem with server performance and/or capacity. Something just isn't adding up here.

thanks for the replies
they are talking off switching because they just don't know anything about Macs and hate admitting it each time. i work in the in-house art department of a large company and of course everything else is PC but our little studio of macs (4 at last count). was just after some back up on why we should stick with macs because there are more of them (IT guys) and they tend to talk over me in a meeting....be prepared i always say

anyone else with some nice little words of wisdom???

swapping from mac to pc - graphic design

hi everyone
i'm a designer (12 years experience on mainly Mac but have used PC) for a company that is now starting to make noises about swapping from Mac to PC. this has entered into their heads due to the fact that the server we use never seems adequate to accommodate our files and because all the IT boys don't understand the macs. in a nutshell, i need some solid proof (and not just my own bias opinion) on why we should stick with Macs.
the first i can think of is that all our files, fonts and software from day one is Mac so we would still need a mac to retrieve and use these files, yeah?
anything else anyone can add?... HELP!

Change for the sake of change is never worthwhile.... But.... would you work any less efficiently on a pc?

The amount of support they have to carry out will only increase swapping to Windows. That's just a simple fact.

knightlie said:

The amount of support they have to carry out will only increase swapping to Windows. That's just a simple fact.

Click to expand...

Not necessarily Trying to administer a different OS to run on a server platform can be a real pain to administer. Say if they're running MS server and an active domain, it would be much easier to administer MS OS'es on their work stations that configuring and trying to administer a Mac. I mean, up until about a year ago (I think that's the time frame), Apple didn't even have an implementation that allowed OS X users to connect effectively to an active directory. There were "fixes" but they still had bugs and had problems accessing everything that a normal Windows OS could access with ease.

How will you recruit new designers? Designers all work on Macs so won't bother applying to any company who says they use PCs in their ads.

Do you design for print? How will you be able to communicate well with printers, if for example problems arise, when you're on a different OS from the whole industry?

You'll also need to buy new software, new licences and lose many man hours setting the thing up and learning a whole system from scratch.

Your company sounds unprofessional if they're making noises about leaving the industry standard design system.

Your problem is simple... Working on a PC is great, but look towards the cost of it in the long run. Those IT personel should be aware that if you do change to Windows, you are going to first and foremost get a PC that can handle the work... which means High-end... Macs were built to render high-end graphics, one of their key selling points.

Another thing is Windows PCs need constant monitoring over large networks..
They are easily threatened by a trojan, virus or adware... You will not have such problems with a mac..

Obviously all this started due to not being able to do something that a Windows PC would be able to do??? What is it??? Logging onto a Windows server and accessing files????
Simple... I do it all the time between my Mac and Windows machines... not a big deal... Get an applescript written that will connect and mount up the network drives immediately as you log in...

It sounds like you need to get some new IT people, not new computers. Since you will have to purchase new software for every machine you run and re-buy all the fonts, that is enough "evidence" not to switch.

knightjp said:

Your problem is simple... Working on a PC is great, but look towards the cost of it in the long run. Those IT personel should be aware that if you do change to Windows, you are going to first and foremost get a PC that can handle the work... which means High-end... Macs were built to render high-end graphics, one of their key selling points.

Click to expand...

Back in the 80's maybe.

an $800 desktop, which will probably cost even less for a large business since they usually get deals from companies like Dell and HP, will probably have a C2D, a decent graphics card, 2gb of memory, and a large hard drive. The same thing that a iMac would probably have. They will preform the exact same task with very similar performance given they are using the same software. Infact, before Adobe CS3 came out, CS2 wasn't US so it was given that performance would be slower than a PC with eqaul base hardware specs. A firewire card, iSight camera, or backlit keyboard would have nothing to do with any of that.

Plus, if the user is logging onto an active directory network, you can't just "write some apple scripts" to get it to log on and map the drive. If it was that easy, you would have been able to connect with no problems since active directory was introduced. There's permissions, connections with other services, one is inevitably an exchange server, and other task that are easily ran on a Windows OS Vs. OS X.

I mean, if they were running OS X's server addition and had people running Windows, they would probably want to get them switch for compatibility reasons.

IT is probably looking at the programs they use vs. the ease of switching the computers over vs. the ease of maintanence compared to pre-switch.

knightjp said:

Another thing is Windows PCs need constant monitoring over large networks..
They are easily threatened by a trojan, virus or adware... You will not have such problems with a mac..

Click to expand...

And believe me, any large corporation with a good IT department already has this covered. In fact, OP said they're pretty much the only ones using Apple computers and every one else is using Windows machines. It's not like they're switching every machine in the building over.

With all the issues they deal with, with Windows it's job security. Maybe their concerned everyone will want to go to Mac's and a few of them might be out of work. ;D

Village Idiot said:

Not necessarily Trying to administer a different OS to run on a server platform can be a real pain to administer. Say if they're running MS server and an active domain, it would be much easier to administer MS OS'es on their work stations that configuring and trying to administer a Mac. I mean, up until about a year ago (I think that's the time frame), Apple didn't even have an implementation that allowed OS X users to connect effectively to an active directory. There were "fixes" but they still had bugs and had problems accessing everything that a normal Windows OS could access with ease.

Click to expand...

I meant more the dumbass problems you get from time to time, like the one in my office whose printers regularly vanish for no apparent reason, or other random problems cropping up out of nowhere.

Well... obviously you guys probably prefer Windows PCs to Macs... or you are more experienced IT professionals. I'd go with the second option.

I'm just an amature with a small workgroup at home. Windows PCs work well in office environments.. and they are able to handle Adobe Products easily... plus in addition, server applications as well as exchange server works well.

But in my opinion, those IT pros just want these guys to change the macs just to make their job easier. I don't think they have a proper valid reason to change those macs either.

Maybe it all can be solved with a simple patch or something....

Dillinger-63 said:

With all the issues they deal with, with Windows it's job security. Maybe their concerned everyone will want to go to Mac's and a few of them might be out of work. ;D

Click to expand...

Considering the problems people face with Windows on a daily basis, ME thinks you are right....

knightjp said:

Well... obviously you guys probably prefer Windows PCs to Macs... or you are more experienced IT professionals. I'd go with the second option.

I'm just an amature with a small workgroup at home. Windows PCs work well in office environments.. and they are able to handle Adobe Products easily... plus in addition, server applications as well as exchange server works well.

But in my opinion, those IT pros just want these guys to change the macs just to make their job easier. I don't think they have a proper valid reason to change those macs either.

Maybe it all can be solved with a simple patch or something....

Click to expand...

here's a good article to read.

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.20/20.11/ActiveDirectory/index.html

knightjp said:

Well... obviously you guys probably prefer Windows PCs to Macs... or you are more experienced IT professionals. I'd go with the second option.

I'm just an amature with a small workgroup at home. Windows PCs work well in office environments.. and they are able to handle Adobe Products easily... plus in addition, server applications as well as exchange server works well.

But in my opinion, those IT pros just want these guys to change the macs just to make their job easier. I don't think they have a proper valid reason to change those macs either.

Maybe it all can be solved with a simple patch or something....

Click to expand...

It's not just a matter of convenience. I know in my company, we remotely administer all of our workstations with SMS and are able to control every facet of the machine - including how the desktop looks, what kind of devices are allowed to be plugged in, what software can be installed, etc. AFAIK, there is no way to use tools like SMS with a Mac. So, if the entire shop is Windows-oriented, with just a handful of Macs, I can understand their reasoning.

I originally thought it was just a small shop with one problematic server and some inexperienced or ignorant IT staff. But, it sounds like it's a much larger company. If that is indeed the case, their administration workload could be significantly reduced by having the entire company conform to the same platform.

There are a few technical issues that you should probably work out before you do this. Is font management an issue for you in your work? What about color matching? Can the PC guys ensure that there will be a solution for you?

But the real question is not a technical one at all. The crux of the matter is, Is it the job of the designers to make the IT department's work easier, or is it the job of the IT department to make the designers' work easier?