MacNoob

I still get a [cheap] thrill when I go to a meeting at work and break out my Macbook Pro.  While everyone else is trying to get through their Safeboot login screen, my Macbook is up and running.  No encryption, antivirus or other assorted nazi-ware required.  It’s the way their machines used to boot before the corporation mandated so much security software.  They ask when they will get their Mac.  I reply, “As soon as you’re willing to fork over $3,000.”  I could, as the IT manager, buy Macs for many of the users at my site, but the infrastructure mandated by the corporation makes it completely impractical if not virtually impossible altogether.  Besides, I’d completely lose my cool factor if everyone had a Mac.

It does get me thinking what the company offices would look like if everyone was using a Mac.

First, I could scrap the antivirus server and all the AV clients on every machine.  That saves the company over $15K annually in maintenance fees and licenses.  I wouldn’t begin to guess the productivity yield increase due to reclaimed CPU cycles and disk access wait times, but it would have to be significant.

Second, I could get rid of Sygate, its server, all the clients and the complete administrative nightmare it has become.  My department has spent ten times the resources installing and maintaining Sygate than we ever spent mitigating threats.  Ring up another $30K.

Third, say bye-bye to the Windows Update Server.  “Patch Tuesday” would become a thing of the past.  No longer would my staff and I spend countless hours figuring out why someone’s network shares got blown away or their MS Office templates quit working after we pushed an update.  $40K…cha-ching!

So far, I’ve already saved enough to offset the price difference of the desktop hardware.  The few software titles that require Windows could run in Parallels, Boot Camp or VMware.  I’d need to spend around $110 per workstation on a Novell client for the Mac, but that’s no big deal.  Maybe Microsoft’s licensing folks would even let me convert my Office 2007 licenses to Office 08 for the Mac.

The help desk calls would be cut in half so I might even be able to reduce the IT staff.  Say a $50K savings for starters.  People may even start liking the IT department!  I could even stop screening my calls!

Then I woke up.