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Well, this is great for me. My office is mostly a Mac office, because they first started drafting on a Mac in 1986... We've considered switching to Windows, but for 50 people, the cost of all new software licenses, plus the loss of backwards compatibility with our built-up library of past projects and details would be catastrophic. Besides, management is easily confused, and we can handle the IT aspect with one part-time consultant. A Windows network would require someone fulltime for our size.
But to get back to why I said this was good for me. When these machines start getting older, it will be easy for me to snag them into a renderfarm. It also becomes easier to turn them into servers for various network tasks. Or, as they get a bit too old for drafting/photoshop work, they can be pushed over to the accounting department who are all on Windows, but don't need very fast machines. It also lets us standardize our hardware even more because we can easily swap out a "PC Desktop" that is having hardware problems with parts from the "Mac Desktop".
Oh, and in case you were wondering, we did the math on switching off Mac to Windows.
50 workstations = $75k
New Windows software licenses since most software companies won't let you switch or upgrade your Mac license to a Windows license = $100k. Since most software we use or need is cross-platform (and even more will be as the Intel Macs saturate the Mac market), there just isn't a good reason for us to switch to a Windows environment. Even if we did switch to Windows, we would need to keep some Macs in the office for backwards compatibility, and to provide certain key people with the tools they need. Likewise, we will never be a Mac-only shop as long as various pieces of our accounting setup, and Max, need Windows.
But to get back to why I said this was good for me. When these machines start getting older, it will be easy for me to snag them into a renderfarm. It also becomes easier to turn them into servers for various network tasks. Or, as they get a bit too old for drafting/photoshop work, they can be pushed over to the accounting department who are all on Windows, but don't need very fast machines. It also lets us standardize our hardware even more because we can easily swap out a "PC Desktop" that is having hardware problems with parts from the "Mac Desktop".
Oh, and in case you were wondering, we did the math on switching off Mac to Windows.
50 workstations = $75k
New Windows software licenses since most software companies won't let you switch or upgrade your Mac license to a Windows license = $100k. Since most software we use or need is cross-platform (and even more will be as the Intel Macs saturate the Mac market), there just isn't a good reason for us to switch to a Windows environment. Even if we did switch to Windows, we would need to keep some Macs in the office for backwards compatibility, and to provide certain key people with the tools they need. Likewise, we will never be a Mac-only shop as long as various pieces of our accounting setup, and Max, need Windows.
....or could i?hummm
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