Make space for the Apple Mac in business

The Apple Mac's OS X is a gorgeous operating system, beloved by its users, but outside the niche world of designers and musicians it is generally not the one used in business. It's an odd situation that puts pressure on system administrators to accommodate Macs into their systems, either from the aforementioned designers, or from eager home Mac users who want to enjoy it at work as well.

Last week Apple released OS X Snow Leopard, also known as OS 10.6. I was at Apple's flagship store in Regent St, London following a press briefing, and watching throngs of people line up to purchase their upgrades left me in no doubt about the Mac's continuing success. Nevertheless, because of its high price and lack of business penetration the Mac remains a minority choice. The figures are slippery, but it may be around 10% of the US market by units, 20% by value (the difference showing how expensive they are), while worldwide it is much smaller.

Now Apple has introduced native support for Exchange as a key feature of Snow Leopard, apparently giving admins one less reason to deny would-be corporate Mac users. Is it enough?

Unfortunately the Exchange support still falls short. I've spent several days working almost exclusively in the new OS, and explored the new Exchange support in Snow Leopard. Although there is a lot to like, such as deep integration with Mail, iCal and tasks, there are snags. For a start, you need Exchange 2007 SP1, and earlier versions remain common. Even if that is in place, Snow Leopard's Exchange support still falls short of Outlook on Windows. The new feature is based on Exchange Web Services (EWS), which do not expose all the features of Exchange.

I found myself missing features like the ability to send on behalf of another user, and access to public folders. Another practical problem is that unless Exchange is configured with EWS in mind, it might not work at all, especially when trying to connect over the public internet. Outlook has its problems, but its ability to use RPC over HTTP, avoiding the need for a VPN connection, is a brilliant feature. It is also strong at seamless online/offline support, stronger than Apple Mail. I'm also not convinced that Mail's new Exchange support is quite done, as evidenced by several crashes like this one:

The real issues are broader than this. Macs still fit awkwardly into Windows-based networks. System administrators like standardisation: standard application deployments, standard operating system builds that can be zapped and re-imaged; standard configurations that can be enforced using Windows group policy. The presence of Macs adds unwelcome complication.

There's also the matter of application compatibility. If your business depends on some little application written in Visual Basic 6 or Microsoft Access, for example, you have to figure out a way for Mac users to run it, by emulation, or terminal services, or some other route.

In the short term then, Snow Leopard will not transform Enterprise Mac adoption. Nevertheless, the Mac is a huge influence, beyond what its market share implies. Further, if a significant number of users are using Windows grudgingly, wishing they were not, that is not good for productivity.

Here's three suggestions. The first is to think cross-platform. The past is the past; but for new applications it is short-sighted to target only Windows. I suspect this lesson has largely been learned, but it still bears repeating. Have a cross-platform client - Silverlight may help for .NET developers, or there is Adobe Flash/Flex, or Java, or pure Web applications, to mention a few solutions.

Second, learn from Apple. Microsoft is doing so, and Windows 7 is the evidence. An interview I did with Bill Buxton last year gives further background.

Third, is it really so hard to accommodate Macs? Yes, there are still issues, and different factors apply in every organization, but few problems are insurmountable.

Incidentally, I am no Mac Zealot. I actually like Windows, and although I'm currently immersed in OS 10.6, I intend to go back to using a PC most of the time. Some things are better on the Mac, some things are not, and most things are more expensive. It does pay though to have users working in the environment they prefer; and where that is possible, it makes sense to allow it.