Several of our consultants prefer Apple Macintosh systems. With the introduction of Intel-based Macintoshes they have switched back from Windows & Linux-based systems.
As we have discovered, the switch is not always easy. This section will be a collection of notes & solutions we have found to the small hurdles of using Macs in our Linux/Windows-centric environment & our clients Windows-centric worlds.
Neither have gained strong positive feelings - the bulk of the complaints: Email. Both OpenOffice & Microsoft Office for Macintosh seem to miss an Exchange-aware email client.
Entourage is simply painful. Every Macintosh user has a copy of Parallels Desktop to run Outlook 2007 (plus other key applications like Eclipse, Visio & Enterprise Architect) - this is not to say Outlook 2007 is the best email client, it isn't. It is the best Email/Calendaring client currently available.
No MAPI - what were they thinking? You could almost suspect a deliberate effort to limit the functionality of a Macintosh in a corporate environment.
If you need to move archived mail in a .PST from Outlook to Entourage there is no direct path. Entourage cannot read PST file formats. Instead we suggest a multistage path using Thunderbird, which uses MBOX formatted messages.
Steps:
Apple uses the domain suffix .local for .mac services, Microsoft uses .local as the default for Windows domains. We can understand Microsoft, but Apple had to understand the pain they were putting Macintosh adopters through by using .local. To make matters worse Apple's support site proclaims - Macs fit right in - and provide no guidance to work around the .local problems. Only on Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit site was there guidance about this problem - guidance we never got to work (in the end, we switched the our Windows domain from .local to .lan)
Windows supports long files names, the Macintosh supports long file names, together they don't support long files names. It was straight from the '80s with filenames being truncated with ~-symbols.
Two reasonable paths to success: Thursby Software's Dave or Thursby Software's ADmitMac. Not wanting to make the Windows domain admin's life harder (he did switch the domain to .lan), we use Dave. The price is steep. Paying $119 for long filename support between two OSs that support long-file names is annoying.
Why can't iPhoto leave my pictures where I put them? Why won't Google release Picasa for the Mac?
At least with Parallels we can run Picasa. Map the folder you store your pictures in a Parallels Shared folder, then map this folder to a drive in Windows for Picasa to find them.
For a good discussion look here: http://www.hartnup.net/wordpress/picasa-2-vs-iphoto/
We are big fans of Windows "My Documents" redirection - copy on the laptop, copy on the server, maybe even on back-up. Especially when combined with VSS. Annoyingly, we can't get this to work offline with Parallels Desktop running Vista - they have not responded to our help-desk requests. Works fine with Windows XP.
We map a Parallels shared folder to the Macintosh "Documents" directory to provide ready access to files. Then we use Econ Technologies ChronoSync to synchronize the Macintosh "Documents" directory with a matching folder in our Windows-file server's re-directed "My Documents". It is a bit convoluted, but where-ever you are your documents are there. The problem of multiple off-line edits and current version syncronization is expanded, but we think its worth the price to have our documents at hand whether on the Mac, in Parallel's or on a Windows desktop. Econ's support desk is quite responsive, especially when you consider this is a $30 product.
Amazing how a product that is great to use on Windows, just doesn't measure up on another platform (Macintosh). Most bothersome is the slow performance. We don't know how they managed, but at least one of us uses FireFox for Windows in a Parallels Coherence Windows. He's also our most fervent Mac-head.
The whole X-windows multiple click thing is a little odd at first. But after a few days of using Parallels Desktop, Gimp, a couple of Citrix sessions and native Macintosh applications you get used to being sure where the mouse is before you do anything. We've trained our brain CRTL-C on Windows and Command-C on the Mac (except Gimp, which is CTRL-C)
The whole topic is just too sad.
We use Parallels desktop on all our Macintosh systems to provide access to key applications that are only available for Microsoft Windows. Until VMware fixes the sluggish performance of VMware Fusion there is no choice - Parallels Desktop wins.
Neither Parallels Desktop nor VMware Fusion are completely finished. VMware Fusion is listed as a beta product, where Parallels support refers to specific builds - in the end Parallels Desktop feels closer to a finished product.
Parallels Desktop: Build 3188 March 7th, 2007
VMware Fusion: Version 1.0b3 (43733)
Both VMware Fusion and Parallels install like normal Macintosh applications. Both have direct support for current and older versions of Windows, Red Hat (CentOS), other Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris.
VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop have very different performance profiles. Fusion is extremely sluggish, but barely impacts the Macintosh, where Parallels Desktop is snappy running Windows XP, Windows Vista & CentOS 5, but will occasionally stall the Macintosh.
We use VMware ESX on our servers, and VMware desktop on other platforms and look forward to VMware Fusion overcoming the unacceptably sluggish performance. Until then there is no choice - Parallels Desktop. After, we expect either will be a credible choice. If we are able to move virtual images from platform to platform (server / PC desktop / Macintosh) with VMware, we expect it will be our mid to long term-choice. Until we are able to consolidate our application suite we will be sticking with Parallel Desktop for our Macintosh systems.
The base-line for choice is a Windows XP/Windows Vista desktop. It provides the mainstream choice, using a Macintosh shouldn't force the acceptance of lesser software.
Need | Base Line | Macintosh Choice | Comments |
Email / Calendaring | Microsoft Exchange | Microsoft Exchange | Microsoft Outlook combined with Microsoft Exchange provides the most powerful email/calendaring solution available. |
Office Suite | Microsoft Office | Microsoft Office: Mac 2004 | Across the board we prefer Microsoft Windows Office 2007. |
Editing | NotePad 2 | Included | Included editor is not as strong as NotePad 2 |
PDF Creation | CutePDF | Included |
|
Basic HTML Editing | NVU | NVU | NVU has a number of significant limitations. |
Terminal | SecureCRT | Included |
|
FTP | Filezilla | Still Looking |
|
Browser | FireFox | lesser FireFox |
|
MindMapping | FreeMind | FreeMind | |
Image Editing | GIMP | GIMP |
|
Image Editing | Inkscape | Inkscape |
|
Virtualization | VMware Desktop | Parallels Desktop | VMware Fusion does not have acceptable performance with version 1.0b3 |
Process Modelling | Eclipse EPF | Eclipse EPF |
|
The X-based OpenOffice for the Macintosh has not been realistically comparable to Microsoft Office 2004. NeoOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office. We have just started using NeoOffice and strongly reccomend you give it a try. As always, use the bittorrent option and give bandwidth back to the community: NeoOffice download page