4 ms·

Who Gets a Mac at Work?

11 points by raw_anon_1111 1y ago

floundy 1y ago
>finance’s requirement to keep costs under control Apple is offering some great value for the money with the M4 chip now, the Mac Mini is $600 and the 13" MacBook Air is $1k. The real killer is of course the corporate monitoring software and bloated endpoint security suites, we can all point to dozens of coworkers as the reason these exist, and unfortunately as far as I know of there's no corpos that do an "idiot test" to allow people who have demonstrated computer literacy and compliance with corpo security policy to be placed in a less restrictive group. A Raspberry Pi with an SSD is much snappier than the newest and much more powerful business-grade laptops our employees are issued with all the bloatware on them.
- mytailorisrich 1y ago
  What sort of ongoing support does Apple offer? We have quintessentially corporate Dells, which retail for about the same as Macs, and they come with full corporate support contracts... they sent someone to change the motherboard in mine, for instance. Support contracts are important in corporate settings, not just cost. And of course, very often corporate IT only knows Windows and MS in general so says they can't support anything else.
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    I’ve worked remotely for two companies that had Macs as an option over the past two years - Amazon (AWS) and now a smaller company. With Amazon, they shipped you a new (or one less than three years old if it still met the spec for what you should get based on your position) computer to your home, you ship the other one back and they send it off to Apple. With the company I work for now (700 people) , they would most likely arrange a replacement shipped directly from Apple new or from their internal IT department and I ship the old one back to the IT department and they deal with Apple. When I was hired, I could have either had my computer come directly from Apple or I chose to go to the local Apple Store to pick it up. The serial number was registered to the company.
flamesofphx 1y ago
My first thought is people in position that look pretty and actually don't contribute any meaningful work... (Marketing Exec, Management, recruiters, sometime customer retention specialist (The one that are not in a call center pool, for special accounts))..
- raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  I’m always amazed how people dismiss the contributions of people who actually bring in revenue so that you can get paid. I’m not in sales. I’m what would be considered a “post sales architect” who is the first person a client talks to once the sale is closed and responsible for delivery. But I’m high enough up the funnel and work closely enough with sales and marketing to appreciate them.
  - mytailorisrich 1y ago
    That's true. On the other hand it also happens that software devs, who develop software running on Linux, have to work with Dell Windows laptops while the VP who mostly deals with Teams, Zoom, and emails is able to have a Macbook... and an Apple 5k monitor.
    - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
      Is working on Windows itself that bad with WsL 2.0? I had to use Windows for one year at a shitty consulting company before I left out of the 5 years since I’ve been AWS focused. My workflow wasn’t that different with VSCode, Docker and WSL than on my Mac. And honestly before ARM based Macs, Mac laptops sucked about as bad as Windows laptops and near the end of the x86 run, they were actually worse.
- devin 1y ago
  What a weird take. I'm an engineer and I haven't worked at a single company that has issued windows laptops to engineers unless they asked for it. The default for a lot of dev work has been mac for a very long time. I think that's shifted in recent years, but still I'm actually kind of astonished to hear your take.
HardwareLust 1y ago
In my company, only C-level gets Macs because IT regulations don't apply to them. 10 years ago we were a Mac-only shop, but then we exchanged our CTO for a bean counter and switched to Windows.
evanjrowley 1y ago
Seems like the main reasons why I use Macs at work are not covered by this article, so here they are: 1. At trade shows, the superior battery life and screen quality make our 1:1 demos stand out. It impresses a lot of PC-focused prospects. I can't go one day at a trade show without someone basically saying "ooh, wow, a Mac!" 2. Using a Mac with an iPhone means I can send/receive texts messages with customers/coworkers from both devices. Also, they like to see the blue bubble in Messages. 3. When used together with any Apple device, AirPods save a small but VALUABLE amount of time when a headset is desirable for meetings/calls. Seriously, AirPods are the least fiddly of any headset I've ever had to use with a computer. 4. Microphone, noise cancelling, and camera quality are quite good on Mac/iPhone. The experience has been better than any PC I've used and it's the general consensus at the company. The benefits are so good that I would avoid working for another employer who didn't offer Mac as an option. Also, screw Apple for their ridiculous prices, lawbreaking, gaslighting of their users, their stance on repairability, the lack of "Alt+Tab" in macOS, the lack of "Right-Click > New > Text Document" etc. in Finder, and other intentional choices made by Apple to limit functionality of their devices.
- raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  > Also, screw Apple for their ridiculous prices, lawbreaking, gaslighting of their users, their stance on repairability, and intentional choices to limit functionality of their devices. Why would I care about repairability of a work laptop? If something breaks, I talk to my IT department and since they have a business contract with Apple, I take it to the Apple Store and if they can’t repair it right then, they give me another one. True AirPods aren’t fiddly. But neither are just plugging in wired headphones.
  - evanjrowley 1y ago
    >True AirPods aren’t fiddly. But neither are just plugging in wired headphones. Setting Apple aside, bluetooth multipoint is a game changer for how I use laptops and headsets. I agree that wired headsets are fantastic. For years I used OnePlus phones because they held on to the venreble 3.5mm jack longer than other Android phones. When traveling, however, the bluetooth multipoint headsets are considerably more convenient than wired headsets. With the work Mac and iPhone, Apple's proprietary fast switching makes this very seamless. I look forward to the day when the similar Fast Pair from Google works on non-Chromebook laptops. >Why would I care about the repeatability of a work laptop? If something breaks, I talk to my IT department We are a remote company, so going to the IT department is not always the most feasible option. In addition to the Mac, I have Linux and Windows computers for work. My employer lets me do things like expense M.2 drives and install them on those systems. Virtual environments are helpful and having both operating systems helps to validate our on-prem offering works with KVM and Hyper-V. Due to the soldered storage (and ARM CPU), I accept this is not feasible with today's Macs, but also recognize this was Apple's choice and it did not have to be this way.

11 points by raw_anon_1111 1y ago

>finance’s requirement to keep costs under control Apple is offering some great value for the money with the M4 chip now, the Mac Mini is $600 and the 13" MacBook Air is $1k. The real killer is of course the corporate monitoring software and bloated endpoint security suites, we can all point to dozens of coworkers as the reason these exist, and unfortunately as far as I know of there's no corpos that do an "idiot test" to allow people who have demonstrated computer literacy and compliance with corpo security policy to be placed in a less restrictive group. A Raspberry Pi with an SSD is much snappier than the newest and much more powerful business-grade laptops our employees are issued with all the bloatware on them.

mytailorisrich 1y ago
What sort of ongoing support does Apple offer? We have quintessentially corporate Dells, which retail for about the same as Macs, and they come with full corporate support contracts... they sent someone to change the motherboard in mine, for instance. Support contracts are important in corporate settings, not just cost. And of course, very often corporate IT only knows Windows and MS in general so says they can't support anything else.
- raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  I’ve worked remotely for two companies that had Macs as an option over the past two years - Amazon (AWS) and now a smaller company. With Amazon, they shipped you a new (or one less than three years old if it still met the spec for what you should get based on your position) computer to your home, you ship the other one back and they send it off to Apple. With the company I work for now (700 people) , they would most likely arrange a replacement shipped directly from Apple new or from their internal IT department and I ship the old one back to the IT department and they deal with Apple. When I was hired, I could have either had my computer come directly from Apple or I chose to go to the local Apple Store to pick it up. The serial number was registered to the company.

flamesofphx 1y ago

My first thought is people in position that look pretty and actually don't contribute any meaningful work... (Marketing Exec, Management, recruiters, sometime customer retention specialist (The one that are not in a call center pool, for special accounts))..

raw_anon_1111 1y ago
I’m always amazed how people dismiss the contributions of people who actually bring in revenue so that you can get paid. I’m not in sales. I’m what would be considered a “post sales architect” who is the first person a client talks to once the sale is closed and responsible for delivery. But I’m high enough up the funnel and work closely enough with sales and marketing to appreciate them.
- mytailorisrich 1y ago
  That's true. On the other hand it also happens that software devs, who develop software running on Linux, have to work with Dell Windows laptops while the VP who mostly deals with Teams, Zoom, and emails is able to have a Macbook... and an Apple 5k monitor.
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    Is working on Windows itself that bad with WsL 2.0? I had to use Windows for one year at a shitty consulting company before I left out of the 5 years since I’ve been AWS focused. My workflow wasn’t that different with VSCode, Docker and WSL than on my Mac. And honestly before ARM based Macs, Mac laptops sucked about as bad as Windows laptops and near the end of the x86 run, they were actually worse.
devin 1y ago
What a weird take. I'm an engineer and I haven't worked at a single company that has issued windows laptops to engineers unless they asked for it. The default for a lot of dev work has been mac for a very long time. I think that's shifted in recent years, but still I'm actually kind of astonished to hear your take.

HardwareLust 1y ago

In my company, only C-level gets Macs because IT regulations don't apply to them. 10 years ago we were a Mac-only shop, but then we exchanged our CTO for a bean counter and switched to Windows.

evanjrowley 1y ago

Seems like the main reasons why I use Macs at work are not covered by this article, so here they are: 1. At trade shows, the superior battery life and screen quality make our 1:1 demos stand out. It impresses a lot of PC-focused prospects. I can't go one day at a trade show without someone basically saying "ooh, wow, a Mac!" 2. Using a Mac with an iPhone means I can send/receive texts messages with customers/coworkers from both devices. Also, they like to see the blue bubble in Messages. 3. When used together with any Apple device, AirPods save a small but VALUABLE amount of time when a headset is desirable for meetings/calls. Seriously, AirPods are the least fiddly of any headset I've ever had to use with a computer. 4. Microphone, noise cancelling, and camera quality are quite good on Mac/iPhone. The experience has been better than any PC I've used and it's the general consensus at the company. The benefits are so good that I would avoid working for another employer who didn't offer Mac as an option. Also, screw Apple for their ridiculous prices, lawbreaking, gaslighting of their users, their stance on repairability, the lack of "Alt+Tab" in macOS, the lack of "Right-Click > New > Text Document" etc. in Finder, and other intentional choices made by Apple to limit functionality of their devices.

raw_anon_1111 1y ago
> Also, screw Apple for their ridiculous prices, lawbreaking, gaslighting of their users, their stance on repairability, and intentional choices to limit functionality of their devices. Why would I care about repairability of a work laptop? If something breaks, I talk to my IT department and since they have a business contract with Apple, I take it to the Apple Store and if they can’t repair it right then, they give me another one. True AirPods aren’t fiddly. But neither are just plugging in wired headphones.
- evanjrowley 1y ago
  >True AirPods aren’t fiddly. But neither are just plugging in wired headphones. Setting Apple aside, bluetooth multipoint is a game changer for how I use laptops and headsets. I agree that wired headsets are fantastic. For years I used OnePlus phones because they held on to the venreble 3.5mm jack longer than other Android phones. When traveling, however, the bluetooth multipoint headsets are considerably more convenient than wired headsets. With the work Mac and iPhone, Apple's proprietary fast switching makes this very seamless. I look forward to the day when the similar Fast Pair from Google works on non-Chromebook laptops. >Why would I care about the repeatability of a work laptop? If something breaks, I talk to my IT department We are a remote company, so going to the IT department is not always the most feasible option. In addition to the Mac, I have Linux and Windows computers for work. My employer lets me do things like expense M.2 drives and install them on those systems. Virtual environments are helpful and having both operating systems helps to validate our on-prem offering works with KVM and Hyper-V. Due to the soldered storage (and ARM CPU), I accept this is not feasible with today's Macs, but also recognize this was Apple's choice and it did not have to be this way.