Mac's in a web development office?

Our marketing department are all macs expect two pcs.. which happens to be be used as a main workstation for one of the macs users and there's one person who uses windows only.

Software wise, they all use the same software which is CS6 Master collection expect for the person with the mac and windows workstation who happens to use a few mac only apps such as logic and final cut.

Our Web dev team is windows only, and they then to use Visual Studio and CS6 Master collection. If you can get away with using windows only.. I would stick to what you know best.

If the macs are going to be stand alone or place on a mac network, that's cool but if they are accessing shared resources on a windows network that's when the headaches and complaints start. :rolleyes: Using third party software to get the macs working in a manner that they wasn't designed to allow them to talk to a windows network.

EDIT: Also they may still want one or two windows boxes.. just to test out webpages/sites on non apple browser software such as IE.
 
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Honestly? I think it's a great way to waste money. I think you need to screw your business head back on and look at this again.

Hide the PCs away and grab some nice monitors/cinema displays and some wireless peripherals.
 
theheyes said:
Honestly? I think it's a great way to waste money. I think you need to screw your business head back on and look at this again.

Hide the PCs away and grab some nice monitors/cinema displays and some wireless peripherals.
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I would agree, think very carefully what you are trying to achieve and then make the decision. Moving to a whole new environment you are not familiar with can be very costly, make the change for the right commercial reasons.
 
I would recommend MBPr 13" or 15", we have a open plan at work so every desk as a 27" 1440p screen and you just plug your laptop in, works great. You can always take it home to work on.

That or 13" airs.
 
Thanks for all the comments.

I can see why many of you are saying it's a waste of money but when half of the team are using 5 year old Core 2 Duo PC's that are really showing their age, it comes down to whether we build custom PC's or get something that looks a bit more classy and that helps improve the overall look of the office.

Will have to give it more thought me thinks.
 
The support and warranty vs a custom PC may be worthing taking into consideration, especially when running a business.
 
macally said:
Thanks for all the comments.

I can see why many of you are saying it's a waste of money but when half of the team are using 5 year old Core 2 Duo PC's that are really showing their age, it comes down to whether we build custom PC's or get something that looks a bit more classy and that helps improve the overall look of the office.

Will have to give it more thought me thinks.
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It's funny, I went into a design agency this morning macally and all there monitors were different. It gave me a negative impression and I thought about this thread. If all of the computers would have been Apple with a clean look I would have had a different impression.

Image is important in business, in your game I don't think it is a waste of money. How can you lose, staff morale will improve and customer impression will be considerably improved.
 
Is the office customer facing?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to spruce up the place, but I'm not sure how one goes from a lick of paint and a few new monitors to blowing away all the Windows boxes on a Windows domain and replacing the lot with Macs.

It's bonkers.

And I don't mean that in an offensive way, I mean it in a slap in the face/reality check sense. You're going to pull the rug from underneath your existing network for the sake of aesthetics.

If you want my advice, buy *a* Mac. I can see a definite business advantage for a web development shop to have *a* Mac running OSX. See if it plays nicely with your LOB software, your printers, your domain/policies/file shares, your backup software, your external drives, your encryption software etc.

Only then are you going to have a realistic idea of what the implications are, and whether it's worth it in the long run.
 
The hassle you have supporting macs and pc's will really frustrate you.
If you are supporting the end product, stay with pc's.

If you really want to go down that route, buy one and test it properly!
 
Spit said:
It's funny, I went into a design agency this morning macally and all there monitors were different. It gave me a negative impression and I thought about this thread. If all of the computers would have been Apple with a clean look I would have had a different impression.

Image is important in business, in your game I don't think it is a waste of money. How can you lose, staff morale will improve and customer impression will be considerably improved.
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Exactly. I could understand peoples scepticism if we had 12 month old PC's or something but that's not the case. 2 of the PC's have lasted longer than most people's computer life cycle so are long overdue being replaced anyway.

As you said, image is important to us but out of interest, would your impression have been as different if they'd had say 3 matching Dell Ultrasharp monitors?


theheyes said:
Is the office customer facing?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to spruce up the place, but I'm not sure how one goes from a lick of paint and a few new monitors to blowing away all the Windows boxes on a Windows domain and replacing the lot with Macs.

It's bonkers.

And I don't mean that in an offensive way, I mean it in a slap in the face/reality check sense. You're going to pull the rug from underneath your existing network for the sake of aesthetics.

If you want my advice, buy *a* Mac. I can see a definite business advantage for a web development shop to have *a* Mac running OSX. See if it plays nicely with your LOB software, your printers, your domain/policies/file shares, your backup software, your external drives, your encryption software etc.

Only then are you going to have a realistic idea of what the implications are, and whether it's worth it in the long run.
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Yes, the office is customer facing. For a lot of clients, the office is the first impression our clients get of our company.

I do get what you're saying but like I said, if we decorated the office then put back 5 year old PC's in there, what impression would that give?

That's what started me thinking about replacing the computers and it's only after looking at similar web development offices and seeing what they use that made me think of Mac's.
 
we use macs, its fine for the developers but i find as the sys admin that things are never easy with them. theres just more tools and software available for windows and linux. the costs alone would put me off.
 
CrispyXUK said:
Worth using for Terminal and Coda 2 alone :)
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Coda 2 is one of the main reasons I miss using a Mac lol

macally said:
Yes, the office is customer facing. For a lot of clients, the office is the first impression our clients get of our company.

I do get what you're saying but like I said, if we decorated the office then put back 5 year old PC's in there, what impression would that give?

That's what started me thinking about replacing the computers and it's only after looking at similar web development offices and seeing what they use that made me think of Mac's.
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Be sure to let us know with what you do! Are you able to provide a link to your companies website? Would love to check it out :)
 
Would have still looked good with 3 Dell monitors but I just don't think you can beat the look of the iMac.
 
Spit said:
Would have still looked good with 3 Dell monitors but I just don't think you can beat the look of the iMac.
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But as a client, if you walked into an office full of Dells or an office full of Macs, would that really sway your decision to buy into their services?

Because that's essentially the justification that's trying to be made.
 
No, a sample of work is what is most important. I have just had my own website designed for a new project and I didn't even go to the office. They got the job on recommendation and portfolio.

If I just walked in without a recommendation to ask some questions then I would be swayed by the look of a modern office.
 
I own a web design & development agency. Out of 11 staff we have 3 x iMac 27", 1 x iMac 24", 2 x Mac mini C2D and 5 x PCs with dual monitors.

We just buy staff whatever they are most comfortable using. The designers are 2 on Mac, 2 on PC and he developers 2 x Mac and 1 PC.

I wouldn't consider just replacing the PC's for aesthetics, and our office is quite stereotype new media. The fact is, whilst personally I hate windows, both machines get the job done equally well.

Why not ask the staff I want and start by replacing the older kit first? We generally update each machine every 3 years
 
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