Letter from chairman of the Telework Coalition; Mac OS gaining IT dept. converts; Obeying Microsoft: Is Wine the way?
Apple and IT
Regarding “Mac OS gaining IT dept. converts”: Apple’s Xserve is a superb server at a very good price. In addition, as the article only briefly mentions, included with purchase of an Xserve is a full, unlimited-users edition of Mac OS X Server. This is an astonishing value compared to Microsoft or even open source. Compared to Microsoft, it’s a no-brainer. Even if all your clients are 100% Windows-based, OS X Server is still the best server you can use for many services. It will run your directory domain, file services, Web servers, e-mail, DNS, FTP, DHCP and a slew of other services — at no additional charge and with no per-user fees.
Compared to Linux, the Xserve is again an amazing deal. You can install whatever flavor of Linux you want on the Xserve hardware. But more importantly, you can leave OS X (read: BSD) on the Xserve and set up DNS, Apache, Postfix, Cyrus, Open Directory (based on OpenLDAP), Kerberos, DHCP and so on in less than half an hour.
Free, unlimited-user, high-end, super-easy-to-configure server software with purchase of amazingly good iron. As enterprise IT starts to see this value, they won’t be able to keep Xserves off their racks.
Ed Pastore
Director of information technology
American Society of Consultant Pharmacists
Alexandria, Va.
If you expect Steve Jobs to come kowtowing to the enterprise with expensive direct sales teams, big discounts and lots of handholding, forget it. In a nutshell, Apple’s enterprise strategy is to let the enterprise come to Apple. The consumerization of IT plays to Apple’s strengths: ease of use, product quality and reduced support costs. The success of the iPhone is going to drive a lot of enterprise business. Let the CIOs tell the CEOs that they won’t support Mac OS X. That will be a short discussion.
Robin Harris
Editor
StorageMojo.com
Sedona, Ariz.
Regarding “Mac OS gaining IT dept. converts”: I have been using a Mac OS PowerBook in an all-PC corporate environment for almost three years. My efficiency is higher and blood pressure lower that any of my co-workers. But Mac and corporate IT is kind of like the 200mpg carburetor and the oil companies: Only when the few in control are willing to sacrifice their position for the good of the many does real progress happen.
Claude Baines
Shreveport, La.
Defining teleworkers
Regarding the letter to the editor from John Edwards, chairman of the Telework Coalition: Edwards writes that at presentations he receives no responses when he asks who teleworks or telecommutes, but a forest of hands appears when he asks who works at home in the evenings or while traveling. Is his point that anyone who does any work away from their office is a teleworker?
I’ve done work from home for almost every job I’ve ever had, but not once, ever, have I had to call the office or log in to the computers at work so that I could accomplish these after-hours tasks. This doesn’t really fit most people’s definition of teleworker. I was taking work home before VPNs or the word “telecommute” existed. My wife has, too. Since our hands would have gone up on the second question, would Edwards have assumed that we’re a couple of closet teleworkers?
Gerald Lanning
Senior programmer/analyst
American Printing House for the Blind
Louisville, Ky.
Telecommuting is a substantial step toward self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship. It may impede advancement up the corporate ladder, but it fosters the skills necessary to create your own ladder. Telecommuting instills a better understanding that you are measured by what you accomplish, not the hours worked. If one can complete tasks and communicate with superiors, the transition to clients is small. Most jobs that can be performed as a telecommuter can also be performed as a consultant.
David Lynch
Software consultant
DLA Systems
Lititz, Pa.
Simple password management
Regarding Scott Bradner’s column, “Obeying Microsoft: Is Wine the way?”: While setting up an account can be annoying (and I refuse to do it if any personal information is required), password management is hardly required, as one simply has to use one’s e-mail address, and in the worst case, reset the password if one ever returns (or come up with a simple universal password for such silliness, or a ridiculously simple algorithm for a memorable site-specific password, like the name of the site). Regardless, this is hardly a reason to outright reject a site and make a simple review article incomplete.
Paul Clarke
Austin, Texas
