Check out the smoke on slashdot. There are a few very important reasons for a company to switch over to Macs. Viruses, Spyware, and Solitaire, to name just three. I just installed Windows XP on a fairly run-of-the-mill mini-PC, the ASUS Pundit-R. It took me two day to get all the drivers sorted out. I’ve still got an entry in the device manager for a mysterious “USB Controller” with a yellow exclamation point next to it which doesn’t seem to be covered by the ASUS or ATI driver downloads. You can re-install a Mac in about an hour, all drivers and applications included, no matter what model. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even tell the install program to leave your home directory alone, and all your application settings will remain.

On the other hand, I’ve had a lot of customer contact lately. Most of my customers have irresolvable reasons to stay on the platform they’re on, almost invariably Win32. Whether it’s a Tax-Consulting program that makes extensive use of COM and the Windows version of Microsoft Office and Outlook, or an embedded controlling program for an industrial baking machine that only runs on Win98 SE, these people are locked in, and generally at ease with that fact. But with that, the ‘vendor lock-in’ argument against Apple Computer goes right out the window.

Companies shouldn’t switch platforms just because somebody on Slashdot can provide an overpowering argument. Switching is expensive, no matter which direction. If you switch to Mac, you have to know that you can’t realistically have more that one choice for an office productivity package, ironically MS Office. On Windows, you’ve got native versions of OpenOffice, Hansa Office, Corel WordPerfect Office (my personal choice at the moment), and just about anything else you can think of, none of which exist on Mac. Mac does have Pages, which beats rings around Word for 99% of what you’re going to want to do, as long as what you want to do doesn’t involve other companies being able to interact directly with your documents.

There are many arguments against Macification, and many more in favor. It all comes down to whether or not the boss wants to pony up the money for some sexy-ass hardware.