Ionrock Dot Org

Last night I talked to my dad for a bit on the phone. Like many men before him, it seems as though he has been bit by the bug of technology. A broadband connection, wireless and a new PDA has brought about a new enthusiasm in using computers that I have honestly never seen in my dad. Since becoming a programmer and general technical guy, I am seen as Tech Support to most in my family. My dad's new desire to geek out has brought about longer conversations on the phone that revolve around reading installer messages and opening control panels.

Anyway, last night, during our virus protection conversation it hit me that the concept of "Enterprise" computing is non-existant in the Apple world. What tipped me off to this was when my dad was installing AVG (free virus protection that doesn't get in your way like McAfee/Norton). It was asking him some question about updating the software and whether or not to restart. My dad felt it should just take care of itself. I mentioned that there are many instances where that wouldn't be a good idea, none of which he understood. My dad has been using Apple's the Mac SE.

In the PC world, every application has consider things like corporate file shares, VPN connections, central authentication systems and remote home directories. The result is that applications cannot reliably make decisions because there are too many variables that can make them break. In some senses, I think this is kind of fun for guys like my dad because there really is a sense of satisfaction when you get your virus protection up to speed. It is a complete waste of time in that it doesn't help you get work done, but it does mean you did something that is essentially restricted to the world of computers.

I have commented on this concept of trusted environment before and even in the context of Apple's hard link between hardware and software. In thinking about Apple in the enterprise, it seems that it is just too easy to poke holes (whether real or not) in Mac OS, which makes it almost impossible to use in the enterprise. The enterprise environment relies on a feature list and Apple does have the longest list of features unfortunately. Shame on Apple for giving people the impression their computer should do the work.