Mac vs. PC: The Business School Dilema

One of the reasons I am excited about business school is that it gives me a solid excuse to get a new computer. I’ve been abusing an iBook for the last three years and I’m not sure how much life is left in her, so the timing is great. However UF, and most other MBA programs, requires its students to own a laptop that runs either Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional. Well, that’s a problem for me because I made the switch to Apple three years ago and haven’t looked back.

I could learn to accept Windows again if I had to, but do I really want to? The switch back to Windows wouldn’t be easy. All of my multimedia is stored on a mac-formatted hard drive, so I wouldn’t be able to access my songs and photos from a PC. Also, Apple’s design and user interface is second to none, so a switch from OS X to Windows would be a regression in user experience. Finally, if I bought a Windows PC it would come pre-installed with Vista, which seems to be the most hated operating system in the history of mankind.

So what to do? I can’t keep my old iBook because it doesn’t meet UF’s minimum hardware requirements, nor does it run Windows. I don’t want to buy a Windows PC because Vista sucks and my entire digital life is formatted for a Mac. Thankfully Apple gives me a solution: The new generation of Apple computers are capable of running Windows! Just install Windows, in my case an old version of XP Professional, on your Apple hard drive and upon start-up chose to launch Windows instead of OS X. According to PC World it does a damn fine job. I spoke to the IT department at UF and they agreed this set-up would meet the business school’s requirements, but cautioned me against it because most of the IT staff is not trained to troubleshoot Apple computers.

“Nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in-house, nearly double the percentage that said they had users running Mac OS X two years ago.”
–ComputerWorld 06/28/08

The reason business schools require students to own a Windows based PC is because most companies run their business on Windows. Historically speaking this is true. However, according to ComputerWorld, “Nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in-house, nearly double the percentage that said they had users running Mac OS X two years ago.” This penetration percentage isn’t going to decrease in the future. Students graduating from college today grew up on iPods and many of them now own, or plan on owning, an Apple computer. This workforce is going to demand the right to use Apples at work and companies will either acquiesce or lose talent to more progressive competitors. (sources: BusinessWeek and CIO)

I would rather push the envelope now than receive the memo later, so I rolled a hard six and put in an order for a new Macbook Pro. Clearly Apple is making gains on Windows in the business world. Within the next five to ten years I think every workplace will have integrated Apple computers into their network and employees will have the option to work on either an Apple or a Windows PC. By that time the iPhone will probably have at least a 50% share of the smartphone enterprise market too, but that is another post for another day.