A classic way to get us nerds all riled up is to tell us our operating system of choice is the wrong one. But does it really matter to your business?
It does, but maybe not the way you might think. It’s not really about which one is better, and it’s not even necessarily about choosing the perfect platform for your business, although there certainly are some considerations depending on your industry or profession. The crucial bit is to actually make a choice. Choose macOS. Choose Windows. Choose both. But whatever you choose, do it consciously.
You may choose Mac because you want to project a culture of creativity and elegance. Or, because your staff demographic skews younger and they are familiar with macOS/iOS already. Apple has flexible & simple options for easily managing a fleet of remote devices; that’s a good reason too! The best reason may be that macOS reduces complexity by limiting the number of variations on hardware & operating system, and doesn’t charge for OS upgrades.
THE CATCH: Apple cares not for the features and supportability of yesterday. They move fast and what you relied on last year may not be available next year.
You might go with Windows because you have a line-of-business app that relies on Windows. You may value that Microsoft is committed to long-term supportability of software. Or maybe your staff grew up with Windows 98 (I’m dating myself perhaps) and don’t want to get used to a new interface. Usually it comes down to cost; with proper planning, you can save a bit of money by going with PCs.
IT’S A TRAP: Be careful when choosing a PC based on cost. The inexpensive boxes you can get at many retailers are not designed to be used 40+/hrs a week and generally lack important security & management features. You can still get entry level business-grade equipment that’s less expensive than Mac, just avoid the cheap consumer stuff that you’ll have to replace twice as often.
You might choose both to indulge the preferences of your team. Or to accomodate different business units. Maybe the new superstar you hired really, REALLY wants to go against the grain. Just make sure you’re CHOOSING this, and not letting it just happen.
MORE PLATFORMS MEAN MORE PROBLEMS: For each variation to your tech, you add more trouble. Add a new model? New problems. New product line? New problems. New OS? new problems! New problems and new processes, tools, and more management overhead.
You can run just about any business with either platform, despite what some people may say. So never mind the armchair speculation of which is “better”. Which one do you want for your team?
Some people tell me that they have only used [macOS/Windows] at home and they couldn’t possibly learn how to use [Windows/macOS] at work. Personal preference can be a sticking point, but generally speaking most of us do most of our work in a web browser. Today, if you can find your browser icon, you’re halfway there.
So, pick want you want for your business, just make sure you make a conscience choice and know what it’s going to take to maintain.
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