How can I stop my boss from taking away my Mac?

Has your boss used Windows 8? Eurghh... I can understand why they'd be considering this. But what reason does he/she have for the upgrade, and what kinds of software are you running?

The current Mac Pro range - though getting very long in the tooth - are not significantly slower than top of the range Windows workstations (based on Sandybridge-E). And the current generation iMacs are blazingly fast and are just jaw-droppingly beautiful.

EDIT: I'd also add - if your boss wants your team to develop and publish any iOS apps in future, then you'll need a mac.

What are you using now? an iMac has limited upgrade options and shorter shelf life.

You can run Windows 7 on any PC and have your picks of graphic setups, SLI, CF, higher clocked RAM and cpu.

A boss gets to decide. And for same $3,000 per seat plus software, cross-platform license....

You can run Windows on your Mac but... there is total lack of real fan + thermal control so that does not work well in long run.

And your boss probably doesn't want to wait on Apple or buy into higher cost proprietary technology or 3 yr old design.

Haswell PCs? Unlikely they want Xeons.

Software? good use of cores? probably Windows.

Best Windows laptop: MacBook Pro 13" (but heat again is the Achilles heel)

Security: Mac

Hardware support and reliablity: Mac

Dealing with firmware updates: Apple tends to issue very few, usually one more after a model ships, PC: tend to see much more that you need to deal with and can be PITA and necessary, esp. with motherboard and processor support with new line.

Make a spreadsheet and list all the things you can come up with and see for yourself.

I don't think you'll win over your boss and how does it make you look? team player? reliable? dispensable?

The Mac you have can run Windows better than many "Windows-only" PCs. There is no need to take it away, just add memory and Install Windows. Then you meet the letter of the law and can use your Mac programs as well.

It all depends on what kind of software they want to run. My 2008 Mac Pro is still running well, though I am itching to upgrade it (and hoping that Apple *FINALLY* announce new Pro macs at WWDC).

iMacs are less limited than you might think - thunderbolt expansion means you can add external PCI cards and RAID controllers if needed. And in terms of Processing and Memory, unless you're doing high-end 3D or very complex VFX work, it's hard to think of a situation where a fully-specced 27" iMac (with 16 or 32GB of RAM) wouldn't be capable of just about anything you need.

The hatter wrote:

Software? good use of cores? probably Windows.

Given that Apple has been heavily invested in multicore software for more than a decade now (they had to compete with the Intel P4 by shifting most of their pro lineup to Dual CPU in order to compete) - and invented tech like Grand Central Dispatch to efficiently manage multicore systems - this statement doesn't make any sense at all. FCPX is one of the most impressively well-threaded apps I've used. It even manages to outpace Premiere Pro - no mean feat!

this site and other people shoot the software people and lack of support for multi thread / core as even apple fallsshort with pro apps

www.macperformanceguide.com

and 24-48-96GB RAM

sure imac and tb helps and itstill is $$$ + propritary for most part

Typical non-designer, non-techy Boss. The fact that you're STILL working with CS4 says everything you need to know about their screwed up sense of priorities.

You don't *need* new hardware nearly as much as you *NEED* new software. And you should upgrade the OS of the iMac to 10.8 too - to take advantage of the enhanced OpenGL support introduced in the latest release. The iMac itself isn't horribly slow - though is it QuadCore? Whatever - the new iMacs are absolutely perfect for running CS6, and if you get the upgraded GPU in the 27" are very capable for CUDA use too (for Premiere Pro and After Effects)

You can run Heiler and other specific bits of PC software insider Fusion or Parallels - no need to relaunch OS's.

Can't contribute on the design front ... but you come over as an excellent person to have around the studio. Stick around with your Mac if you can ... and good luck.

Oh, and dsol21 sounds like he knows what he's talking about, too.

khilila wrote:

What would you guys do?

Use my design skills to put together a nice resume and portfolio.

Explain to your boss that it will take some time to transition from the Mac to Windows. You will need to verify that all of your critical files, fonts, images, and documents look and work the same way on Windows. Don't use that as a tactic to dissuade him. That's a lost cause. You need to be an enthusiastic team player. You also need an excuse to go back over all of your work so you can pick out the best examples for your USB drive.

Thanks Khilila,

There are cases where the PC route is definitely sensible. For example - if you are primarily doing lots of 3D rendering, or very dense 4K comping in Nuke. In those cases, you can definitely get a lot more options - at lower cost - than you can going with the Mac route.

But OSX is very lovely. Don't listen to the haters who disparage 10.7 and 10.8 - it really is an incredibly slick and smooth operating system.

I'll be interested to see what changes are made to the next release of Windows after the negative feedback they've recieved about the schizophrenic mess of the Win8 twin UI approach.

Of course, I'd be even more excited if more pro software was ported to Linux 🙂

Do not fight the Mac Vs. PC battle. It is and always has been a losing battle. The non-Mac guys ALWAYS win, because they do not use life-cycle costs.

ADD Windows to your Mac (not replacing Mac OS X). Then you can run whatever stupid stuff they insist on.

Then tell anyone and everyone to cram it, you are not giving up the exceptional productivity of the Mac.

I experienced the same idiocy about 10 years ago where I work. I took a page from Etresoft's book. I delayed the decision by explaining that we'd need to run a PC computer against the Mac installed base to insure software compatibility with our current content and workflow compatibility and work arounds for areas where we had to switch software or found incompatibilities. I had prepared a little demonstration to show him some of the issues I was concerned about. (Yes, I stacked the deck a little.)

During that time I worked diligently and seriously at the task I'd set but I also knew that in the end I might be unwilling to work under the new system and I also used the time to put together a new resume and portfolio. When the extension was close to expiring I sat down with my boss and informed him of my findings - they weren't good. I also informed him that I recognized it was his decision to make but it was mine to take another position if he decided to switch to Windows. I'm not entirely sure what was the deciding factor - the issues I found, my intent to leave, a combination of the two, or something else but my department remains an island of Macs surrounded by a sea of (often not working) Windows boxes.