Mac at Work

Appendix

Debunking Myths about Macs

Sadly, many information technology professionals get this special frown on their faces when you show up at work with your Mac. I have a theory about this. I once spoke with an IT manager for a big company that had an equal number of Macs and PCs. He explained that his IT staff spent four times as much time keeping the PCs running as they did the Macs. In other words, computers that don’t break aren’t necessarily a good thing if you earn your living fixing computers. This, of course, is not fair to IT professionals. Many are forward thinking and love Macs. Nevertheless, there are some common misconceptions you may hear from misguided IT professionals. Here are some of the most popular myths and how to debunk them.

Macs aren’t secure

Macs are secure. Mac OS X will not let you install and run new software without first entering your system password. Furthermore, because there are so few Mac OS X computers (in comparison with Windows), the rotten scoundrels who create malicious software largely ignore the Mac. Finally, there are several enterprise-friendly antivirus tools for the Mac. Read Chapter 23. Quite often, the real source of this myth is that IT workers — who deal with PC issues every day — are unsure of the Mac security issues and how to address them. Their ignorance of Mac security issues makes them look worse than they actually are.

Macs can’t be managed as easily as PCs

This is another myth born of unfamiliarity. Macs have built-in ...