» Apple in the Enterprise?

The University of Texas at Austin was once the largest single installation of Apple computers outside of Cupertino. When I attended in the early ’90’s everyone was using a Mac; admissions, professors, TAs, students. It was my first real exposure to Apple’s products. Most faculty and staff used their boxes as glorified thin-clients to attached to networked applications for student records, university messaging (pre-internet email), telnet for MUDs/gopher and the early web. Macs were cool, but starving student mode left no funds to pursue cool, so my worn out Windows PC was it at home for the next few years. The engineering and computer science conmputer labs were outfitted with either thin-clients or SGI boxes (Irix/Indy/Octane).

I suspect the Apple hardware was purchased at a large discount under an exclusivity contract. UT Austin is one of the largest schools in the world with around 50,000 undergrads most years.

What happened to all the Apples?

By the time I graduated (at the height of the internet boom in 2000 (yes it took me a while)), it was a completely different campus, hardware-wise. My last year, the labs were retrofitted with Intel-Linux boxes. Windows PCs started popping up more and more in faculty offices. In the late ’90’s, Microsoft inked a deal with the University to supply student copies of all of their software for only duplication fees. I purchased copies of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Visual Developer 6, Office 2000 and various other Microsoft Windows-based applications for $5 a disk. All licensing protection disabled by Microsoft themselves. Great marketing ploy by Microsoft. I’m still using some of these versions.

What will it take for Apple to get a foothold back in the enterprise? With cost of ownership driving Linux in the developing world and Windows Vista already garnering much press where does Apple fit into the corporate world?

Some interesting thoughts:

• Emerging Alternatives to Windows Vista
• The Apple of the Enterprise’s Eye

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