Macs at Work: Not Just for Designers
Low End Mac Reader Specials
TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com
OWC: Get the Right Memory for Your Mac Top Quality, Competitive Price, Lifetime Backed Free Expert Support + Installation Videos too! MacBook & mini 8GB, iMac 16GB, Mac Pro up to 32GB. Click here
Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how
to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full
Tilt Poker Mac.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.
- 2002.07.25
Do you use a Mac at work? Have you ever?
I have, but it's a fair assumption that the majority of the sneaky daytime peeks at Low End Mac are done from the, ahem, "comfortable" surroundings of a Microsoft OS. [Editor's note: 45.5% of all pages served in June were read on Windows computers; 44.6% on Macs.]
So what did I do on this Mac in the workplace, and, more importantly, how can you get my old job? Readers of my frequent ramblings on this site may know that I previously worked as a video editor, and the editing was done in Adobe Premiere 5.1 on a Power Macintosh G4/400.
Nice and typical, eh? Creative work. Web design, illustration, desktop publishing, even journalism (which is, sadly, more often creative than truthful) are all areas of industry which are atypical in their choice of computer - but they're far from the only industries which feature Macs.
At one stage of my life, I found myself working in a diagnostic radiology department of a large hospital, and lo and behold, what did I find? Macs. The main clerical duties were performed on dumb Unix terminals running Digital's DG/UX, the secretarial work was done in Windows, and the CT Scans were processed in Sun Solaris. But across the hallway, the Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound departments ran the Mac OS - even to the extent of using Photoshop, presumably for retouching the less professionally taken images.
What I want to talk about is the difference in the two cultures when it came to the Mac.
Designers and other such dilettantes are fueled with obsession for their favourite computers - sure, they pretend they're above the Mac zealotry, but get a drink in them, and they'll start enthusing about how "Photoshop just runs better on a Mac." Like many of us who use Apple machines at home, they become walking, talking advertisements for the cabal at Infinite Loop, Cupertino.
Back at X-Ray, things were different. Now, I'm not going to make disparaging remarks about radiographers, but those that owned computers owned PCs. The clinicians were even worse.
Due to the obscene hours which I worked at said establishment, when I decided to buy an iMac Rev. B that I'd seen for £600, I had to nip out on my lunch hour (which, incidentally, was only 50 minutes - what is this, medical time?). Upon returning to the hospital with my iMac in tow, I was confronted by a registrar, "God, you haven't bought one of those bloody iMac things, have you?"
Doctors, pah!
I smiled, said yes, and tried to think of something suitably inane for the medical mind to take in. The last thing I needed to do was look like a complete lunatic by explaining that I'd always used Macs since I could afford them, and that I'd stop when my iMac was prized from my cold, dead hands.
Mac owners always enthuse about how, once you've used a Mac you won't want to go back to Windows. On top of this, we've all heard that to be successful in the home market, a computer must first be successful in the workplace. In fact, this is how Wintel PCs finally killed of the Atari ST and shrank the Amiga user base to almost nothing.
For years we were tortured with tales of our own impending doom - that we'd go the way of those machines.
It didn't happen.
What exactly is Apple's foothold in industry? Is it still largely confined to areas around imaging? If so, is this a bad thing? Macs have a habit of turning up in the oddest of places - small businesses where the owner has a personal passion for them, even large government departments such as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive use them, and if I recall correctly, the U.S. military is fond of them because there are so few Mac based crackers.
Mind you, I'm sure there are no BBC Microcomputers used by crackers either, so there must be more to it than this.
If any of you use Macs in the workplace, I'd love to hear from you (excepting Dan Knight, whom I already know uses Macs). What do you do for a living? What do you do on the Mac? Has the Mac in the workplace persuaded any of your colleagues to buy an Apple?
If you don't work in a Mac based environment, do your colleagues
eyes glaze over when you mention your Mac? Do you feel it's your
personal duty to promote the machine to friends and family, or do
you just get on with doing what you do on it?
Jason Walsh is a journalist and postgraduate student. These observations, though unscientific by any standard, derive from his studies in sociology of culture. One day soon he'll be a doctor, and then we'll all be sorry.
Recent Mac Life Columns
- Macs in the workplace, part 2, 08.08. "Macs are more common in offices than many people in the media realise."
- Macs at work: Not just for designers, 07.25. Why Macs are found in the workplace -- and not just for graphics design work.
- Macintosh community or cult?, 07.18. Is there really a Mac community, or are we more cult-like?
- Our passion for the Mac, 07.11. Why in the world are we so passionate about our Macs?
- More in the Mac Life index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
- Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
- November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Quad-Core CPU Makes Sense in MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 Causing Overheating, Overseas Power, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.06. Also Late 2009 MacBook reviewed, how to add RAM to new MacBook, 18.4in Acer notebook used Intel i7, and SanDisk SSD chosen for Sony VAIO X.
- Dumping Macs for Google Apps, SSD in iMac, Late 2009 iMac Performance Problems, and More, Mac News Review, 11.06. /newsrev/09mnr/1106.html
- WiFi Paranoia, iMac-O-Lantern, Magic Mouse Does Click, Free Clipboard Managers, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.05. Also strange time stamps, problem with ColorIt on Intel Mac, and the story behind OS X 10.5.4 install discs.
- IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
- QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
- Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
- Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
- Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
- Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
- Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
- More deals in our archive.
About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts
Navigation
Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists
Favorite Sites
MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System
6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
Mac FAQ
Abandonware
Petition
Mac vs. PC Info
Affiliates
The Apple
Store
Mac
Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial
Memory
batteries.com
Advertise
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
Mac FAQ
Abandonware
Petition
Mac vs. PC Info
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

