[Newsletter] Network World, The Canard of the Single-Source Argument, and More

[Paul Suh]

Folks,

Network World Magazine
----------------------------------

Hey, I got quoted in Network World magazine. :-)

<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/022707-mac-os-going- 
corporate.html>

The title of the article is "Mac OS being infused with the tools of  
the corporate IT trade, but can it catch on?" The gist of the article  
is that the Mac is ready, but a lot of IT shops haven't properly  
evaluated it yet. I got the last tagline as well, "'I guess I still  
don’t see Mac having crossed the awareness gap,' says ps Enable’s  
Suh. 'It has started to seep into IT consciousness, but there is  
still a lot of prejudice out there, with some saying Mac is not ready  
for prime time. Until that awareness gap is closed, then everything  
else is secondary.'”

The Canard of the Single-Source Argument
-----------------------------------------------------------

> canard
> 1 an unfounded rumor or story : the old canard that LA is a  
> cultural wasteland.
> ...
> ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French, literally ‘duck,’ also ‘hoax,’  
> from Old French caner ‘to quack.’

Now that the Mac is being seriously considered by enterprise  
customers, the old single-source canard has been raised by a few  
"analysts" (most of whom as far as I can tell have never analyzed  
anything, instead just spewing the words of others). It runs  
something like this: "Since the Mac is produced only by Apple, if you  
don't like Apple or Apple treats you badly or you don't like the  
price, you can't go somewhere else for your systems. On the Windows  
platform, you can go to HP or Dell or IBM and get compatible  
equipment if your current vendor treats you badly."

Bull. What a load of. Complete nonsense. Sewage best dealt with by  
flushing down the toilet.

Why? There are two parts that need to be addressed: the part that is  
common across the various vendors and the part that is specific to  
each vendor.

First, the part that is common to each vendor -- Windows. If there is  
some part of Windows that you don't like, you have two choices. One  
is to buy into an open source solution such as Linux or FreeBSD,  
which has its own costs. The other is to switch to the Mac. If  
Windows is a problem then switching from IBM to Dell is not going to  
solve anything. Not technical issues and not license pricing issues  
either. Any license pricing that you can get from one you can get  
from the other, since it is all dictated by Microsoft anyway.

Second, the part that is specific to each vendor -- the hardware and  
the hardware support. The single source canard has a hidden  
assumption -- that you can replace *all* of a disliked vendor's  
hardware at once. Not going to happen. Never. Not at the enterprise  
scale, anyway. Different chipsets have different driver requirements.  
The lights-out management systems are just a little bit different  
between vendors, and between different models from the same vendor.  
Stuff *will* get stomped on or stop working in the face of system  
updates or service packs or security patches. Once that happens  
you're going to have to fix up your deployment images and in-place  
systems. To do this, you will need to continue to deal with the old  
company's support. Only now, since you're no longer buying any new  
hardware from them, you're at the back of the line as far as their  
account reps are concerned. Lotsa luck, chief.

So, any time that someone raises the, "but if I buy from Apple I'm  
stuck with a single source" argument, ask them what considerations  
exist when they want to switch to a different vendor with non-Apple  
equipment.

Subscribing to This Newsletter
-----------------------------------------

I've updated my website so that you can subscribe to this newsletter  
from the website. I put a link on the front page and also at the top  
of the newsletter page. If you have friends or colleagues who want to  
sign up as well, please have them go to:

<http://lists.ps-enable.com/mailman/listinfo/newsletter>

Again, please let me know if you like the articles or have a topic  
that you would like me to cover.

Macs on a Train
----------------------

You've heard of Snakes on a Plane, right? Well how about Macs on a  
Train? I took Amtrak up to New York City a couple of weeks ago, and  
on the way back I noticed that every single open laptop in my car  
(which was about 3/4 full) was a Mac! Even in the other cars, there  
were at least one or two Macs among the Windows laptops that people  
were using. And, it wasn't just students or leisure travelers -- the  
people using the Macs were dressed in business suits, not jeans.

Defeating Hardware Rootkit Detection
---------------------------------------------------

<http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=109>

Be afraid. Be very afraid. This is a really neat trick to defeat PCi-  
or FireWire-based RAM snapshot utilities by hacking the RAM  
controller on the motherboard. It just goes to show that you  
absolutely cannot check the security on a computer system while it is  
running. My hat is off to Ms. Rutkowska for this very excellent hack.  
It's worth going through her presentation slides from the link at the  
bottom of the article.


--Paul


Paul Suh                                                          
http://www.ps-enable.com/
paul.suh at ps-enable.com                           (240) 672-4212



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