Ratio of PC to Mac support hours? [closed]
Solution 1:
Depends also on the infrastructure you have to control things. If you have a Windows domain with 15 desktops and need to change a setting on all of them you'll have a much easier time than 15 separate Macs, likewise with AV configuration, password syncing and such. The same in reverse applies though so if you don't have a domain but do have a snow leopard/samba server you might find the Macs easier.
We support a number of Macs and by and large they require less time except where parallels/VMware is involved. There are always users that want to run PC apps and tend to use one of the above to do so. At which point your admin overhead just quadrupled. Personally I like the idea of setting up a dedicated Windows Terminal server for those users.
On average I've found Mac's do throw less grief but are harder to centrally manage. So there is a magic number in there somewhere where PCs will be easier to manage, personally I'd guess it to be around the 20 mark. Will say I haven't had much to do with Mac's enterprise config stuff (does it exist?).
and I second Niels comment about most of support going to users, regardless of platform there is always someone that unplugs their mouse.
Solution 2:
The hours you'll spend per machine on support will have far less to do with the platform than the user so make a decision that is sensitive to the preferences and skills of your users and proceed.
Solution 3:
From lots of experience in supporting organizations that had roughly equal numbers of Unix-based and Windows-based end users, the tasks and category of the end user is more important than the platform in determining end user support requirements. Most of the end user support is typically "would you please reset my password," reconnecting loose cables, and ensuring switches are in the ON position. For servers support, new rollouts, updates, troubleshooting, adding features or capabilities, etc., there was roughly a 10:1 ratio between the number of technical support people required per thousand supported seats. That is, Windows server and technical support required 10x the amount of labor hours than Unix based systems.
I don't know how that plays out for your particular organization, but in my experience the typical crossover point is at about seven to ten users. Of course, this assumes that you do not require Windows application (typically Microsoft Office) file import/export for your task customer base.
Solution 4:
Depends entirely on the applications involved, the tasks involved, the caliber and experience of the users, the caliber and experience of the IT staff, and a couple hundred other things. Hell, the ratio wouldn't even be the same in different departments in my own company, let alone someone else's company with zero indication of what they do...
Solution 5:
Yes, it's not an aphrodite to athena apples to oranges comparison. (mind the pun)
What you're really asking is: Do Mac's have a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) when compared to PC running Windows?
There was a whitepaper a few years back that tried to do a comparison, although all links to it seem dead! (maybe someone elses search skills are better then mine & can link a copy here). Here's a review of the whitepaper from a someone user who trashes it. Here's a discussion of it on a Microsoft blog.
IMHO apple mac's these days are appliances (unless your doing objective-c dev work). If your user are only ever going use is a browser, productivity apps like word, excel do some presentations then macs are probably the way to go.
The reality is, this will not describe every user in your organization. Most accounting & other LOB application packages are mostly Windows based. You may be able to get away with having some users on Mac's, but not the whole business.