Fortune columnist: Macs still wrong for business

Read the comments to, oh, just about any blog post I've written about Windows and its flaws in the last 2 1/2 years, and you'll find some genius who's come up with the original, witty retort of "Get a Mac!" ("Get Linux!" is, of course, close behind.)

One columnist is now putting his neck out on the chopping block by offering the advice that, at least for businesses, Macs aren't always the right choice.

Fortune Small Business writer Jonathan Blum posits that, even though the Mac has made great strides toward the business world in recent years, it's still not wholly ready for it.

Among his complaints: Naturally, figuring out how to do simple tasks on a Mac can be baffling for a veteran PC user. He calls out the most recent iMac's lack of a visible power button (it's inexplicably on the back) as a case in point. If Joe Business can't figure out how to turn the computer on, what hope does he have for getting on the network?

Other complaints are a bit more serious. There aren't enough USB ports. Standby business software like GoToMyPC didn't work. Just as many driver issues getting hardware to work as with Vista. And of course the lack of a two-button mouse, unless you bring your own.

The bigger concern for businesses can be a few specific interoperability problems, says Blum. Trouble with syncing a BlackBerry to a Mac can be a deal killer for many business users.

Blum's complaints are serious, but are they valid? I think they are. It's one thing to recommend your grandma get a Mac instead of a Vista PC, because chances are the only problems she'll encounter is in getting her photo printer set up properly and wondering where Minesweeper can be found. But for businesses with multiple computers and a lot of critical hardware and software, switching to a Mac isn't as easy as the commercials make it out to be. (In two decades of using both platforms, I've never gotten used to the Mac's system of having the menu bar on top of the screen rather than inside the window where I'm working.)

Bottom line: Definitely consider a Mac no matter what kind of user you are, but carefully weigh the costs associated with an enormous switch like this. If you can, find a colleague who's already made the move and get some candid commentary on how well it's worked out. You might be surprised that the path to the Mac isn't quite as seamless as the commercials make it out to be.

LINK: Why Macs still aren't right for most businesses