Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

Infoworld today confirms a truism which I have been living with for several months now. Specifically, the magazine says that the Mac is now appearing more and more often in purely business situations, as opposed to its traditional artistic, media, and marketing corporate homes. I have recently built a Web site for a small newspaper publisher that uses the Mac throughout his entire organization. This column will soon be home for an interview with that publisher and his staff. Perhaps as telling, I am personally very near purchasing a MacBook Pro to be my primary computer.

Both of those situations tell a person something, or several things. It tells us that the Mac has entered the mainstream in a way not heretofore possible. It tells us that a seasoned Windows professional (both as a user and as a developer) can begin to see himself in the world of the Mac. And, for those good at deduction, it tells us that Microsoft and its Windows Vista debacle has damaged, probably irretrievably, the head and shoulders (plus torso and most-of-a-leg) lead that Microsoft has held over Apple for many, many years.

The Mac hardware, for one thing, has turned into a PC, built of the same parts and subject to the same benefits and drawbacks. The Mac operating system, a Unix variant, has come to be viewed as safer, faster, and better overall than its Windows competitor, better even than XP. The Gartner group, among others, has been talking lately of the fall of Microsoft, and how close it may be. No little part of this can be laid at the feet of Linux, not yet popular enough on its own to unseat Windows, but highly enough thought of that it is giving many people ideas.

One wonders when Bill will start divesting himself of MS stock…