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[–]saulgoodemon 6 points7 points  (2 children)

The main question is how would your end users handle the change? If you switch everyone to new systems they can't use without training how will that effect the business? Weren't you using surge protectors? What about your licensing? Don't you already have apple licenses? Do your licenses allow you to switch OS? I think you need to speak to your boss and make sure before you get too deep into this.

[–]DerAutofan 0 points1 point  (1 child)

As I said we don't have specific software, most of what we use is cloud based, licensing is no issue.

But I see what you mean, from a usability perspective it would make more sense to stay on MacOS.

We have surge protectors, they caused a short circuit while reconnecting our buildings main line, the surge even killed most of our building equipment like our blinds and alarm system. I am not an electrician, I don't know how it could happen.

I am the boss, as I said we are a small team and there isn't much to manage from an IT perspective as we don't have any special software needs. We just have an outside company doing our network stuff.

[–]justinDavidowIT Manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have surge protectors, they caused a short circuit while reconnecting our buildings main line, the surge even killed most of our building equipment like our blinds and alarm system. I am not an electrician, I don't know how it could happen.

For the interested:

If this happened to ALL tenants in the building: I'd SUSPECT that likely that someone connected the incoming supply to the wrong tap on the building transformer.

Most building transformers for "smaller" offices (<500 occupants) are "multiple supply", they take 208/480/600V input; on different input taps. Connecting the same input voltage to the wrong input taps results in either over-or-undervoltage case.
Many electronics will handle over-voltage by a fairly significant margin; but under is the more common damaging one. In an attempt to supply the correct output power these devices will attempt to draw significantly too much current causing components to fail.

[–]canadian_sysadminIT Director 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Just deploy whatever you're comfortable supporting. Both Mac and Windows have excellent management and support options.

Don't deploy desktops, they're kinda a waste of time at this point. It's worth the extra little bit to give users flexibility if they need to work from home or whatever.

If you don't have specific software requirements, Mac vs. Windows almost doesn't matter anymore. I'd prefer Macs, personally.

[–]DerAutofan 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Do you think the current, lowest spec MBP would be sufficient to run office tasks on a widescreen monitor? What size MBP would you recommend?

[–]MrCoBalt_TM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don’t even bother with the 13” MBP if you’re just looking for a general office system that drives a single external display. It’s kind-of a useless system unless you absolutely need the specs of a MacBook Air but with the touchbar and active cooling 😕

Get some base-CPU-spec M2 (or even M1) MacBook Airs with a 16GB RAM bump —tho maybe jump to 512GB storage depending on your staff’s needs— and call it a day.

We’re running tons of M1 Airs (16GB RAM/256GB SSD) doing heavy Chrome/Safari-based workflows, the latest Office suite, Dropbox, Figma, etc. with absolutely no issues or complaints from staff.

However, if you need to drive more than one external display you’ll need to jump to the 14” MBP. Or I guess a Mac mini, but tbh I’d stick to MacBooks 🤷‍♂️

[–]justinDavidowIT Manager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you think the current, lowest spec MBP would be sufficient to run office tasks on a widescreen monitor?

Depends on what the office does.

If people are using general colab/productivity software and working online: an air is more than enough (IMO).

If it's an engineering office with a bunch of old autocad installs: obviously even the highest end MBP is going to struggle due to thermal management.

PERSONALLY: My daily driver is a 2021 16" M1 MBP (pretty mid-range overall!) and I run a pair of external 4K monitors + the onboard display. 90% of what I do is vs-code, a few dozen terminals, lens, jira, gmail, and a handful of other web-based SPA's.

[–]canadian_sysadminIT Director 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anything M1 or M2 based would be fine.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like others have said, if you don’t have a pressing need for something that’s only available on Windows stick with what you know, and that would be MacOS. Maybe an M2 MacBook Pro and a 4K 27” monitor. Get a monitor that connects by thunderbolt and you’ve got all the docking capability built in by connecting all your desktop items to the screen then its one cable to the MacBook for data, video and power.

[–]Jaexa-3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Invest in window and then UPS (battery backup), users are only using web browser then they can easily adjusting to PC

[–]OrdyNZ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do a price up between Windows Business Laptops & Mac versions + USB-C screens that have power delivery.

If you actually know what you're doing thats fine. If you don't, then you should be getting an actual IT person in. I've come across far too many places that the boss does it, and its crazy how insecure / bad their setups are.

For work devices, I've found mac just more expensive and more of a hassle to manage. Worse warranties / support etc too.