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So, Ive been waiting for the day when I did not have to use PC laptop at work to support our mostly windows environment. With much of my administration in 365 Admin, Powershell, and Windows Command Center, is it safe to say I can switch to a Macbook now? I’m curious to hear what other IT Admins who have experienced using a mac to administer windows environments and any cons I should be aware of? or is it too soon to make the jump?

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I use a MBP M1 every morning, sitting on the couch drinking coffee. I don’t see the point, at all, of using one as a daily driver as a Windows/Linux centric manager.

If I need to do something serious from home, I have a desk-bound EliteBook 860 G10 and external monitor. If I need to travel with a notebook, I have a Dragonfly G3 (with LTE) and an E14 monitor. The MBP never leaves home, because it is broken in comparison to what Windows devices offer.

My Mac use case is 90% “because” and 10% we have enough Apple mobile devices, all three techs have M1/M2 MBA’s and I need to be able to support THEM.

I’ve used Macs since they came out, I don’t get the fascination, and I really don’t get trying to justify it. Just do it because you want to!

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Not really fascinated by them my work just offers the option to go to Mac or PC now where they did not in the past and it’s what I use mostly at home. I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon right now which is awesome because its light, and packs a punch for everything I need but its now pushing 5 years old now, still works great but work replaces stuff due to warranty lifecycle. I did read up on this topic and I think it’s safe to say its too early. I really do need to be able to spin up mstsc and ps quickly at times and from what I read I cant do that on a mac and would have to run some vm of windows on there… bleh.

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MBP as my main device managing a Windows environment? No thanks.

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This is mostly curiosity, but why have you been waiting for the day where a Windows admin, doesn’t use a Windows device?
I use an MBP M1 at work when in the office, it does everything I need, including PowerShell (except any AD integration, it will also be quirky compared to a Windows machine) and RDP for server access, I don’t use it because I want one, nor do I use it because I can - as Brian pointed out it’s mostly to understand it to assist others - there is no compelling reason, really, to use macOS to manage a Windows environment, if you have other uses for the mac, go for it, but it’s not as slick when running Microsoft products.

Too early for what?
I doubt macOS will ever been as integral as Windows is with anything 365 - they’ll support it, but it wont be as polished, with good reason.
To date there isn’t anything I can’t do on a mac, that can be done on Windows, but it is not as easy to use, it doesn’t have the full 365 experience - some things are missing from certain products (I can’t think now, but I have been tripped up with this).
If you use any internal applications that are windows only or C2R, macOS will not support this.
If you opt for an M1 or M2, note they cannot run x86/x64 apps or VMs.
Be prepared to miss certain windows features if/when you switch.

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As others have mentioned, WHY are you waiting for the day to use a Mac? Is it the hardware or the OS that you like? Whatever the reason, there are pros and cons.

I use a Mac and maintain 300+ computers remotely. So out can be done if you WANT to. I do also run Parallel and Windows ARM and I can have the best of both worlds. There are some thing that run better on Mac and some that run better on Windows. I use whichever one works best for what I want.

If you want compatibility, and only 1 OS, then Windows is probably still better. Everything will be the same as what your users have and no slight difference as some mentioned. One example is OneDrive. It’s not quite the same on the Mac. And Outlook for the Mac has been Mac-ified. I use Windows Outlook since I like a customer view for my email and Outlook for Mac just can’t do it.

You can get some Windows laptop that are fairly thin like a MacBook so if it’s hardware form factor, you can get similar to Apple with Microsoft Dell and HP. If it’s the OS you want, you can tweak Windows a bit to have some of the Mac features.

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The recommended route is to Remote Desktop tool to remote into one of your machines to do it, which is what I do.

Its totally untrue that you can’t run Windows x86/x64 on Apple Silicon Macs. I’m running Windows 11 Pro for Arm on Parallels which does run Intel software. Almost everything runs but there are exceptions (RSAT doesn’t work, which many people are understandably unhappy about).

There are other ways to run Intel Windows on Apple Silicon such as UTM ( https://mac.getutm.app/ ) which leverages QEMU and can emulate multiple architectures, or Wine/Crossover. Worth a go if it’s free to try.

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I always run the devices that I support others on (they may be beefed up a bit, but same models). I have an Android phone (HATE it!) for that reason. I have a Dell for the same reason. I’m an Apple fan boy at home, had the first iPhone so I can walk people through thing when they need help, but couldn’t with Android. Previous job had a few Macs for IOS development, but they just don’t always play nice. I’d rather use a Mac, but it doesn’t make sense in a Windows environment. Although you will still be able to do most of your job with it, you’ll be creating unnecessary headaches in the process.

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I’m glad I’m not alone in the “why” question.

The OP mentions using Mac mostly at home - OK fine, then use that at home.

I guess this might be more akin to the desire that some people have to try to find that one ultimate device that can do it all. But sadly that continues to fail. I.e. a tablet device that replaces your laptop/desktop/entertainment device/etc. My experience has shown me that while it’s possible to shoehorn everything into a convertible, the experience just isn’t there for one reason or another, and I’m often better off having dedicated devices to each task.

The same is likely true for management of systems.

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I have done this very thing before, switching everything to Mac and using it to manage windows. And I hated it… overall.

Why? I had to run any windows application in Parallels for Mac which cut my performance and storage down. Any heavy lifting has to be done on the MAC side, and even though you can move files to and from the Parallels VM, it just became a hassle.

What I ended up doing most often was setting up a VPN using TunnelBlick and RDPing into a VM machine that hosted all my tools and data on a Xeon server, which had all the power and punch I needed. This only became a problem when I needed to use peripherals and manage hardware locally that needed PC hardware and Windows.

To do that, I did try dial OS’s on the Mac using their boot environment but I found that annoying to get into if I put the Mac to sleep and had apps or work open I intended to continue working on, having to save it and probably forget to get back to it later. Or running the slow Parallels VM.

Mac has a lot of tools and apps that do exactly what you need. Ducky replaces PuTTY, RDP is an app from Microsoft for Mac in the App Store, you can even get command prompt or power shell libraries to run inside Terminal. And after all that work you have to ask yourself why did you do it? Which is what I asked myself after about a year.

With a wife and kids and jobs a plenty I eventually found having a Windows based laptop just made more sense. I was using an Apple to make “lemonade” daily. I didn’t have to worry about special MagSafe chargers left at home (everyone had PC spares laying around) didn’t have to switch over to a different OS to support someone immediately, and also didn’t have to be concerned about dropping my $2000 MacBook over a $700 Dell. Repairing a MacBook is a costly pain if you have ever had the pleasure. :sob: PC parts are cheap!

The best analogy I can come up with is trying to fix a European car without metric tools. What are you trying to accomplish and why would you limit yourself purposely when the tool for the job is readily available and plentifully in supply. I still use both. I use Mac as my daily driver desktop at home (Hackintosh on Dell mini pc actually) and have a MacBook Pro. I use Apple TVs and airplay for everything entertainment wise. When it comes to down and dirty work I go to my Lenovo T15 Gen1, hooked to a docking station with dual monitors. It just makes life easier.

Do what makes you happy until it doesn’t. Don’t get cemented into an idea for too long. You’ll find yourself stuck and grumpy for no reason other than your own pride.

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Does the OP also have to deal with the user-side jealousy of “why does the sysadmin get to use a Mac and I can’t?” Not having to deal with that is a plus for keeping it an all-Windows environment.

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Computica wrote: “And Outlook for the Mac has been Mac-ified.” – If I may, Outlook for the Mac has been Poop-ified. After endless “development” of the New Outlook, they finally started forcing us over to it even though it still wasn’t, and isn’t, finished. I’m still fighting my way back to the classic version, for as long as that’s possible…

Dennis5204 wrote about - the user-side jealousy of “why does the sysadmin get to use a Mac and I can’t?” - - So true! Macs/iPhones generally cost more. We have a Deaf unit in our company, and the supervisors & managers in that department get Apple gear because, currently, it’s still much better at displaying tiny videos. This is how Deaf people mostly communicate and we have tested with various Samsung phones, which don’t measure up. At least not yet…

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If you’re managing Windows for end users, run Windows.

If you don’t eat your own dogfood, you’ll lose valuable info about the hassles they see everyday and don’t even know to report.

My 2c.

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OMG you aren’t kidding. I also kept manually reverting back to classic Outlook with every update (about every month), and I finally had to start using the new version because there are 3 other Mac users that are using that version. So to help them troubleshoot I started using it daily to get used to it. Also I noticed that it seems the search functionality in the classic version became almost useless; almost like MS decided to break that to force us over to the new version.

I don’t know who at MS thought this new version was an improvement of the old, but I have yet to find any advantages to it. Everything is much harder to find and, like you said, it seems unfinished.

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LOL good point didnt think about that. There’s that too. Like I mentioned earlier, I think I’m gonna stick with this Lenovo and just wait.

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You’ve just proved my point - Windows 11 for arm is not x86.

This can emulate W11 for x86 but it’s awful, emulation takes a lot of processing.

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Thank you that is really helpful! Brought to mind a few things I probably would run into as well. I’m gonna stick with a PC for now. Yeah, I’ll just keep my mac use for at home only :slight_smile:

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I forgot to say to OP: I use a Mac every day for all my managing tasks, but there are times I’ve had to go back to my old Windows laptop to do Windows-specific things. The company bought this Mac for me to help manage all the Apple devices we accumulated with our last COO, so I’m obligated to use it for a while. But I would rather go back to a Windows Laptop for managing a Windows network; it’s just so much easier.

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I will say one highlight of using a Mac as my main machine at home: texting other iPhone users and making calendar appointments is awesome. It’s so much easier supporting someone with a full keyboard instead of just your thumbs.

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“Messages for Web”, which works fine on a Mac with Chrome.