"Let's face it: Techies love great technology, and so it's no surprise that some Windows developers prefer working on Macs, which are considered by many to be the best desktop computers on the market today. Microsoft, on the other hand, is still trying to cover up its Vista black eye. For many techies, the much maligned Vista operating system has become a symbol of backward innovation."

"Macs have made giant strides in the enterprise in recent years, thanks to Vista's woes, Apple's move to the Intel platform and emerging trends such as desktop virtualization and software-as-a-service that make it easier to access applications using a non-Windows computer. All have helped kick open the corporate doors to Macs. Last year, the Yankee Group surveyed 750 senior IT executives and found that nearly 80 percent have Macs in their environment, up from 47 percent in 2006."

"Yet there are signs that techies want their Macs, too. At Simply RFiD, .Net developers run Visual Studio in a VMware virtualization machine on a Mac Pro--a very stable and fast platform for programmers. In fact, Brown contends that VMware on a Mac Pro runs Windows better than Windows runs Windows."

"Simply RFiD engineers aren't alone in their affection for the Mac. Other IT pros are demanding Macs, often spurred by an appreciation of Apple's reputable hardware and zest for technological innovation. The fact that Mac OS X is Unix-based also means many developers feel at home."