Thanks to the confluence of a number of computing trends, not the least among them a rising tide of end-user affinity for the Apple experience, executive editor Galen Gruman writes, supporting the appetite for Macs is now a straightforward option. “Luckily for IT, many of those same trends are making it easier for tech departments to say yes to the Mac by facilitating IT’s ability to provide enterprise-grade Mac management and support,” Gruman explains in The Mac in businesses: it’s easier than you think. Analysts firm agree that Apple is gaining market share among both home and business users. The turning point occurred, according to editor-in-chief Eric Knorr, when “Apple switched to the Intel chip, and a little company called Parallels introduced an inexpensive virtualization product that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows unmodified.” As Knorr continues in Decision times for Windows and Mac OS X, there were already some surprises, beginning with the fact that the manageability end has been covered for years. “Ironically, that seems to be a secret to everyone outside the education sector.”And don’t overlook Microsoft’s role in the Mac’s uprising. Software Development