[mickyj]

Hello,

I am the Vice Chairman of Culminis APAC. Culminis is a volunteer support group who help IT Pro usergroups. We do not support developers/programmers, rather those that support servers, networks and other professional activities. Traditionally Culminis was a Microsoft Centric organisation but it now agnostic. You can understand then that my previous exposure to Mac groups is low. In fact, I have had to lodge a technical request to make the Culminis website Safari friendly. If we truely are to be agnostic, we need to be accessable by all.

If you have any feedback for me, I want it. If you want to know more, look at www.culminis.com

Thankyou

[MacDavo]

At first glance I can see this was a very MS orientated organisation.

I suspect the people who work within the company I work within could possibly be a target audience. As noted in my previous reply to one of your posts, we do web hosting. This means we are predominately involved in system administration, NOCs, Support Desk &c.

That said I couldn't really glean from the Culminis site how such an organisation would benefit us. I kind of saw a great deal of MS references, and semi-tuned out. Especially since we are more Linux orientated than MS, despite being an MS Gold Certified Partner.

More recently, we have been focusing on everyone becoming VMWare certified since this is the direction we've gone with our infrastructure.

[mickyj]

At first glance I can see this was a very MS orientated organisation.

I suspect the people who work within the company I work within could possibly be a target audience. As noted in my previous reply to one of your posts, we do web hosting. This means we are predominately involved in system administration, NOCs, Support Desk &c.

That said I couldn't really glean from the Culminis site how such an organisation would benefit us. I kind of saw a great deal of MS references, and semi-tuned out. Especially since we are more Linux orientated than MS, despite being an MS Gold Certified Partner.

More recently, we have been focusing on everyone becoming VMWare certified since this is the direction we've gone with our infrastructure.

Branching out into supporting IT Pro groups other than Microsoft, is new territory. Today I am laying the ground work to help the future include Mac, Linux, Microsoft and Novell. Presently, Microsoft is still a major sponsor but hopefully there will be other sponsors soon.

Unfortunately we do not understand the Mac usergroup community. We don't know what exists or what resources are needed. Here is a chance to shout out, discuss what is needed. It might also be a chance for people to offer their services to attend User Group meetings and offer to present what they know. Culminis is all about supporting the user groups. If we can't help, we want to find partners that can.

This is a period of baby steps. We are making small steps and we are immature in the Mac market. All our expearience is currently Microsoft but lets change that !

[Pierre]

Branching out into supporting IT Pro groups other than Microsoft, is new territory. Today I am laying the ground work to help the future include Mac, Linux, Microsoft and Novell. Presently, Microsoft is still a major sponsor but hopefully there will be other sponsors soon.

Unfortunately we do not understand the Mac usergroup community. We don't know what exists or what resources are needed. Here is a chance to shout out, discuss what is needed. It might also be a chance for people to offer their services to attend User Group meetings and offer to present what they know. Culminis is all about supporting the user groups. If we can't help, we want to find partners that can.

This is a period of baby steps. We are making small steps and we are immature in the Mac market. All our experience is currently Microsoft but lets change that !

This is a good idea as there is still a certain unwarranted animosity between PC and Mac users. This needs to come to an end.

[Greg Sharp]

This is a good idea as there is still a certain unwarranted animosity between PC and Mac users. This needs to come to an end.

I could not agree more.

I run both he Sydney Mac Users Group and the Australian Mac Users Group plus I am currently working with staff at the University of Western Sydney to establish a campus based Mac User Group at UWS. Outside of the MUG scene, I run a small XServe based web development/hosting business, administrate the network and supply customer support. I have only used Macs from the early 1990's up until now. For all intents and purposes I am a total Mac fan boy.

Well, I am going to let the secret out, I am not just a Mac fan boy.

I started using computers in the late 1970's and over the following 15 or so years used everything from Atari's, Commodore's and Amiga's through to DEC VAX workstations. It is just that in the 1990's the Mac won my heart and became my platform of choice.

Now come forward a bit to 2007. While I had used computers for around 30 years I had never gotten any certifications so when my son left high school and decided to go to TAFE, I decided to join him. Well guess what, not a Mac to be seen. For the first time in my life I would have to use Windows.

Step forward to today and I'm still using Macs but now I also have Windows based certifications. I actually completed 7 different TAFE certifications in the last 2 years from Cert 3 Network Administration, Database Administration and Support courses through to Cert 4 Help Desk & General IT courses all the way to Diploma level courses like System Administration and Project Management and this year I have commenced a Bachelor of ICT degree at UWS.

What have I learnt?

Well, for more than 2 years I have been using both Parallels and VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro to run a large range of OS's from Ubuntu, Fedora etc through to Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 & Windows Server 2008 (I even went to the Heroes Happen Server 2008 launch event) . Sure I'm still a member of Apple's ADC, but now I am also a member of ITPro & Microsoft's TechNet. Sure I still promote Apple events like MacWorld, but I also like to promote events like CeBit, Open Source Developers Conferences & System Administrators Conferences (SAGE).

Does that make me a traitor to the Mac faithful? I hope not. Whatever platform you choose everything just comes down to 0's and 1's. Anything other than that should be a personal decision based on your needs. While I may run a combination of Apple's Tiger & Leopard Server on my 7 XServe's I actually run a lot of Linux based Open Source software on these machines as well e.g. Joomla, PHPMyAdmin, SugarCRM etc. But guess what the next time I buy new servers I will not be getting XServe's.

I'll be buying a couple of much cheaper mid range x86 based servers for my rack, some to run Linux for web serving & MySQL (probably use CPanel for virtual host management) since I've been disappointed in Apple's virtual hosting interface/capabilities and some to run Windows Server 2008. I much prefer Exchange to Apple's Mail Server implementation and I love SharePoint, Project Server etc. Windows definitely has some place in my business from now on.

In conclusion times are changing. The "Cloud" is the next big innovation in how we use computers, especially once cheaper and faster data plans become available. In an always connected world it is a platform agnostic web based solution. It is time for the Mac users and the Windows users to kiss & make up because it doesn't really matter what platform you use as long as it does the tasks you need it to do. No one solution is perfect and no one platform is perfect but in a technologically diverse world like what we live in there is definitely a place for all the various platforms and their users to co-exist.

As such I thoroughly endorse the efforts of any organisation that is intent on supporting computer user groups and promoting harmony and co-operation between platforms. I would love to know more about what Culminis can offer and in what ways we may be able to give a little back. In my role as a Network & System Administrator it is nice to know groups such as Culminis exist, dedicated to helping people like me.

[Pierre]

I could not agree more.

I run both he Sydney Mac Users Group and the Australian Mac Users Group plus I am currently working with staff at the University of Western Sydney to establish a campus based Mac User Group at UWS. Outside of the MUG scene, I run a small XServe based web development/hosting business, administrate the network and supply customer support. I have only used Macs from the early 1990's up until now. For all intents and purposes I am a total Mac fan boy.

Well, I am going to let the secret out, I am not just a Mac fan boy.

I started using computers in the late 1970's and over the following 15 or so years used everything from Atari's, Commodore's and Amiga's through to DEC VAX workstations. It is just that in the 1990's the Mac won my heart and became my platform of choice.

Now come forward a bit to 2007. While I had used computers for around 30 years I had never gotten any certifications so when my son left high school and decided to go to TAFE, I decided to join him. Well guess what, not a Mac to be seen. For the first time in my life I would have to use Windows.

Step forward to today and I'm still using Macs but now I also have Windows based certifications. I actually completed 7 different TAFE certifications in the last 2 years from Cert 3 Network Administration, Database Administration and Support courses through to Cert 4 Help Desk & General IT courses all the way to Diploma level courses like System Administration and Project Management and this year I have commenced a Bachelor of ICT degree at UWS.

What have I learnt?

Well, for more than 2 years I have been using both Parallels and VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro to run a large range of OS's from Ubuntu, Fedora etc through to Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 & Windows Server 2008 (I even went to the Heroes Happen Server 2008 launch event) . Sure I'm still a member of Apple's ADC, but now I am also a member of ITPro & Microsoft's TechNet. Sure I still promote Apple events like MacWorld, but I also like to promote events like CeBit, Open Source Developers Conferences & System Administrators Conferences (SAGE).

Does that make me a traitor to the Mac faithful? I hope not. Whatever platform you choose everything just comes down to 0's and 1's. Anything other than that should be a personal decision based on your needs. While I may run a combination of Apple's Tiger & Leopard Server on my 7 XServe's I actually run a lot of Linux based Open Source software on these machines as well e.g. Joomla, PHPMyAdmin, SugarCRM etc. But guess what the next time I buy new servers I will not be getting XServe's.

I'll be buying a couple of much cheaper mid range x86 based servers for my rack, some to run Linux for web serving & MySQL (probably use CPanel for virtual host management) since I've been disappointed in Apple's virtual hosting interface/capabilities and some to run Windows Server 2008. I much prefer Exchange to Apple's Mail Server implementation and I love SharePoint, Project Server etc. Windows definitely has some place in my business from now on.

In conclusion times are changing. The "Cloud" is the next big innovation in how we use computers, especially once cheaper and faster data plans become available. In an always connected world it is a platform agnostic web based solution. It is time for the Mac users and the Windows users to kiss & make up because it doesn't really matter what platform you use as long as it does the tasks you need it to do. No one solution is perfect and no one platform is perfect but in a technologically diverse world like what we live in there is definitely a place for all the various platforms and their users to co-exist.

As such I thoroughly endorse the efforts of any organisation that is intent on supporting computer user groups and promoting harmony and co-operation between platforms. I would love to know more about what Culminis can offer and in what ways we may be able to give a little back. In my role as a Network & System Administrator it is nice to know groups such as Culminis exist, dedicated to helping people like me.

I am at present involved with a computer group which is PC oriented, but would like to form a group for both mac and PC users to get together to exchange ideas and to learn from each other as to how to do things on various machines. There is a real need in the north west part of Sydney for "one to one" training of mature age people who want to know more about the machines that they have, and how best to use them. (At present Macs are not catered for). If such a group could be set up in the general Hornsby/Kuring-gai area I would be interested in becoming involved in its activities. Any ideas?

[mickyj]

I am at present involved with a computer group which is PC oriented, but would like to form a group for both mac and PC users to get together to exchange ideas and to learn from each other as to how to do things on various machines. There is a real need in the north west part of Sydney for "one to one" training of mature age people who want to know more about the machines that they have, and how best to use them. (At present Macs are not catered for). If such a group could be set up in the general Hornsby/Kuring-gai area I would be interested in becoming involved in its activities. Any ideas?

That would be awesome ! A super, super group. Platform agnostic and wanting to get the job done !

[mickyj]

That would be awesome ! A super, super group. Platform agnostic and wanting to get the job done !

I will no longer be a regular contributer to the MacWorld Australia Magazine from next month. If anyone wants to followup on the idea of support for Mac Usergroups please feel free to contact me via my website (www.mickyj.com). I will still be in these forums however I will not likely be a regular poster.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.