Macs in the enterprise don't need management, backup or security software? You're fucking around, right?
Even in my personal limited deployment of macs, they're managed by joining the domain and ssh access. They're backed up with a combination of rsync and a home-rolled login hook/git solution. Given the recent malware hitting the internet for macs, our aggressive firewalling already doesn't cut it for security.
Once they're no longer flying under the radar, they're going to become saddled with aggressive business requirements or not be adopted (without AD support, they wouldn't have the limited corporate adoption they already do). As much as you might like to tell yourself macs are free-wheeling will never get that burden, they're already in my directory. Every time a problem comes up, they're going to continue to lose their purity, one GPO at a time.
edit: after re-reading your post and some of the others in the thread you seem to be saying they don't need 3rd party tools. Nether does a windows domain. Sometimes we find we want more functionality though. Apple first parties different areas for the mac, and thats good, but you're still eventually going to need to leave the garden. Frankly their 1st-party security sucks, I'm glad to see they're putting a lot of effort into building up that area of their company, but as far as I'm concerned their current offering is about as good as no security.
> "Given the recent malware hitting the internet for macs, our aggressive firewalling already doesn't cut it for security".
Three odd trojans that need to be explicitly user-installed, rarely if ever met in the wild, and blocked by the daily-updated system are a threat to your über-firewall? I'm not downplaying the recent evolution in the area, but up until now you have to admit it's a dud.
> "They're backed up with a combination of rsync and a home-rolled login hook/git solution"
You do know that Time Machine works perfectly fine on spare bundles over AFP network shares, right? Besides, I wonder if your homebrew rsync solution handles hardlinks correctly in addition to alternate file streams and HFS+ extended attributes. I also wonder what your typical recovery scenarios look like.
> "Nether does a windows domain"
Any Windows computer needs at least an antivirus to combat the daily flow of trojans, and viruses, and worms. (And yes MSE is third-aprty in the sense that it's not there right from the start, enabled by default).
Given the current state of OS X malware, I'd venture to say that the current state of security in OS X is way more than adequate, out to the box.
As for general maintenance, manageability and user assistance, my experience has been such as it is one or two orders of magnitude down from Windows.
It has been for a long time, ever since around Mac OS 8 where the peak production of Mac malware happened. As Miller said, Mac OS X is not necessarily more secure but it's currently comfortably safer. That does not mean the area should not be watched for any evolution.
> Lecture me about my environment and my needs.
I did not wish to make it sound like a lecture, and am genuinely interested in what your environment looks like and what led you to using rsync instead of Time Machine, and how you overcame the cases I mentioned (if ever you were concerned by them in your use case).
> Thats awesome, but I'm really not interested in your pissing contest.
I'm not pissing anywhere, but you do seem pissed. If anything, your environment and needs, just like mine, are anecdotal.
In point of fact, I run no regular antivirus on my windows machine and have had no viruses ever. I verify this with a boot scan. It's not about macs vs PC's it's about user savvy and market penetration.
Even in my personal limited deployment of macs, they're managed by joining the domain and ssh access. They're backed up with a combination of rsync and a home-rolled login hook/git solution. Given the recent malware hitting the internet for macs, our aggressive firewalling already doesn't cut it for security.
Once they're no longer flying under the radar, they're going to become saddled with aggressive business requirements or not be adopted (without AD support, they wouldn't have the limited corporate adoption they already do). As much as you might like to tell yourself macs are free-wheeling will never get that burden, they're already in my directory. Every time a problem comes up, they're going to continue to lose their purity, one GPO at a time.
edit: after re-reading your post and some of the others in the thread you seem to be saying they don't need 3rd party tools. Nether does a windows domain. Sometimes we find we want more functionality though. Apple first parties different areas for the mac, and thats good, but you're still eventually going to need to leave the garden. Frankly their 1st-party security sucks, I'm glad to see they're putting a lot of effort into building up that area of their company, but as far as I'm concerned their current offering is about as good as no security.