I frequently hear small business owners repeat these: the greatest mac myths ever told.
Myths about computers, about computing, cost you time and money. I want to debunk five of the most pernicious and costly mac myths.
Don’t need to install updates
Oh, yes, you do need to install updates on your mac OS and all software installed on your mac. I can’t count the number of times a mac user calls with a software problem that was fixed just by updating the software and/or the operating system.
If you’re not sure what devices need to updated and why, read my Patch Primer for Small Business.
Macs can’t get hardware updates
This myth usually appears when a person has bought an underpowered, underspecced mac. For some of their hardware, Apple has made it very difficult to add RAM or upgrade the hard drive size.
Before you buy you need to check if Apple allows you to upgrade the device. If you dig deep on the Apple store web site you can find these details.
Before you buy you also need to know how much hard drive space you will need AND the requirements of any business software.
Basic rule of thumb in 2025, get 32GB of RAM and 512GB hard drive. If you want long life out of your mac, go big. You may need more hard drive space if you deal with large files (videos, law documents with big pictures for example) or use Adobe software. Adobe software loves to hog the hard drive. Also are you synching lots of photos? Other items in iTunes? Are you synching OneDrive or Dropbox?
Get your IT consultant to help you make the right decision.
Mac doesn’t have the software
Most software runs on mac either locally or in the cloud. However a lot of accounting software and legal software is still Windows only club.
AutoCad has finally released versions of their software for Mac.
M365 Office: while Microsoft includes mac office software as part of your M365 Office sub, there are subtle differences between the mac and Windows versions. PowerPoint templates created on Mac don’t work well when transferred to Windows and vice versa. Microsoft has made Outlook email setup for non M365 emails very difficult if you want to preserve your privacy.
Greatest Mac Myth of All?
People still believe macs can’t get hacked. While you’re less likely to get ransomware, mac users are still vulnerable to every other kind of phishing, viruses, nation state sponsored malware, infostealers, and spyware. Huntress Security details in their blog all the ways the mac os and mac users are vulnerable to infection.
You need to install updates, install antivirus and practice safe computing.
Greatest Mac Myths Ever Told
For small owners, it’s gotten more complicated to manage your business computers. I think some owners believe the marketing that switching to mac will solve all those problems. Wrong. Even if you do switch to mac computers you still have to patch, you still need antivirus and you might well add the same problems you had before when running Windows.
