I've been consulting for a major consumer food products producer for the past five years.

In my positions, I've done a number of RFPs for web management
(content management) systems, as well as recommending web platforms and
technologies. My first task was to inform the IT chief that we would
not be hosting from inside his firewall, and we would not be using a
Microsoft platform, neither for server or production purposes. The
server would be on a Linux OS, hosted at an independent enterprise
level colocation provider, and the production would continue to be done
on Macs, including a rapid migration to OS X (which was just reaching
'prime time').

I was fortunate to have the ear of the CEO, who nonetheless
eventually called me to the carpet to ask why I was rocking the boat
with his IT Director. I explained that it is the role of a consultant
to rock the boat. We called a meeting of the top management, with the
CMO, the Communication Director and the IT Director with his
lieutenants, and hashed it out. The Art Director was nearly despondent
that "they're going to take our Macs away..."

Regarding the Mac as a production machine, the IT guys wanted to
"standardize" since they "didn't have the people to support two
platforms". The CEO asked me "If a Ford or a GM truck can do the same
work, why should we allow one department to demand Fords when everybody
else is using GMs?"

It's not the same work, I explained. Rather it would be like trying to
use a screwdriver as a wood-chisel. Just because they have surface
similarities doesn't mean they are meant for the same work. As far as
popularity, I noted that Budweiser may be the most 'popular' beer in
the country, but that doesn't make it a great beer!

On the platform, we eventually came to agreement on my point that with
all the security and service issues on the Microsoft platform, it makes
sense to have a variety of 'genotypes' in the mix.

Nonetheless, even after agreeing on a Linux infrastructure, the IT
staff insisted on installing a SuSE distribution, ignoring my
preference for Redhat. Now, after four years, we will be returning to
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, for the continuity, support and community.

I've been fortunate to be on good terms with the CEO, or this progess would never have been possible.