With RIM’s recent announcement about BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac I started wondering how many people will care. My wife purchased a aluminum Macbook for me last year as a anniversary gift (much appreciated) and I have only plugged my BlackBerry into it once. It was a suitable replacement for my trusted Lenovo x61t until I tried upgrading my Bold’s OS once with Parallels and VMware Fusion. Parallels would not work and Fusion caused a kernel panic in the middle of the upgrade bricking my device and making more work that it was worth.
Until now I have always been using my desktop PC to connect my BlackBerry when I need to but I would love to be able to use my Mac. I am no diehard Mac lover (far from it) but the comparable Lenovo laptop I wanted (ThinkPad X200) cost more than the Macbook.
So I am curious. What is the reader breakdown between Mac and PC users…
PS: Before all the alternative OS users get on my case I did not mention Linux/UNIX/etc since I doubt RIM will ever support them but who knows… I use Linux quite often and OSX is essentially just a GUI for FreeBSD. 
Nikolaus Walch ( View Profile) Enthusiast - Posts: 601
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 4:02 PM EST
I think Ubuntu Linux has come a really long way and I’d really like to see RIM support a BlackBerry Desktop app/drivers for Ubuntu
hammer_gaidin ( View Profile) Newcomer - Posts: 9
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 4:08 PM EST
I am a long term windows admin who has migrated to Linux over the past 5 years. I still have a windows machine setup for doing my blackberries however. I would love to see an official RIM desktop manager for Linux.
Jay Not Registered
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 4:35 PM EST
The only time I’ve had problems upgrading my BlackBerrys in VMware Fusion 2 is if I navigated away from the Fusion window while doing it. If I stay inside the Fusion window it works flawlessly every single time. My BlackBerry is one of the main reasons I have Windows in a virtual machine on my Mac, so I’m looking forward to the Mac release.
Michael Not Registered
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 5:33 PM EST
where’s the option for BOTH?
don goose Not Registered
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 6:47 PM EST
Exactly…I was thinking the same thing
Luis Merlos ( View Profile) Moderator - Posts: 1231
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 5:54 PM EST
only reason I don’t like mac is because you can’t really do much to them upgrades or anything once you max out memory your sol, I like customizing mine etc..
Ron Not Registered
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 6:20 PM EST from my BlackBerry 8320
I’m split 50/50 because I have a Windows desktop & a Macbook. I don’t know if I’ll ever need to sync with the Macbook, bit it would be nice to have the option.
thomas Not Registered
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 6:54 PM EST
Ronen, I am glad to hear you are a fellow ThinkPad/Lenovo-er. I believe that BlackBerry and ThinkPad go perfectly with each other. Simple design, pure functionality, what is better? Cheers to all the ThinkPad-ers!
Name (required) Not Registered
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 8:19 PM EST from my BlackBerry 9000
Mac 100%.
I run parallels 4 on my MBP and because 1 damn application doesn’t work on it, I have to use Vista on it to remote in to a POS Dell Latitude that I have running on the desk too.
If that POS app would work on BlackBerry, I would be gone forever.
And those of you who think Mac is too hard to use…its not…give it 30 days and you will never go back to a windows based PC.
Luciano ( View Profile) Moderator - Posts: 448
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 9:06 PM EST
I use Linux full time and I swear I almost don’t care at all if RIM will ever make a *nix Desktop Manager (which they certainly won’t). But I really think I should be allowed the basic right to synchronize my data with my Linux desktop. As a hobbyist developer, I can guarantee that such a thing is very feasible and simple. RIM could do it if they wanted. Instead, I have been forced to just simply give up on that kind of luxury. I have a “smartphone,” but my contacts and appointments are all over the place.
Never mind the convoluted solutions involving the likes of Funambol or the privacy-deprived ones involving Google. I want something straightforward and secure. Windows users have it, I should have it as well.
At least the old 4.2 Desktop Manager would let me import my desktop address book from a .csv file. But RIM even removed that in newer versions, so I have no hopes really.
David Dollman Not Registered
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 4:28 AM EST from my BlackBerry 8320
I wish my PC worked as good as my BlackBerry 8320. I am seriously considering a Mac.
Benf ( View Profile) Newcomer - Posts: 14
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 12:05 PM EST
Mac’s are nice machines but with there limited user base there are just too many programs and services that I use that dont support Mac or Linux,
Jan Not Registered
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 5:24 PM EST
I like Macs but I use my BB with an Exchange server. And the best way to get all the benefits of BB and OTA syncing with Tasks and Notes is only with Outlook. I hate cable or shaky Bluetooth syncing.
Beside that, for me Outlook works much nicer than Entourage.
If only Google could sync Tasks and Notes to the BB… Maybe next year
wetherb67 ( View Profile) Newcomer - Posts: 2
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 5:32 PM EST
I’m currently dual-booting Win 7 and Ubuntu, simply because there are some mission critical apps that just won’t run on Ubuntu.
Gotta admit though that Win 7 is running pretty nice on my machine…
DaFD Not Registered
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 6:09 PM EST
I thought I would care, but I’m on Tiger and I’m not planning to upgrade to Leopard yet so… no.
macBoy Not Registered
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 8:23 PM EST from my BlackBerry 8900
Add one more to the mac tally (life’s too short to enable bb js for a poll sorry)
When I first got my 8100 I tried to synch to my mac & all I can say is thk god it was new phone and no real data stored yet
Been synching with work pc all these yrs whgich makes sense – but stupid because I plan to leave there someday lol and now also have 8900 I have no intention of “frying”
Am buoyed by the announcement but also irked by the high bar – why x 10.5.5? Any 10.x shd be able to handle it
I was even able to bluetooth modem with my 8100 back then so wtf, you know?
macBoy Not Registered
Posted: July 25, 2009 at 8:27 PM EST from my BlackBerry 8900
Add one more to the mac tally (life’s too short to enable bb js for a poll sorry)
When I first got my 8100 I tried to synch to my mac & all I can say is thk god it was new phone and no real data stored yet
Been synching with work pc all these yrs which makes sense – but stupid because I plan to leave there someday lol and now also have 8900 I have no intention of “frying”
Am buoyed by the announcement but also irked by the high bar – why x 10.5.5? Any 10.x shd be able to handle it
I was even able to bluetooth modem with my 8100 back then so wtf, you know?
gms4175 ( View Profile) Newcomer - Posts: 2
Posted: July 26, 2009 at 4:03 AM EST
I prefer Mac and use Windoze progs under Parallels where necessary, but for BDM I have to keep an old PC with XP just to run it – I can’t wait for the Mac BDM