I think the article is mistaken about the conservatism of IT departments. (Surely there is misinformation coming sales reps - eg MS - about other technologies but I think they take advantage of a certain reality and don't create it.)
That reality is that IT resources, especially user support resources are a relative and perhaps an absolute constraint on how users can use their systems. This is a constant theme in the history of desktop computing and we have seen the entire retail support industry outsourced to India (!). So whether you have a Mac, Wintel or Linux shop, de-standardizing has real costs and the costs can be substantial and they can be hard to predict. The same thing can be said of giving the users "freedom." Adding more configurations and more technologies, tools to support probably adds to IT resources in a non-linear manner. IMHO -Pjm Steve Rigby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Jul 21, 2007, at 6:05 PM, mike wrote: > What system are they using where they are tortured or being punished? The folks where I work have to use machines running Windows because of software requirements. They have problems with those computers, and spend a fair amount of downtime fixing those problems. Perhaps the problems are of their own making at times, but they do appear to find their computers hard to manage and understand. They routinely stumble trying to do the simplest of things, such as display a slideshow of their photos from a flash memory card. I'd be willing to bet that I will only have to show them one time how to do it on the new Mac I obtained for my place of work and they will have no problems in the future on that machine. > On a recent macbreak podcast one of the podcasters said he was > basically > afraid of windows because he would have no idea how to protect himself > from > all the bad things out there. I see mac users like this all the time, > mac > users that have had it hammered into them from the community that > windows > will take down their entire network in seconds, all their data will be > lost, > all files corrupted as soon as the machine is booted. I agree that the hype is often exaggerated. All I know is from my own experiences and that which is shared with me by other folks. I have zero problems that I cannot quickly resolve myself, while all the persons I work with have various problems that they tell me of that they cannot readily resolve. I use Macs at home, they use Windows. That is all that I know. My girlfriend uses Windows where she works, and Macs at home. She is far happier with what she uses at home. I just have to take her word on that. I have used Windows 98 and up, and I have to say that I find it more convoluted than the Mac OS, either System 9 or 10. That is just my opinion, but that opinion is based upon my personal experiences. Steve ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
