What's hilarious is we are referring to the "DOT COM boom days" like my grandparents referred to their childhood... and the boom days were only 3 years ago!
"Grandpa, what was it like during the DOT COM boom days?"
"Well, back when I was a kid, it was like there was no end to the fiber. As far as the eye could see, we laid fiber. Day and afternoon. On the way to work at the crack of noon, I would hop into my company provided BMW and lay fiber. On the way back, I laid more fiber. Did I mention it was uphill both directions? "Nowadays you kids don't get have to lay fiber so much. You kids got it easy."
I feel for him and the lack of support he is getting from the high-mucky-mucks. Regardless of how well rounded everyone is they will all have some field that they truly shine in. In his environment, I can bet that every IT professional is a Macintosh guru. I can also just about guarantee that most of the XP users are not Windows XP gurus. Who is going to support the XP in that situation? The IT Department. How long is it going to take for someone in the IT department to support the XP system in comparison to the Mac sitting next to it when the user can't get their e-mail? At least double the time. So, he isn't productive and neither is the guy that is sitting around waiting to get his e-mail. That costs money.
One solution: Train the IT department to support any computer. Great, that costs money too. In our economy it ain't going to happen.
Another solution: Hire some guy to support the XP boxes as his primary job. Most companies won't say it is worth it unless there are a LARGE percentage of the "non-standard" systems.
Ok, so let's say we get past all those costs. Lets get to everything else.
Volume licensing works where the more you buy of the same thing the cheaper it is. If I have 400 Macs and 10 Winxp systems, the XP systems (on a per system basis) will cost more to purchase software for than the Macintosh.
The real world solution (only available with backing from above) is to have a single platform and support it very well. Training people to use a Macintosh is a one-time expense that can be handled by the guy sitting next to them. In the long run it will be a lot cheaper.
No offence, but requiring a reboot of a system to upgrade or install software probably shouldn't be considered a problem of the OS but may be an issue with the software being installed.
For example, when installing Tripwire on a large number of win2k systems (with the help of a person from the company) the installation requested a reboot of the system to complete the setup. In reality, all we needed to do was start the service that was installed manually rather than doing it with a reboot. Was this a flaw of the OS? No. A flaw of the app? No. The person who setup the installer figured that the easiest method to get the service up and running in the environment was to restart the system. A human decision. I've installed other apps that install services and they started with no problem, requiring no reboot. Something to consider before considering it a flaw with the OS or the applications residing on it.
I used it when I got my laptop to copy all my mail, dialup, desktop settings to my laptop. It ended up catching all that crud I always forget. Laptop and desktop both have the same "feel" now at about 1/4 the time for a setup (win2k to WinXp.) No, it didn't copy games and applications, but it copied the settings for some if not most of the apps... I can't remember if it copied my PC Anywhere stuff but I think it did. It definately copied all my playlists and MP3's. Just tell it what you want moved or not then let it do its thing. (Downside: USB1 was slower than molasses in January.)
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If you outlaw violent video games, only outlaws will have violent video games.
What's hilarious is we are referring to the "DOT COM boom days" like my grandparents referred to their childhood... and the boom days were only 3 years ago!
"Grandpa, what was it like during the DOT COM boom days?"
"Well, back when I was a kid, it was like there was no end to the fiber. As far as the eye could see, we laid fiber. Day and afternoon. On the way to work at the crack of noon, I would hop into my company provided BMW and lay fiber. On the way back, I laid more fiber. Did I mention it was uphill both directions?
"Nowadays you kids don't get have to lay fiber so much. You kids got it easy."
The general masses think it is great the way it is...
You look at the logo and you know exactly what it is...
Generations have grown up on it...
I have an idea...
Let's change the formula!!!
We'll call it...
NEW COKE!
I feel for him and the lack of support he is getting from the high-mucky-mucks. Regardless of how well rounded everyone is they will all have some field that they truly shine in. In his environment, I can bet that every IT professional is a Macintosh guru. I can also just about guarantee that most of the XP users are not Windows XP gurus.
Who is going to support the XP in that situation? The IT Department.
How long is it going to take for someone in the IT department to support the XP system in comparison to the Mac sitting next to it when the user can't get their e-mail? At least double the time. So, he isn't productive and neither is the guy that is sitting around waiting to get his e-mail. That costs money.
One solution: Train the IT department to support any computer. Great, that costs money too. In our economy it ain't going to happen.
Another solution: Hire some guy to support the XP boxes as his primary job. Most companies won't say it is worth it unless there are a LARGE percentage of the "non-standard" systems.
Ok, so let's say we get past all those costs. Lets get to everything else.
Volume licensing works where the more you buy of the same thing the cheaper it is. If I have 400 Macs and 10 Winxp systems, the XP systems (on a per system basis) will cost more to purchase software for than the Macintosh.
The real world solution (only available with backing from above) is to have a single platform and support it very well. Training people to use a Macintosh is a one-time expense that can be handled by the guy sitting next to them. In the long run it will be a lot cheaper.
No offence, but requiring a reboot of a system to upgrade or install software probably shouldn't be considered a problem of the OS but may be an issue with the software being installed. For example, when installing Tripwire on a large number of win2k systems (with the help of a person from the company) the installation requested a reboot of the system to complete the setup. In reality, all we needed to do was start the service that was installed manually rather than doing it with a reboot. Was this a flaw of the OS? No. A flaw of the app? No. The person who setup the installer figured that the easiest method to get the service up and running in the environment was to restart the system. A human decision. I've installed other apps that install services and they started with no problem, requiring no reboot. Something to consider before considering it a flaw with the OS or the applications residing on it.
I used it when I got my laptop to copy all my mail, dialup, desktop settings to my laptop. It ended up catching all that crud I always forget. Laptop and desktop both have the same "feel" now at about 1/4 the time for a setup (win2k to WinXp.) No, it didn't copy games and applications, but it copied the settings for some if not most of the apps... I can't remember if it copied my PC Anywhere stuff but I think it did. It definately copied all my playlists and MP3's. Just tell it what you want moved or not then let it do its thing. (Downside: USB1 was slower than molasses in January.)