From: Andrei Chichak (acpmiedm_at_telusplanet.net)
Date: Wed Oct 06 2004 - 10:32:34 PDT
Laurent, I have never had any of the problems that you speak of (said with
tongue firmly in cheek). I work at a small company with two offices and
about 25 staff. Two of us write software for a living and the rest of us
seem to dick around with the computers for a living.
We started this office in 2000. We got a bunch of DELL Dimensions since
they had a good price and good warranty and the finance guy could lease.
The only stable Windows OS available was NT4. We got a server and a bunch
of desktops. As we grew we needed more computers, NT4 was no longer
available, we had to get 2000 boxes. Later, a few more computers, we had to
get XP, 2000 isn't available. Oh wait, you can't use regular XP, you have
to use XP Pro because you are running a "domain". Oh, those boxes don't
like talking with NT4 server, you should upgrade to 2000 Server. Oh wait,
2000 Server isn't available anymore, you NEED 2003 Server, but it isn't
compatible with the applications so they will all have to be revved as
well. You should be using "Active Directory".
So for one office with 12 staff we had one full time guy and he made no
progress on things like databases to support manufacturing or even a stable
mail server. It's hard to look professional when your web server goes off
line for days at a time. He eventually abandoned his job and we hired a
privateer who is kept very busy for as long as he chooses to work.
"Andrei, can you fix this?"
"No, I write embedded systems."
"But you're the computer guy, you HAVE to fix it!"
"No, I write embedded systems."
Do any of these sound familiar? :
"Why can I hear your processor fan all the way out to the reception area?"
"Hey my monitor is dead."
"Why am I running out of virtual memory?"
"I NEED a gigabyte of RAM to run this CAD program." "What do you mean it
doesn't support more than 512 meg?"
"Why is my 12 page Word document 68 megabytes?"
"This box is so slow, why did you buy such a crappy system?"
"My clock is off, can you sign on as the administrator and fix it?"
"Crap, it's the second Tuesday of the month and I have to walk around to
everybodies machine and update it again. So much for working today!"
On the other hand, the big administrative owner boss got sick and tired of
screwing around with his PCs and dumped it for a 17" Powerbook and a huge
Cinema monitor. He doesn't call for help anymore because "it just works".
No networking problems, no compatibility issues. He had one program that he
couldn't duplicate on the Mac, so he got Microsoft Virtual PC and installed
Windows 2000 and his application and he was off to the races. Did I mention
that he doesn't call anymore?
I could tell you about my neighbor who lost the novel he was writing when
Word trashed it and Microsoft tech support "fixed" the problem by having
him delete the file.
Just remember, Microsoft used to make a thing called Xenix back before DOS.
They sold it to SCO and it became SCO Xenix then SCO UNIX. Just think of
what could have been...
Andrei
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