On a clear day, you can see the flaws in Windows

Once, in a previous incarnation (where I was not so furry, fat and albinoish), I ruled a graphics department. We had the IT staff try to convince us to go Windows about every six months instead of Mac, for about 18 years...

Hence this:

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Ah, so you're admitting that if you were in charge now, you would be using Linux.

Got it.

Bob

Bearing in mind that I write Windows software for a living (what can I say, I work in a Microsoft house), and have never used any Apple product since they told me in the eighties that I was not qualified to swap a chip on my own Apple IIe, any IT staff who tried to get the graphics department to move off of Apple platforms and onto Wintel needs a swift kick in the rear. And should then be replaced as they clearly do not understand how to choose the correct tool for the job.

By Anuminous (not verified) on 20 Dec 2006 #permalink

Well, there are two reasons for choosing platforms: one is to do what you need to do; the other is to use what you know. As most IT departments are sheltered workshops for the terminally insane, most platform decisions are taken on the basis that they can get folk who are MS-Certified. For that reason, I became very good at servicing my own Macs, doing their networking, and occasionally threatening to take my entire department out of the in-house network and using commercial providers, when the restrictions got too onerous (like limiting file transfers to 2Mb. Anyone who does graphics knows it's not unusual to have a 3Gb publication file).

One time, which highlighted the insanity of the whole debate, was when we were told by the Institute's accountants that Macs, which by then were *nix boxen, were inherently insecure and that to achieve auditing standards, we would all have to move, not to XP or anything sensible, but Windows 98. I impolitely told the auditor and head of IT to fuck off.

The odd thing is that all my predecessors in that job left before 18 months were up. I stayed 10+ years....