Anyone else on Vista?

[Carwash]

...(...IT like them because they're cheap and keep IT people in jobs).

I don't really believe that either. They can be cheap to buy, but not to support in the long term. And while it's true that lots of people make good money fixing dodgy Windows machines, a lot of those problems are caused by incompetent users.

Furthermore, alternative operating systems are by no means flawless. If the dominant platform in the world were Linux or OS X instead of Windows, there would still be problems for IT bods to fix. There might be fewer of them, and they would certainly be different problems, but they would by no means disappear.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

ime the IT bods spend time setting up the macs and also updating software, sorting out the licenses, testing software updates etc, not fixing them. the pc IT bods are usually called to deal with something that isn't working.

either the macs are less troublesome, or mac users are more computer savvy. the mac is, of course, easy to set up to prevent users breaking it in the first place.

 

[Carwash]

ime the IT bods spend time setting up the macs and also updating software, sorting out the licenses, testing software updates etc, not fixing them. the pc IT bods are usually called to deal with something that isn't working.

I have no experience of this, so I can't comment.

either the macs are less troublesome, or mac users are more computer savvy. the mac is, of course, easy to set up to prevent users breaking it in the first place.

I suspect that very broadly the average Mac user is more computer-savvy that the average Windows user. For a start, Mac users are savvy enough to at least be aware that there exists a world beyond Windows.

The average computer user is as dumb as toast. Windows users vastly outnumber Mac users and Linux users. In terms of the quantity of users then, there must therefore be far more dumb Windows users than dumb Mac users or Linux users. But I think this is probably also true of the percentages as well - that there are proportionally more dumb Windows users than Mac/Linux users. However, I think this has everything to do with Windows' dominant market share and very little to do with the relative merits of OS X and Linux.

 

[domtyler]

It's true that Macs are generally easier to maintain, but that's mainly because instead of the people sitting at them using them for doing real work, they are just displaying a pretty screensaver and looking 'cool' while the user reads the FT or does the Guardian quick crossword and sips his/her skinny free trade latte.

 

[domtyler]

IME, the average Mac user wouldn't know a hard drive from a hard dick. They can be forgiven though because Mac users don't generally actually use their machines to do anything, they just like to look at them instead of working.

 

[Maz]

if pc systems were any good we wouldn't need to call our IT-have-you-tried-switching-it-off-and-on-again Support Team so often.

 

[Carwash]

IME, the average Mac user wouldn't know a hard drive from a hard dick. They can be forgiven though because Mac users don't generally actually use their machines to do anything, they just like to look at them instead of working.

Do you know many Mac users then, Dom? You speak as thought you have a broad experience.

 

[Maz]

I'm more of a Barclay Card man myself.

 

[davidwalton]

fixing machines that like to crash, and burying their heads in the sand over why the mac is better unless you are a techno-geek who loves the pc for what it is, not what you can do with it.

oh, and playing games, apparently.

Without PC's I would never of had a job that paid as well as it did. If I had to rely on support work from MAC's, I would of been in trouble.

My job was based on the incompetence of MS and PC manufacturers. They get it wrong, then people like me have to find ways around to get it to do what it is meant to. THANKYOU.

For myself, I require something that does work out of the box, and on an environment that DOES support the applications I use. (and I mean that the software companies support the platform, not someone in their bedroom who finds away to run X program on Linux).

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Without PC's I would never of had a job that paid as well as it did. If I had to rely on support work from MAC's, I would of been in trouble.

My job was based on the incompetence of MS and PC manufacturers. They get it wrong, then people like me have to find ways around to get it to do what it is meant to. THANKYOU.

proves my point as to why IT professionals like wintels.

 

[Carwash]

proves my point as to why IT professionals like wintels.

I don't deny it. But I think it has more to do with Windows' dominance of the market and less to do with the benefits of the Mac/Linux platforms. There are, simply put, a lot more Windows boxes to go wrong.

If OS X or Linux were dominant, there would still be plenty of work for IT professionals. Not as much, to be sure, but they would not starve.

 

[yello]

For myself, I require something that does work out of the box, and on an environment that DOES support the applications I use.

Amen brother! Me too. As much as I wish I had choice, I don't.

 

[yello]

they are just displaying a pretty screensaver and looking 'cool' while the user reads the FT or does the Guardian quick crossword and sips his/her skinny free trade latte.

Oh come now, I'm sure you could have worked another cliché in there!

In all seriousness, there are many industries where the Mac is the machine of choice and deservedly so. And they are heavily used. Image aside, the nub of it really is 'horses for courses'.

In sounds and media, Mac's are wonderful easy to use and you can produce results so quickly. When I was teaching, Macs were brilliant to use with the children because they could create their own songs and movies with little more than drag and drop. Brilliant stuff.

I reckon though that most home users would be adequately served by either Mac or Wintel. Wintel's probably win because that's what they have in the office and they're familiar with it.

 

[trustysteed]

if pc systems were any good we wouldn't need to call our IT-have-you-tried-switching-it-off-and-on-again Support Team so often.

it usually works and is a 2-min fix opposed to several hours troubleshooting!

if people don't like working on PC's why don't they just leave that job and get one with a company that provides macs. or are they happier being able to complain about PCs' rather than vote with their feet?

always makes me wonder why they put up with it if they hate it that much. just frickin leave, ffs, as it's clearly a lifestyle 'issue' for them.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

ok windows users, open: photoshop, dreamweaver, indesign, explorer, firefox, word, excel, acrobat, entourage, itunes, parallels (or other os emulator); get them all up and running with an open file, and tell me how you get on…

mac users: don't bother telling me you've got twice that open, i know.