Thoughts and Theories From Roger Andre
for the curious, and people getting to grips with computing and computers.
Thursday 14 May 2009, 9:58 PM
It's Just How Things Are. (So I'm Told).
I find my self working in the corporate head quarters of a famous shoe maker located in Street, Somerset. I sit down to use one of the computers in the staff cafe for a little browsing session, only to find IE6 languishing on the system. This annoys the hell out of me and I decide not to put any personal details into the machine. Nothing unusual about finding IE6 in a corporate networked environment I know, but still none the less annoying.
There are some out sourced IT guys milling around the place, so I ask one of them. “Why is IE6 the default browser in almost every corporate environment”?
“It's just the way things are”. He said back to me.
“Why”? I asked.
“Just is” He replied.
End of conversation. No hope of an explanation. The guy just wasn't interested.
Hmm I wonder if he's one of those MS haters that works on administering MS systems in the work place. A topic recently explored on ZDNet US. The feeling for some was that if you are an MS system admin and you hate your job, then there's every chance that you don't give a stuff about people in the work place you administer having a reasonable experience on their aging XP machines.
Others went as far as to say that if you're an MS hating system admin, then you most likely suck at your job! Indeed, I see desktops everywhere that lack the fine tuning taught at a very basic A+ level of competence.
Now I my-self have had success in convincing the smaller business to update to IE8 and use firefox for general browsing with not one complaint after the transition so far.
The next step will be to show those who are willing, how linux can be evaluated and work within the safety of a VM. If it takes a windows host to solve driver issues etc until the process is simplified, then why the hell not?
When we see machines appearing with 4-8gb of ram and beyond as standard, then resources for those using the usual office apps will not be an issue.
So am I being a cynic here? Is there something I've missed? Is there a really good reason not to roll out an update to IE8 across the network? And; could it be that corporations are being left in the dust because of outsourced IT, cost cutting and just sheer stress?
I'd love to be informed , however brash the answer.
There are some out sourced IT guys milling around the place, so I ask one of them. “Why is IE6 the default browser in almost every corporate environment”?
“It's just the way things are”. He said back to me.
“Why”? I asked.
“Just is” He replied.
End of conversation. No hope of an explanation. The guy just wasn't interested.
Hmm I wonder if he's one of those MS haters that works on administering MS systems in the work place. A topic recently explored on ZDNet US. The feeling for some was that if you are an MS system admin and you hate your job, then there's every chance that you don't give a stuff about people in the work place you administer having a reasonable experience on their aging XP machines.
Others went as far as to say that if you're an MS hating system admin, then you most likely suck at your job! Indeed, I see desktops everywhere that lack the fine tuning taught at a very basic A+ level of competence.
Now I my-self have had success in convincing the smaller business to update to IE8 and use firefox for general browsing with not one complaint after the transition so far.
The next step will be to show those who are willing, how linux can be evaluated and work within the safety of a VM. If it takes a windows host to solve driver issues etc until the process is simplified, then why the hell not?
When we see machines appearing with 4-8gb of ram and beyond as standard, then resources for those using the usual office apps will not be an issue.
So am I being a cynic here? Is there something I've missed? Is there a really good reason not to roll out an update to IE8 across the network? And; could it be that corporations are being left in the dust because of outsourced IT, cost cutting and just sheer stress?
I'd love to be informed , however brash the answer.
