acuteperformance

this thread wasn't meant to say Windows is better or worse. the first sentence of the article says it best

"Regardless of which side you're on (though as a true computing enthusiast, you shouldn't be taking sides),"

i don't take sides. i can be very objective.

pjinca

Yeah, but you have to remember - OS'ers are just as passionate as the fans of sports teams and even the Cisco Vs Bay/3Com/HP/or whoever else guys. This kind of thread is going to generate some argument. I can be objective (after being in IT for nearly 15 years and having a mother who was in IT for 36 years) so I am not OS dependent. Macs are nice and feature rich, but are not the norm in work environments, so I have much more experience with Windows OS's.

acuteperformance

you know what's a fun argument, what is the purpose of having Macs in your work environment? unless there is a certain app you need that is only available on Mac OS X, why would you?

swajames

Easy. Many of us find working on a Mac and in Mac OS X more intuitive, more conducive to creativity (as the OS doesn't really get in the way of your train of thought) and generally more satisfying. Furthermore, hardware running OS X generally tends to be much less susceptible to preventable downtime. I'm on the road this week, and I've suffered a number of PC related issues including random shutdowns and system hangs that have impacted my productivity. The PC is, to a large extent a tool of my trade. I bill clients by the hour, and non-productive time costs me and my firm money. We're a PC-only environment, but with tools such as Citrix it is possible to access all of our corporate infrastructure on a Mac and I'm probably going to start switching to a Mac laptop when I travel in future. So, the reasons for me are clear. With a Mac, I would probably expect to see less non-productive downtime, less frustration and the net result being happier staff and happier clients.

pjinca

I am not sure what's going on with your PC Steven, but I use mine for travel as well with Vista Business Ultimate and XP Pro dual boot and I have yet to have any "preventable downtime" with it. I would suggest making your IT guys fix the thing (unless it happens to be an HP or Gateway or Acer in which case the OS is the LEAST of your worries). I maintain my own PC and have not had a single problem with it. Make them fix it right for you (or get new IT guys) and you should be fine.

heavy_g

My work requires that I use a Mac (Can't find Final Cut Pro on Windows). I consulted for a company that uses Macs (all networked using Fiber) with its existing Windows network structure,and they have Active Directory working flawlessly on Mac OS, and Exchange, and LDAP, etc...

swajames

I have a Dell laptop running XP Professional, PJ. It should indeed be stable, but these kinds of issues do persist and really just reinforce my desire to switch to a Mac for travel purposes.

pjinca

Oh, I understand your frustration, I was just saying there may be an underlying cause that your IT staff hasn't explored. These issues are unacceptable and with a very competent IT staff they don't happen. If they can't get it fixed then I would start using a MAC too - I just have never had these types of ongoing issues.

acuteperformance

+1. Often times it's an issue with your IT staff not properly configuring your laptop. You can't fault the OS for that, you have to look at the team who is responsible for maintaining the equipment.

In a proper environment users should never have ANY issues either w/ VPN, Blue screen of death, etc.. I run a very tight ship at the places I consult and don't have any issues at all.

I personally just find Macs very difficult to manage in a large infrastructure. I can with a few mouse clicks totally control file permissions, patches, antivirus, backup, etc.. for hundreds of PCs scaled to an infinite number. Can you do this with Mac OS X?

For my use as an IT administrator PCs > OS X. OS X simply wasn't build for the work environment in terms of control & granularity.

pjinca

Also, have you tried chatting with Dell support online? They are fantastic, they may be able to get the issue resolved without any need to send your PC to your IT staff.

The only issues I have had in my years, with XP forward, were hardware related - usually HP crap. So I can't fault the OS for those.