Lots of people don't have a choice. At work I have to use Win 2K because that's what the network admins have decreed. I have to run PHP and MySQL on IIS because we're a 'Microsoft Shop' and that isn't going to change soon. I did convince them to shift from using ASP and MS Access (shudder) and my manager would love the cost savings of hosting our site on a dedicated Linux server instead of a Win NT one so we're getting there, slowly but surely.
A lot of companies are convinced that using open source is dangerous and difficult whereas they think that Microsoft is safe and easy. Those sorts of opinions (of IT managers who struggle to use anything more complicated than their email program) aren't going to be changing anytime soon from what I can see.
Mac
Windows or something else....
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- twigletmac
- Her Royal Site Adminness
- Posts: 5371
- Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 2:21 am
- Location: Essex, UK
Work and choice
Twig:
Yeah, I hear what you are saying. The last job I had in Florida was very similar. A Microsoft shop! So much so that when I proposed the use of Perl to carry out certain tasks, the VP went behind my back asking managers what Perl is!
"Larry Wall! Who's that!? You're fired!"
LOL! I still laugh about it to this day.
They seemed to act as if computers didn't exist before Microsoft.
In the Job I have now, I"m extremely fortunate. When I first started, the lead developer that hired me said much of the same stuff about it being a Microsoft shop and the rest of that FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) about things not working unless we stay all MS. Well, after I fixed their issues with the raid controllers then built a couple of firewalls out of pure junk sitting around the office (using Linux), they began to listen. When I put on paper the plan for a load balanced highly available backend, and they saw the cost, it all changed!
But even so, for most of the users here, we still have Windows on their machines. And that's good for their productivity.
But good luck. They allways talk tough when you first walk in the door, and in some cases, it's better to just let it ride. It's taken me a while to learn some of that. However, I also noticed that some well placed subtle suggestions can get you a long way.
It sounds like there are a couple of people listening where you work and that's good.
Later on,
BDKR (TRC)
Yeah, I hear what you are saying. The last job I had in Florida was very similar. A Microsoft shop! So much so that when I proposed the use of Perl to carry out certain tasks, the VP went behind my back asking managers what Perl is!
"Larry Wall! Who's that!? You're fired!"
LOL! I still laugh about it to this day.
They seemed to act as if computers didn't exist before Microsoft.
In the Job I have now, I"m extremely fortunate. When I first started, the lead developer that hired me said much of the same stuff about it being a Microsoft shop and the rest of that FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) about things not working unless we stay all MS. Well, after I fixed their issues with the raid controllers then built a couple of firewalls out of pure junk sitting around the office (using Linux), they began to listen. When I put on paper the plan for a load balanced highly available backend, and they saw the cost, it all changed!
But even so, for most of the users here, we still have Windows on their machines. And that's good for their productivity.
But good luck. They allways talk tough when you first walk in the door, and in some cases, it's better to just let it ride. It's taken me a while to learn some of that. However, I also noticed that some well placed subtle suggestions can get you a long way.
It sounds like there are a couple of people listening where you work and that's good.
Later on,
BDKR (TRC)