There were a lot of people who came out of the same program I did who struggled and fought with the Solaris, Irix and HP-UX machines we used, hard as that is to believe. There were guys who knew PC crap and that was it, or Mac crap only; a lot of comp sci grads from my program couldn't handle hardware, either. There really was constant complaining about the fact that we weren't doing Windows, PCs, or for that matter, that we weren't programming video games (if you graduated with a BSCS you probably know the type).
Windows at the time was a joke (and in some ways it still is). NT 3.5? Windows 3.1? Windows 95?
Or Solaris, which we worked on and which taught me the ins-and-outs of the OS of choice for .com.
It came down to applying myself to learn what was put in front of me. I'm glad I did. So much of what I've done in my life as a professional has come from understanding those systems. Easily the most valuable part of my education.
Now, here's someone saying "Well I only know Windows, and Unix isn't enough like Windows to merit my attention." I say to you sir, that it is, if only so that you understand that 90% of the changes that have been made to Windows since it went 32-bit have migrated from UNIX (or at least Posix) to NT.
You're practically begging me to PM you with all my problems during my next stab at Linux
OK. I did something similar when Cliptin was learning Linux.
That's what we're here for, in fact.
Heh, those are some good apps, but... Viruses and trojans are what god made antivirals and firewalls for. Problem solved. 30 MB Service packs are what god made subscriptions and broadband for.
I don't like antivirus software or Windows-based software firewalls (which don't get initialized until Windows is at a logon prompt. I've seen more than a few PCs with "Norton Internet Security" and Welchia). AV software is buggy, a drain on computing resources, and something we really shouldn't HAVE to have.
Broadband? Not everyone has it. Not everyone can get it. Spend a week at 28.8 and tell me that a 50MB update to IE6.1 that you HAVE to have (say, to look at your bank's web site) is anything other than criminal.
It is nice... however, last time I used KDE and GNOME, the basic user interface requirement of "good mousing" was lacking (among other quirks with the UI). Couldn't get the acceleration and resolution/speed to match my preferences at all. And you have to drop out to the CLI in order to edit some of the settings files by hand because either there is no graphical setting for it, or it's broken.
I drop to the CLI all the time in Windows. In fact, I always have one open, just because there's a lot of things that are easier for me to do at a prompt than with a mouse.
Good mousing? Not sure what you mean there. My pattern is to set acceleration and speed as high as they'll go, but in that way I don't notice any difference between X and Windows. X uses a 3-button mouse. I guess if you don't have one that's mildly annoying.
Editing config files? OK. But how often does it come up that you need to spend some quality time in the registry to configure something on a Windows machine? For that matter, "normal" linux users probably won't want or need to configure much of anything in a dotfile anyway, just as most Windows users probably shouldn't be spending much time with most of control panel.
Yeah, that's what I used when I had Linux. But the sound output was crap, no volume control, and there were none of the plug-ins I need with Winamp. Granted the sound/volume problems were probably rooted in a lack of hardware support.
I hesitate to ask what support one
needs from WinAmp.... Linux does stereo PCM sound, just like Windows. Some hardware, like the kind that's actually been manufactured in the last five years, works pretty well. Other hardware has cursory support. I never liked Aureal hardware, and I can't comment on how well it works, but SB Lives work as do most onboard sound devices and sound on all of the above is adequate (another big asterix goes here - computer speakers suck, and I tend not to bother with sound devcies on anything I can't hook up to component audio) for CDs and MP3s (which also suck).
Actually, many businesses use VBA programming in Excel and other apps for much of their report building, analysis, etc. Access is depended upon for many small-scale database driven applications. [snip]... if you don't know your Excel kung-fu as a typical Business Analyst, good luck.
So these people could never in their entire lives learn to use something different? I imagine if you poke around a bit you'll find older guys with equivalent knowledge of Lotus 123 or even Visicalc.
You're going for an MBA. Good for you. I won't even make sarcastic comments about it.
But seriously, in how many of those last four companies you worked at did the rank-and-file office-types do anything more complex than set fonts or play with tab settings? How many used the scheduling options in Outlook (several places I've been, rank and file types didn't know they could add their own tasks to the schedule; they thought only their boss could do it)? How many use anything in Powerpoint besides the default templates and transitions?
The problem is that myself and many non-UNIX trained Comp Sci grad type computer users know VB/VBA but not perl, tk, etc. So not only is it a problem for someone personally using the apps they need to use every day, but it is a problem for managers and IT because you can't go around installing apps and scripting languages that their workforce and most job applicants don't know how to use. VB/VBA is the standard in the business MS Office driven business world. It's all about RAD with the skills you have. Nobody has time to learn other stuff. Build on the existing VBA code base and get the damn report done.
I didn't go to college to learn perl et al either. However, I'm an intelligent person, and I invested time in learning it, so that when my professor handed me a project and said "I don't care how you implement this, just do it", I had a better tool for the job than C/C++/Smalltalk/LISP (particularly if the job involved manipulating text).
When I graduated I learned Windows programming on my own.
You can do it, too. As can your MBA-having buddies, if need be. I'm not suggesting that they all switch or anything. But they could if they wanted. Equivalents do exist, and the gains in terms of IT costs might make the changeover worthwhile even for a business. Besides, why are you so worried about what businesses do? Do you use your corporate desktop at home?
So here's the deal with VB(A): It snuck in. Were you doing anything with computers in 1996? Most of IT had *no idea* what the scripting language built into Word 95 could do until "Concept" hit. It was a simple little guy that popped up a textboxand said, basically: "This is a warning of what can be done."
Up to that point, most of the guys wrangling PCs were more about Win95 migrations, DOS/Windows application compatibility and the backup NLM that was abending their Novell server. No one had even looked at applications as a source for virus issues. Wordperfect and Lotus had macros but they were limited to working with the open document; here Microsoft exposed the OS to WordScript. Word was assumed to be the same. It's undeniably powerful but if sane network administrators knew in '96 how much of a pain VBA would one day cause, we'd probably still be using Wordperfect and Lotus.
Shifts in IT do happen from time to time. I know you say it's not possible and not productive, but it does happen. I've seen orgs go from CC Mail to Groupwise to Exchange, and from Exchange to Notes and Notes to OpenMail. From a user perspective those changes are HUGE.
If your whole experience with IT has been "It's Microsoft and it's always been Microsoft", well, you're just wrong. There are a lot of folks in the world who did the same thing you're doing now, who learned with 4GLs + random middleware + (for example) C-Informix. Someday we'll move from Oracle/DB2/MSSQL + ODBC + Crystal Reports or Excel to something else.
(Why do I feel a lot older than I am when I write that?)
SQL Server licenses and knowledge aren't exactly ubiquitous, ya know. And most companies do not give their non-IT people access to their Oracle databases. IT guys get Oracle and DB2 usually. Rarely something else. mySQL in a corporate environment? Not common. Access is the standard for business professionals. You do your internal record keeping and database development on it, not on SQL Server. And good luck with trying to get IT to install some unsupported non-MS database for you. You'll need a Level 4 manager's authorization on that one.
It's probably not worth my time to properly evangelize FoxPro or Interbase, is it? Nevertheless, both are excellent alternatives to the land of file corruption, poor locking and miserable compatibility that is the Jet engine. Nonetheless, there are very good Windows-based databases. Jet just isn't one of them.
Back to the subject at hand: No one ever needs to know. You set up your tables and appropriate logic and you use Windows' builtin connector. You can "upsize" Access to any of the above fairly easily (no "one click and it's done", but maybe four or five commands...), and they're all fairly easy to dump to one another as well. "Upsizing" is very seldom a problem.
The basis for my argument is that there are better database products than access. Your arguments seem to all stem from IT rules that have applied to you in the past. Do they apply now?
Again, what's the concern with what businesses are doing? If you've tried Linux in the past, you did so on your own, not because someone else made you. If all you're worried about is what some central IT department says you should be doing, why even make the effort?
Yes, that's part of it. But it is a very valid complaint. Show me something that can even touch Outlook/Exchange besides Notes/Domino
Samsung Contact I haven't used it since it became Samsung's baby, but when it was OpenMail it was simply the best thing out there. HP didn't market it very well, but it handles all of Outlook's Exchange features and is at least 10 times easier to manage and replicate.
Beyond that, a trip to freshmeat reveals quite a lot of very good webmail and scheduling apps that can be mixed and matched to fit your needs. Unsophisticated users might never know their mail is on a web site, and educated ones can appreciate the ubiquty of a web-based client.
I fully recommend non-Outlook mail clients. Sometimes this is a very easy sell. A office full of folks just hit by "the love bug" with no on-call IT guy? That was the easiest sell I ever had.
. It's a killer app. Outlook and Excel are two major reasons why Linux will never grab a significant share of the corporate desktop market.
Outlook is contestable on several levels. On the Excel side,
gnumeric keeps getting better. It isn't like Microsoft's last three upgrades have added anything worthwhile to their product; the freeware guys will be there soon.
And besides, you have to remember that what you're comfortable with wrt to hardware, apps, and scripting is not representative of the norm for a business person.
I'm not a business person. If you were nothing BUT a business person, you wouldn't able to even have this conversation. You're closer to being able to use Linux than you think.
I believe that the applications for Linux that are available NOW will do the job for the vast majority of computer users. I believe the desktop GUIs that are available are more than good enough as well.
You even stated that caveat right off the top. Linux may fit your needs (and obviously, the needs of your fellow Linux devotees), but for the rest of the (MS trained) computing world, Windows meets our needs far better than Linux does.
Hi. I'm Mercutio. I work as an IT trainer and contractor. I've seen the results of training on Microsoft products, and I'm here to tell you that the vast, VAST majority of Windows users wouldn't notice if you switched them from XP back to NT4 or Win95. If you put a menu button in the lower left-hand corner and a shortcut to an Email app and a web browser on the desktop, if there's a "File" menu on the left side of the menu bar and right-click (for the rare users that can use it) brings up a context menu with a "Properties" option, those Microsoft-trained users will be perfectly happy.
