[TriLUG] Vista

[Ryan Leathers]

Interesting Jim

When I give interviews I ask the candidates their OS of choice. Nobody 
has ever selected a Microsoft OS. I suspect the screening process 
eliminates these folks before they make it to an interview here. (There 
were a couple on staff before I got here) Its not that we have something 
against Microsoft. Its just that we look for a certain mindset - an open 
source philosophy that extends beyond the applications you use to the 
way you work. Folks who share this mind set seem to gravitate to some 
type of *NIX. Perhaps the day will come that we'll have a Vista user in 
our ranks.

My policy is to let people pick whatever OS they feel most productive 
with (I use Ubuntu and OSX myself), but the first time they prove they 
can't admin their own box and remain productive in their regular duties 
they lose that privilege to the jack-booted authority of a sysadmin who 
will give them a centrally managed Ubuntu desktop.  It has been working 
pretty well. User and sysadmin alike seem happy and productive with this 
arrangement.

Ryan




Jim Tuttle wrote:
> That's one reason I love working at NCSU Libraries- they let me order my
> own computer and install my own OS.  A few of us are running Ubuntu, one
> is running FreeBSD, and one is running (horror) Solaris 8.  A lot of us
> are running OSX with the majority on Windows XP.
>
> That's now one of my questions when I interview- what's your desktop OS
> policy?  I want root.
>
> Jim
>
>
>   
>> Hi Ron,
>>
>>   What is wrong with GNU Cash? Does it not run on Windows? Is it just too
>> different? Or are some features missing? AFAIK it is the only FOSS contender
>> against QuickBooks (not quicken or money). I've only done a little with GNU
>> Cash and not any heavy business accounting so I haven't explored its
>> features. Not sure if it is good at managing thousands of customer accounts
>> for instance. ???
>>
>>   BTW, employees at this major telco are welcomed to use Linux as their
>> primary desktop. Most have both XP and Linux side-by-side although outlook
>> is available as a web page so one could dump XP if desired. The big issue
>> here is all the IT-ware on the Windows box. E.g. this week some brainiac in
>> network mgt decided no Flash player on the Windows box-- odd since several
>> apps and new dev are using flash.
>>
>> Tim
>>     
>
>
>