4 ms·

It's a nonsensical metric. If company A and company B were equal except that in company A some people chose a Mac that would mean it would suddenly be a better

by aerique 17y ago

It's a nonsensical metric. If company A and company B were equal except that in company A some people chose a Mac that would mean it would suddenly be a better place to work at?

gaius 17y ago
The relevant point is not what they chose but that a choice exists. Interestingly at my place we have a choice (Red Hat/CentOS, OS X, Windows XP, Solaris, Windows 7) and people, even full-time Unix sysadmins, are choosing Windows 7. Make of that what you will.
- apotheon 17y ago
  From my perspective, that list (and the fact people choose Win7) means: 1. Red Hat / CentOS is better than Ubuntu, but if that's my only free/open source Unix-like option, it sucks. 2. MacOS X is good for the "tell me how my working environment should look" crowd, I guess. 3. Windows XP and Windows 7, but not Vista? Good! Too bad XP and 7 only look good by comparison. 4. Solaris for workstations. Damn, this company is interested in giving people options! Too bad I'm not terribly sold on any of the options they offer. 5. I wonder if people are choosing Win7 because it's better, or because it's "new" and still "Microsoft" (and thus "better", but not necessarily better). I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to technology options and how people make decisions, I guess.
- wildwood 17y ago
  My first guess would be that the admins are using their desktop boxes mostly as dumb terminals to the unix servers, and chose Windows because of easy integration with email and calendaring. As to why Windows 7 instead of XP, maybe it's getting good word of mouth? Or maybe getting a fresh install of XP is more of a pain than going with Windows 7, and they just can't be bothered?
cschneid 17y ago
Come on guys, it's not all about Mac vs. PC, he was using it to demonstrate a company that lets you choose the hardware you want to work on (powerful w/ 2 screens was what he said). The fact it's a Mac means they trust the developers enough to choose what they want, rather than just buying a high end windows box.

by aerique 17y ago

It's a nonsensical metric. If company A and company B were equal except that in company A some people chose a Mac that would mean it would suddenly be a better place to work at?

gaius 17y ago

The relevant point is not what they chose but that a choice exists. Interestingly at my place we have a choice (Red Hat/CentOS, OS X, Windows XP, Solaris, Windows 7) and people, even full-time Unix sysadmins, are choosing Windows 7. Make of that what you will.

apotheon 17y ago
From my perspective, that list (and the fact people choose Win7) means: 1. Red Hat / CentOS is better than Ubuntu, but if that's my only free/open source Unix-like option, it sucks. 2. MacOS X is good for the "tell me how my working environment should look" crowd, I guess. 3. Windows XP and Windows 7, but not Vista? Good! Too bad XP and 7 only look good by comparison. 4. Solaris for workstations. Damn, this company is interested in giving people options! Too bad I'm not terribly sold on any of the options they offer. 5. I wonder if people are choosing Win7 because it's better, or because it's "new" and still "Microsoft" (and thus "better", but not necessarily better). I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to technology options and how people make decisions, I guess.
wildwood 17y ago
My first guess would be that the admins are using their desktop boxes mostly as dumb terminals to the unix servers, and chose Windows because of easy integration with email and calendaring. As to why Windows 7 instead of XP, maybe it's getting good word of mouth? Or maybe getting a fresh install of XP is more of a pain than going with Windows 7, and they just can't be bothered?

cschneid 17y ago

Come on guys, it's not all about Mac vs. PC, he was using it to demonstrate a company that lets you choose the hardware you want to work on (powerful w/ 2 screens was what he said). The fact it's a Mac means they trust the developers enough to choose what they want, rather than just buying a high end windows box.