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There's a cause and effect loop here. Windows is built to a large degree for median IT departments. They want to lock it down and give it to employees to use,

by netcan 12y ago

There's a cause and effect loop here. Windows is built to a large degree for median IT departments. They want to lock it down and give it to employees to use, but not manage. Obviously this is anecdotal but, Mac users are usually more likely to go into system preferences and try to find out how to arrange their screens or add a printer. Windows users treat control panel as forbidden territory, which IT departments agree with. Installing and installing programs on Windows is more daunting than on OSX, Android, or iOS. Basically, it's a UX problem. There is no real reason why a PC should not be manageable by a computer literate professional.

vonmoltke 12y ago
It isn't a UX problem, it's a political problem. It departments are responsible for, among other things securing their company's computing resources and ensuring their availability to support the business. The most expedient way, in their view, to accomplish this mission is to keep as much direct control over those resources as they can, even if it means the users are "inconvenienced". Add to this the human tendency to inflate the importance of your own problems and deflate the importance of other people's problems and you end up with a situation where everyone outside of IT runs crippled machines or thin clients and has to call on IT for every change or update of substance. There is a happy medium, but IT (largely) is not interested in it. The current system meets their needs very well, but they have lost sight of the needs of their users.
- daigoba66 12y ago
  I've done "corporate IT" for a 150 person company in the past. All "knowledge workers", all with a desktop, most over the age of 40-50 with varying degrees of tech savviness. Support was a big deal for this group, and it becomes a lot a easier when every workstation is configured exactly the same way and has the exact same software.
  - vonmoltke 12y ago
    I agree, it is much easier. The problem comes when "every workstation is configured exactly the same way and has the exact same software" hurts the productivity of certain parts of the organization because certain groups need a different configuration to do their jobs properly.

by netcan 12y ago

vonmoltke 12y ago

It isn't a UX problem, it's a political problem. It departments are responsible for, among other things securing their company's computing resources and ensuring their availability to support the business. The most expedient way, in their view, to accomplish this mission is to keep as much direct control over those resources as they can, even if it means the users are "inconvenienced". Add to this the human tendency to inflate the importance of your own problems and deflate the importance of other people's problems and you end up with a situation where everyone outside of IT runs crippled machines or thin clients and has to call on IT for every change or update of substance. There is a happy medium, but IT (largely) is not interested in it. The current system meets their needs very well, but they have lost sight of the needs of their users.

daigoba66 12y ago
I've done "corporate IT" for a 150 person company in the past. All "knowledge workers", all with a desktop, most over the age of 40-50 with varying degrees of tech savviness. Support was a big deal for this group, and it becomes a lot a easier when every workstation is configured exactly the same way and has the exact same software.
- vonmoltke 12y ago
  I agree, it is much easier. The problem comes when "every workstation is configured exactly the same way and has the exact same software" hurts the productivity of certain parts of the organization because certain groups need a different configuration to do their jobs properly.