[thelist] Switching to Macs

[Colin Mitchell]

>
> The hardest part about being a Mac user in a Windows shop is the often
> aggressive hostility shown by the Windows people who refuse to take a even
> single step towards making anything work. They end up looking like the
> computing counterpart of the "ugly American" tourist stereotype, refusing
> to do anything at all to make getting along together easier, and forcing
> the Mac user to do all the adapting. Fortunately, this isn't hard; in fact
> it's far easier for the lone Mac user to fit into a Windows shop
> than for a
> lone PC user to fit into a Mac shop. (In the latter case, the Mac users
> usually will make the adjustments to help the PC along, I've found.)
>

I've been lurking on this debate for a few days now, and this bit caught my
interest.  I think this is a little bit derogatory towards "Windows people",
whomever they may be.  I'd say that the only experience I've had close to
this was the exact opposite - working in a Mac shop where NO ONE wanted
anything to do with a PC, or Linux for that matter.  As a worker in that
environment, I got no support when it came to using a PC, or in implementing
a Linux server to take the place of some fairly shaky Mac fileservers.

Anyway, my point is this - use what you want.  I've had decent success with
both PCs and Macs, and I've had headaches galore with both of them too.  If
the people around you aren't the helpful type, you're on your own.

I feel like I owe a tip:

<tip type="hardware fun" author="colin mitchell">
those of you who have a bunch of computers and are tired squeezing a bunch
of monitors, keyboards, etc, etc, into your cramped workspace -- go get a
KVM switch!  basically it's a box that connects one set of a
keyboard/mouse/monitor to a whole bunch of computers, and then you can
toggle between them with either a button on the box or a keyboard command.
i'm sure a lot of you already use KVM switches, but i just discovered them,
and i'm in love with the reclaimed deskspace (which, sadly, is now littered
with papers and books instead of a keyboard and mouse)
</tip>