The month of December has already been unkind to Microsoft. The software giant's Windows operating system and its Internet Explorer browser saw significant market share drops reported on back-to-back days. Not only was the November percentage drop for Windows the biggest in two years, but Windows market share dipped below a number where it has historically held tight: 90 percent. According to Web metrics company, Net Applications, Windows market share as of Dec. 1 is 89.6 percent. Meanwhile, Mac OS X posted its largest gain in two years, with 8.9 percent market share at the end of November.
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Member since:2007-02-17
That will change as time goes on. These people h efuse to work on Macs will see customers go somewhere else. Thats no good for business. Getting Apple certified isn;t all that hard, there is no reason why they can't become an Apple houe as well.
An example, I work in IT at our company. We support asious organizations which are primarily Windows houses. As of late we've been seeing request for more support for alternative with OSX being the majority and Linux he minority. I am fortunate enough to have a personal interest and experience in OS's (or I wouldn't be on this site). Being that the care now I'm the primary director for support of alternative OS and hardware issues, something which there was no need for just a year ago. Apple is slowly gaining on the market and I'm seign moe and more developers requesting Linux nstalled on their machines to develop their tools. Its really a wonderful thing. Unfortunately for Windows the embrace of change seems to extend to every aspect even computing choices.
Even Valve has been reported of working on a Steam client for Linux and had already stated that they were porting over their source engine to Linux. Porting to Linux usually means that things can get ported to other OS's as well such as OSX. Once gaming gets detached from being a Windows only experience which thanks to consoles it has, then I really don't see Windows keeping its market share. Everything else that windows can do the other Os's can do just as well if not better.
Member since:2005-07-08
I can uderstand your feelings, and I do sympathize for over-stressed IT workers too.
But here's an example from real world showing how opposing new things can actually increase stress and work load when compared to learning a few new things:
In the early 2000's I worked as a web technology specialist in a big and relatively wealthy organization. They still relied on hand coded HTML in almost all their web services, and various units (often without any experienced computer users) were also supposed to update their web pages by themselves using primitive free WYSIWYG tools (believe or not: Netscape Composer was the chosen tool for them...). For years, me and others at the web unit tried to suggest moving to more advanced dynamic and database driven web solutions but without a success. In the end many of my colleagues left the work place and I got a serious burnout too. Had they been even a bit more open to new things, many problems could have been avoided.
Often it just pays of to be open to new things too and be ready to learn new technologies that can often ease the work load needed in many old tasks. Staying in the old ways too long can become more of a burden than a help in the long run as demands and the world around us changes constantly.
Member since:2005-07-08
It seems like my comment may have been misunderstood. I actually deal with servers day in and day out as well as run the infrastructure for a small-mid sized ISP/CLEC. I was being more or less tongue in cheek about how heavy the burden must be for the poor technician who has more than one single thing on his/her plate.
It's absurd to think one can maintain a presence in the technology world and at the same time refuse to learn - this isn't an industry that sits still for anyone. I'd *love* to ignore VoIP and QoS and MPLS and ... well, you get my drift - I don't have that luxury, and neither does anyone else who wants to legitimately consider themselves competent in this field.
I am in favor of muti-vendor whenever and where ever possible, providing it makes sense, and am certainly in favor of FOSS.
Member since:
2005-07-08
My heart bleeds for those poor bastards who actually, you know, have to keep up with the times. I doubt anything will change in any event, considering 99% of the shops out there still refuse to work on Macs, but as a Network Admin all I can say is cry me a river.