[WinMac] A Mac Alone

Phil Sutton(phils[at]sbinet.com)
Thu, 20 May 1999 13:25:19 -0500

I have thoroughly enjoyed the comment about the various systems. I am not a
system programmer. I am not a computer expert but a user. My job is turn out
materials that aid in the education of adults. For 13 years I have
accomplished this rather efficiently with a Macintosh.

However:

I recently moved to a new job (one year) where they run Unix. I quickly
realized that the capability of their machines running WordPerfect and Lotus
( I never did get Lotus to work) did not come close to what I had previously
on a Macintosh system. I quickly brought my old si into work to do what I
thought was more productive design of my operation.I convinced my supervisor
that I needed a more powerful Mac and became the proud owner of a G3 350 mhz
in January. I also convinced them to quickly convert our system to IMAP so I
could finally get mail through the UNIX server.

I also discovered that Fetch allows me to get files from my secretary as
well as others in the office. Transfer back to them is not possible however
except through mail. Most things are best finished on the Mac anyway.

Now in April it is decided by the powers of the university that we will
slowly convert everything over to Windows NT( a move long overdue). System
management has and will be done remotely from campusas it has with the UNIX
system

However, I can look forward to no support for the Mac. That is okay but I
want my secretary to also have a Mac and my boss is shaky about what would
happen if I leave.

I told him that Microsoft Office support should be similar if the dukes of
the kingdom will just help rather than complain it is being run on a Mac. I
am also trying to get the powers at the university to consider FilemakerPro
instead of Access for the database.

There are three county offices out of 92 that are Mac oriented at this time
going against the Unix grain and being productive where others are
struggling.

Please tell me some of the pitfalls I should watch for in the coming years
or if you think I should give up the fight to keep a Mac in the system.
Your opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Sermon warning:

It is my observation that this remoteness has produced a situation that no
system administrator has ever observed what job needs to be done and
designed the system to help. What has been done is the system is more
important than the people who use it.

My secretary stores mailing lists on the label templates not in a database
file. Argh! None in the office has ever successfully merged a document in
WordPerfect on UNIX! this takes me back to the days I watched DOS users
slowly try to do what I had done for years on a Mac. ( I know the new Office
for Windows is quite exceptional)

The SA group wrote their own database program years ago and tell me it is
quite powerful. I have yet to export a usable text file that I can integrate
with another program. I has no flex and is basically cumbersome to use.

Probably the most idiotic symptom of this system was the inadequate ability
to use attached files from the university (Windows and Mac generated). My
success rate on the Unix machine was about 20%.

I have always said machines are cheaper than people and that hiring someone
that has years of experience on a Mac should also involve buying them a Mac
to stay productive. But, a funny thing happens, people who have never used a
Mac do not realize that it is not a troublesome machine. It is in many ways
easy to back out of a problem on a Mac; this is contrary to what I have
observed on Windows. I am very in favor of integrating a system if the
experience of the users warrants it.

It sort of boils down to whose job should be easier, the system
administrators or the production people.

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu May 20 1999 - 11:35:37 PDT