Mano a mono: ONE IT CONSULTANT'S BATTLE AGAINSTTHE MICROSOf

摘要

We all know the perils ofthe microsoft monoculture: viruses, spyware, endless patching, reliability issues and high licensing costs. Yet few IT consultants seem willing to look at alternatives. There are probably three reasons for this. One is inertia. The other is a variant of the old IT prov-erb, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM."A third is that currently clean alternate technologies might be equally afflicted with problems if they were more popular. Maybe, but why cling to products with a past, present and probable future of security and reliability woes? My company serves small businesses and non-profits with typically a few dozen computers and a couple of servers each. Our clients hire us because they can't afford an IT staff. They should-n't need monthly service calls to install patches, reboot servers or disinfect desktops. Thus we've made a careful choice over the past few years to consider and use alternative tech-noiogies where appropriate In some cases, only Microsoft will do the trick. Other times there are credible options.