What OS do you run?

[Alex B]

Computers ARE magic, fool. BTW staff shops are awesome.

[fivebob]

I agree with the having to keep up with things factor, but there is also "if it aint broke dont fix it"

Then why the comment that people would be silly to adopt 2008 server???

It's a matter of doing your job properly, confirming that the upgrade is required, testing to see if things will work and making sure you have a fall back plan in place. In our case we require the extra security of 2008 because we are moving the web farm from it's present DMZ location to the internal network and exposing it to the outside world through ISA. We've been testing 2008 since the Beta was first released, have confirmed that the production release behaves correctly and have a migration path that will ensure that we can fall back to 2003 by simply removing the 2008 server from the web farm.

How many businesses do you know of that have dumped XP in favor of Vista at this stage? How long did it take for businesses to adapt XP over Win2k, i can think of a rather large chocolate factory that only just went over to XP last year when their IT structuring went global.

Not many, but not because of any problems with Vista, just because it takes time to get an SOE working just how you need it. Most large corparations will only roll out a new desktop OS when replacing PC's so there's no rush to adopt the latest system. In fact we've only just got rid of the last of our '95 systems about 3 months ago, and about 30% are still on W2k.

I find the biggest problem in the computer industry is that people don't test properly, then all hell breaks loose when a new system is put into production. Then they spend the next six months fighting fires, and the next few years trying to live down the bad reputation they got because thing didn't go to plan.

[Alex B]

I agree with the having to keep up with things factor, but there is also "if it aint broke dont fix it"

Then why the comment that people would be silly to adopt 2008 server???

Pretty much because of your last paragraph, you can just about guarantee most people wont have fully tested it before putting it into a production environment.

[fivebob]

I agree with the having to keep up with things factor, but there is also "if it aint broke dont fix it"

Then why the comment that people would be silly to adopt 2008 server???

Pretty much because of your last paragraph, you can just about guarantee most people wont have fully tested it before putting it into a production environment.

Then they are silly for not testing, not because they plan to install 2008 server, and deserve all the problems they might encounter. Though IME of 2008 Server those problems should be minimal.

[RedMist]

IMO it's an environmental issue. NZ project managers are born of a reactive engineering roles. Its not like Engineers to proactively investigate possible issues and avoid them, or create backout plans. They are simply used to ensuring a product is kept running or reactively fixing issues.
NZ isnt an overly large country and our corporations arent throwing huge money to contract engineers in to investigate possible issues or plan for possible failure. They want engineers in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible for as low a possible cost. Unfortunately we cater (or are forced to) to thier demands.