The gains, or not, of technological progress.

Dear reader,

For almost a year and a half now, we are running desktop PC's with Windows 7 at work. All user files are stored on a server and not on the local hard drive. Without it being an official position, I am the "local system administrator" (which basically means that I'm the guy who calls the IT department at the head office, since I have no permissions to do anything on my computer (well, not much, anyway) and on the computer of my colleagues.

Many years ago, back in 1997 when I started working there, the network consisted of a small IBM desktop server that ran AIX 4.3 (IBM's UNIX version) and work stations. Then, too, the users' files were stored on the server.

I don't remember UNIX ever having had problems. It was rock solid. People that know UNIX will now roll their eyes and think "Well, duh!". Or don't you? :-)

Now, after nearly a year and a half into Microsoft Windows 7 (and - undoubtedly, as I have no access to it - a Windows server), there have been more problems than in the early days with UNIX, the worst being users that lost their personal files because something went wrong with the synchronizing of their files.

The point that I am trying to make is that "IT" at work has come full circle: from a  pure UNIX network environment in 1997, we have returned to again a pure netowrk environment, this time with Windows 7. Only, the current system with Microsoft Windows is a lot less good than the - now long forgotten - UNIX system that we once had.

This last fact makes me both chuckle and shake my head in disbelief.