Switcher

Geoff Barral, CTO of Blue Arc, discovers the Mac and adopts it. While he depicts his frustration with Windows with irony ("I have spent years building data centers and have some degree of technical competence but simply cannot seem to keep my desktop PC in good order"), his candid testimony that, basically, he can do with a Mac everything he's used to do with a PC, comes at no surprise to the rest of us but leaves a bitter taste on how long people can remain blind in front of anything that questions their beliefs. But he puts his acts together and confesses: "if like me, you have assumed for years that you could not do your job with a Mac, maybe it is time to look again. Sometimes it is important not just to Think Different™ but also to Be Different."

Welcome to the crowd Geoff.

I am myself a happy Mac user in a "big 5" IT company where we represent less than half a percent of the "official" computer base. I cost zip to the company in terms of IT support, and not simply because they offer no support for Macs. My colleagues spend several days a year calling the helpdesk, collecting tickets, waiting helplessly for repairs, incapable of using the printer sitting on their desk when the server down in the basement fries (once a year, twice on a good year), and looking like they've just met with Death when their screen goes blue. Nobody but those who cross my desk or see my portable (it's hard to keep Apple gear out of sight) can tell that I'm working with a Mac.