Paul, I am responding to you for the benefit of others reading and hopefully for your own enlightenment. It seems that you are indeed a user, one with a bad feeling towards MIS. You called them the constabulary. Sorry 'bout that. I think you would do better if you realized the grinding workload of the MIS staff. No group in any company works as long or as hard on such often tedius and mind-numbing problems as MIS.
You also wrote the following paragraph:
I'll tell you why people care. If they don't like the software that runs on their OWN PC(i.e., hard disk), they can go buy another type of software that they DO LIKE, without having to put up with the whatever happens to be offered up on some server and approved by the local MIS constabulary.
Comments:
1)"...their OWN PC(i.e., hard disk)".
It emphatically is NOT their OWN PC. (THAT attitude among all others is the source of the greatest headaches)
2)"...they can go buy another type of software that they DO LIKE".
If there is a company of any size that lets its employees randomly load software onto the company desktop machines on that basis, well, that company deserves the hell it has created for itself.
3)As stated before, "Think outside the box." If apps reside on an allowed selection of SERVERS, anywhere on the WEB, and your SELECTION of Java apps resided there, I think that you have your CHOICE, even more so then the scenario that you seem to think is so wonderful.
This is the vision possible within a few more months. Why would you want to have to BUY an entire application, load it(assuming enough room on your HD), and THEN see if it meets your needs...? When you could simply hit a server and run the new app, try it and if you like it, bookmark it? Also, if your MIS staff was foolish or large enough to allow it, you could go to ANY app server and load whatever the heck you felt like.
Additionally, this system saves LOTS of money, (the apps are delivered on an as needed basis), the apps are upgraded by the publisher (no need for a 1000 workstation upgrade marathon), and the company pays only for what it uses. No full suite licenses wasting away because 80% of the corporate licensees only EVER use the word-processor portion.
Again, can ANYONE give me a rational for paying for additional Suite licenses for users with only a word-processor an occasional spreadsheet use? Can anyone justify not going to a pay-as-you-use arangement?
My favorite Java app is a CTI PIM that controls my ISDN router's voice dialing function. It is made by ACC. My favorite NC that I have personal experience with is a UNIX system running "X", from which the current definition of "NC" is directly derived. There are hundreds if not thousands of business apps written for "X". Java is but a port away. The US gov't has a couple hundred THOUSAND "NCDI" NCs. Why not ask them as well?
If this STILL does not make sense to you...you are indeed a fool and history will pass you by. I will ignore the juvenile comments in your last paragraph. |
