Do CIOs really love dual boot?: Insight

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Do CIOs really love dual boot?

By Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
November 12, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/soa/Do-CIOs-really-love-dual-boot-/0,139023731,120269833,00.htm

OPINION: Staffing problems, financial woes and complaining users are all bugbears CIOs want to talk about. But why is it that the issue of dual boot Windows XP and Linux operating systems attracts such a big response from Australian IT professionals?

Perhaps the common ground is that supporting something like dual boot is an issue which is common to many IT departments.

Everyone can comprehend and empathise with the pressures support staff face on a day-to-day basis. Time is often limited, users are complaining and finding the source of the problem is complicated by other factors--so these IT professionals are forced to work in a reactive, rather than proactive, way.

It remains a constant battle to try and keep the vast majority of your internal clients happy.

But is running two operating systems the answer to this dilemma? Is it worth training staff to support both OSs, and will you need to have additional test machines to be able to assess any problems that may crop up? And is dual boot really the answer to the problem?

The other question is who should make the decision about how many operating systems the IT department will support. Is it up to the CIO or other tech staff, or should management be involved in this issue if it's affecting users?

Invariably when I question who should be making IT purchasing decisions, I get e-mails from IT professionals insisting that this is something which must be addressed by the IT division, not by business managers.

But the decision needs to be based on more than just the technical merit of an OS. How do you get feedback from the business and accurately assess what it is the users would prefer, or which option is going to be the best for the business going forward, or the easiest to support?

What are your views on dual boot? What are the issues affecting the support of OSs in your organisation? Talkback below or e-mail us your tips at edit@zdnet.com.au