...because this is supposed to be the
READERS CHOICE awards. Who actually won this
one is moot. The bottom line is that I, as a
subscriber (and the others who were) did NOT
get an opportunity to participate. Basing
this years awards on a random sample from a
phone poll is a pale shadow of full reader
participation, and THAT is the issue that
gripes many no matter what "won".
Although the first poll did not meet the
editors expectations, they should have stuck
with it and then added a portion on how it
was conducted and what made it suspect
rather than invalidating it and then
conducting a sampling and calling it a final
result.
However after insulting one portion of its
readership with their remarks, they toss it
out because it did not meet their
preconcieved notions. That in itself upset
not only the OS/2 people, but everyone with
a sense of fair play and integrity. After
all, this was a READERS CHOICE and as a
readers choice does not mean its going to
match what the market is doing. Whomever
decided that it should be representative of
the market should have had thier head
examined because there is a profound
difference in what we use and what we like
to see.
Another thing they don't get, is that
despite the preponderance of advertising and
hoopla about NT, is that the actual numbers
don't match the hype. NT Server has sold
just over a million copies total this year
if you extrapolate the numbers back since it
was sold. However these numbers are not
broken down when discussing NT in general to
see that despite good sales of the
workstation product, the server product is
sorely lacking sales and in power and
stability for the Enterprise in the real
world.
Its no suprise then that NT winning garners
some disbelief on the part of those who do
work in the Enterprise as I do. Novell,
despite its stumbles, trials and
tribulations has a excellant enterprise
product in the 4.x line with NDS that is far
and above what NT has to offer today, and
even in the next incarnation according to
hyped up beta/alpha/gamma reports
circulating.
Unlike the editors, we readers have to work,
live and breath in the real world of
computing. We don't go out chasing the
latest trend. Its more important to work
with what works currently, then to work with
something that _might_ work. With over
10,000 users worldwide, I don't recommend or
use products that are not proven to work in
that environment. While NT may work, we have
found that we would have to double our
current number of administrators to make it
happen. However its not cost effective to
use it like Novell, so its relegated to
running a few specialized applications as is
our OS/2 machines.
Reminds me of one letter IW got where the
reader touts NT, supports 1000 or so users
and then goes on to mention he has 18
support people. Got to scratch my head on
that one when we have less than that for 10
times the people. And it all works well too.
Bottom line, there was no READERS CHOICE
this year. There was a web based poll which
was poorly done and not limited to the
readership of the print magazine, and then
there was this random phone sampling. And
that random sampling ripped the remainder of
us off who were looking forward to voting
and being counted.
So please don't sit there and look dumb when
you try to understand the furor over the
second poll. To have called it a READERS
CHOICE is hypocrisy because it was anything
but that this year.
Doug Glenn
LAN Administrator
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