10% apparently is better than 90%

[Mystic]

I don't think that Microsoft has gotten into online applications all that much. Maybe they will do more of that in the future. But I will not trust anybody online, Google or anybody else, with my personal and confidental information at least until I have a lot more information about where that data will be stored and who will have access to that data.

I personally doubt that many businesses and that governmental agencies will trust their important information to online storage somewhere until they know a lot more about where the information will be stored and who will have access to it.

There will be a role for online applications and online storage of information. But desktop computers at home and in businesses and governmental agencies will not disappear anytime soon.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
There will be a role for online applications and online storage of information. But desktop computers at home and in businesses and governmental agencies will not disappear anytime soon.


Online is probably an incorrect term for this, but rather intranet. Most of the HR forms and IT issue tracking has been done with an internal server based application where fewer human contacts are involved to save cost. This is how MS will lose its platform monopoly gradually. Security is going to be more than local desktop based application because all the essential stuff is done on a server rather than many different desktops.

I'd not be surprised if in the future we will see only help desk for 2% of the special cases that can't be handled online. We already see this with Grocery stores and Home Depot self checkout, ATM machines, post office postage calculator, as well as airline check in kiosk. I'd really want them to replace the dreaded DMV with this thing to cut down the lines and poor customer services.

Storing personal and work documents online instead of local copy? Over my dead body. I have no problem with security, but I have problem with unreliable network.

 

[simple_gifts]

Mystic, all ribbing aside, this is what I'm talking about.

http://www.infoworld.com/print/125118

The market soon will be 100's of millions of people who don't have the money for a desktop PC, let alone a place to put and in the developed world, a new generation of people who NEVER HAD a land line or DESKTOP PC. They really need to address the situation if they want to be a player or become the old GM of software development.

 

[Mystic]

Concerning what PandaBear said, some of our programs are on servers now. When those servers go down for any reason we lose access to those programs temporarily but since we still have our own computers we can keep running. The programs that are on servers are non-Windows but we are able to run them from our desktops which are Windows computers.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Concerning what PandaBear said, some of our programs are on servers now. When those servers go down for any reason we lose access to those programs temporarily but since we still have our own computers we can keep running. The programs that are on servers are non-Windows but we are able to run them from our desktops which are Windows computers.


There are two "web applications" that I can think of right now that I use (and yes, they are Windows-based). Eclipse Project Management suite and Microsoft Sharepoint.

Both are great in their own right.

Also, most PACS and RIS software are web applications, or simply a gui to a server-driven back-end.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

The new version of PACS, Impax, is definitely better from an end-user perspctive, but anyone running anything besides XP isn't "supported". Uggh.

I called the company around Christmas time, they never tested it with Vista (hello, it's almost 2010!) and never looked at Windows 7. The "solution" for using a Mac? Buy VMWare Fusion, a license of XP, then run their software.

Never mind that PACS worked fine on Macs, Linux, etc, prior to this 'upgrade'.

Nothing spells vendor lock-in like such self-serving rigidness. There's got to be a better way.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
The new version of PACS, Impax, is definitely better from an end-user perspctive, but anyone running anything besides XP isn't "supported". Uggh.

I called the company around Christmas time, they never tested it with Vista (hello, it's almost 2010!) and never looked at Windows 7. The "solution" for using a Mac? Buy VMWare Fusion, a license of XP, then run their software.

Never mind that PACS worked fine on Macs, Linux, etc, prior to this 'upgrade'.

Nothing spells vendor lock-in like such self-serving rigidness. There's got to be a better way.


We use IntelliPACS. The web part works fine on a Mac, but they can't use the viewing application, as it is Windows-only. So they can see, and work with the worklists and stuff, but can only view images through a browser window. A disappointment for the Mac users, as the stand-alone Intelliviewer app is a desirable feature.

We actually got a request the other day from the company; they are rolling out a version upgrade for it, and we apparently need to upgrade the RAM on the server..... A LOT. Both servers currently have 4GB of RAM. They need 12GB for the upgrade. They run RHEL. I was like WHOA! That's quite the "upgrade"!

 

[Scienceman]

Originally Posted By: ddrumman2004
Here is a thought...

If Apple is "alpha" now, maybe the hackers will leave us Window users alone and concentrate on them.