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Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

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Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#121

Post by pessimizer »

stephenr wrote: post #94
ollysb wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have macs for the same reason fancy shops always have macs, they're a status signal and just look better.

Or because, you know, they find that paying a little more up front gives them a better overall product - longer usable life, less maintenance, etc. Just because you don’t see the point of an Apple product beyond “ooh shiny” doesn’t mean others don’t. I work for a global company where > 50% of people work from home offices and > 90% of our staff use Macs. I can only actually think of 2 specific people (out of 200+) th…

>longer usable life, less maintenance

I'm not aware of any evidence of this, and I don't even remember any of my Apple fanatic friends even claiming this. Any references?

>Are you suggesting that all these people, many of whom are in countries with lower wage standards, pay “extra” just to have a shiny apple logo on their desk at home that no one but them sees?

This is a dishonest way of having a discussion.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#122

Post by analog31 »

terhechte wrote: post #21

I've worked for quite some time in the digital display industry, at a company which has a very feature rich, Mac OS X based digital signage solution [1] with high profile customers such as Mercedes-Benz, or Disney. Since the company is small, it is easy to be part of all steps of the process, including marketing and sales. I learned a lot about B2B buying behaviour while I worked for this company. We oftentimes ran i…

I had a similar experience in my career, well over a decade ago. Granted, my anecdote doesn't prove anything, especially because I could have been wrong at the time, but it reflects the mindset.

I had a choice of implementing a machine controller with GUI in MacOS (System 7.5), some flavor of Windows, or even MS-DOS! Two factors influenced my choice:

1. Familiarity with the innards of a PC assured me that I could make it work all by myself, no matter what, even if it turned out to be ugly on the inside.

2. Looking ahead, and realizing that a bunch of MacOS development experience on my resume would elicit a yawn from most recruiters.

As for the display controller, today I'd do it with something like a Raspberry Pi.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#126

Post by keithpeter »

cyclotron wrote: post #15

I'm not a fan of Windows, but when I saw this post it reminded me of a picture I took at 30th street station in Philadelphia. I guess this was an attempt to use Linux for an visitor information kiosk. http://imgur.com/oULGTjJ

Frustratingly low definition but that looks like a kernel panic => not enough testing on target hardware.

I've seen dead signage and kiosks from all the main OSes and OS/2. It happens, what I'm interested in is automatic reboot methods...

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#127

Post by scott_s »

route66 wrote: post #54
terhechte wrote: post #21

I've worked for quite some time in the digital display industry, at a company which has a very feature rich, Mac OS X based digital signage solution [1] with high profile customers such as Mercedes-Benz, or Disney. Since the company is small, it is easy to be part of all steps of the process, including marketing and sales. I learned a lot about B2B buying behaviour while I worked for this company. We oftentimes ran i…

You frame the three points a bit derogatory and seem to have missed the point of your customers. > Windows was the OS that the company was also using for employee machines, so they knew it. They understand it, have an idea about the cost and amount of support necessary. "They knew it" seems to convey that they were essentially stupid or not adventurous enough to try something else. > The IT department only wanted Win…

I did not read that attitude from terhechte at all; I did not find the points "derogatory." To me, it seemed like terhechte has a good understanding of why his customers reacted how they did, and believed those reactions were reasonable.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#128

Post by jakejake »

terhechte wrote: post #21

I've worked for quite some time in the digital display industry, at a company which has a very feature rich, Mac OS X based digital signage solution [1] with high profile customers such as Mercedes-Benz, or Disney. Since the company is small, it is easy to be part of all steps of the process, including marketing and sales. I learned a lot about B2B buying behaviour while I worked for this company. We oftentimes ran i…

I think this is just a kinda microcosm for why Windows is successful in general. Because they have a sales force and support that markets to and is geared around companies. Their developer ecosystem is heavily geared towards corporate systems as well.

It's surprising that a smart HN blogger can't put himself into somebody else's shoes for a second. When you're a manager and your boss tells you to go install some kiosks, chances are good that you're going to go out there and get some proposals. You're gonna pick whichever one of them best represents themselves, has a price that you want and seems like they'll be there when you need their support. You're probably not going to go with whoever is the most "cool" or "bleeding edge." You're almost definitely not going to try to put together an open source solution yourself just to save a few thousand bucks on OS licenses.

It's just as simple as that. Windows kiosks are in use because there are a lot of people out there selling Windows Kiosk solutions. If at some point another system manages to get a decent marketshare and has sales people out there writing proposals - then you'll start to see more of those.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#129

Post by Iftheshoefits »

excitom wrote: post #50
_random_ wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

".NET makes it very easy for average developers to write GUI programs" - it makes it easy for any kind of developer, that's the defining characteristic of best frameworks.

It makes it so simple, any idiot can write a GUI program ... so you get GUI programs that look like they were written by idiots.

That's a feature; not a bug. The quality of these "enterprise applications" isn't as important as that: a) they came in under budget, b) (mostly) don't break, and c) when they do break they can be supported by existing support staff without investing anything more than what is effectively petty cash in training or additional resources.

Re: Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?

#130

Post by shittyanalogy »

joosters wrote: post #12

Because the hardware support is good. Because the licensing costs are pretty small compared to the project costs. Because there is plenty of tech support available. Because Windows flash support is good. Because there are plenty of developers who will customize it for you. Because it is easy to add to the existing networking systems being used. There are plenty of reasons to choose Windows for this kind of thing. why…

Also,

    Any general purpose OS would have these problems
    It's stable
    Tech support is easy to find
    Software can be easily demoed
A better title for the article would have been:

Who's paying these shitty IT guys?

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