On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:56:44 +0100, scott wrote:

>> That was now about 10 years ago (doesn't seem possible it was that long
>> ago).  But desktop lockdown and software installation policies are very
>> common in corporate IT policies these days, especially with all the
>> crapware/malware/spyware that's in the Windows world.
> 
> Yep, and the policy works too.  Where I used to work everyone was using
> Win95 (to start with, they slowly changed to XP when I was leaving) and
> I don't think we ever saw a blue-screen.  This was because we were only
> allowed to use approved software, and IT had tested to death anything
> that was to be used on the system to make sure it was compatible with
> everything. Add to that the fact that they routinely wiped the HDs, it
> meant a very stable computing environment virtually transparent to the
> user (unless you wanted to install some application that was not in the
> list).

Oh yes, for the company I worked for before coming to Novell, we used 
Novell's ZENworks for application distribution and desktop policy 
management.  There was a team of half a dozen engineers who would test 
applications like mad to make sure the install wouldn't break something 
else.  Compatibility testing was a huge component of that process - will 
app A break app B?

> Allowing users to modify settings and install anything usually leads to
> an unstable environment and many many IT support calls.

Yep.  BTDTGTTS.

Jim

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