OK, we admit it, we’re nerds. We live and breathe technology, day and night. In the IT Support business, one needs to stay abreast of new technologies. So we tinker, toy and test. Playing with devices and testing software is not only our job, but our hobby.

As you can imagine, quite often a customer, friend and family member will ask for advice on which gadget to buy, which software to use, which PC to get, etc. So, we thought it made sense to pull back the curtain a bit and let you know what we here at Diligex use for both work and personal use.

So, here we go! The first post in a long series of ‘What We Use’. I (Graham) will kick things off, but look for posts from Nick and others in the future.

While I’d love to be able to just give a single answer, I can’t. It really depends on what I’m doing and where I happen to be.

My go to, at the desk, use for the majority of the day, main work horse, is…. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. For me, Win7 64-bit takes the cake for enabling efficiency, which for me, is the most important aspect of an OS. I find the Windows taskbar and the Explorer file system more powerful and quicker to navigate than MAC’s dock and finder. Sure, I can multi-task in OSX, but not as fast a I can in Windows.  Screen grabbing, image editing and file operations are another plug for the PC.  OK, I’ll admit, this is probably more due to familiarity as I know the MAC platform is used by many a graphic designer.  Seriously though, file operations – Windows Explorer kills Mac Finder in my opinion.  Finder is just too dumbed down.

I am using using OSX more and more these days, primarily due the the hardware that it’s built on. Aesthetically, Mac’s beat any PC to date hands down. They’re pleasing to the eye and comfortable to the touch. If I’m outside of the office, the Macbook Air comes along and the Thinpad (Win7 64-bit) stays behind. Why? Size, boot time, battery life, simplicity and stability. That’s what I need when bouncing around between meetings or traveling. Windows laptops are getting better, but still, a 30-120 second delay between opening the lid and being able to work? No bueno. On the MAC, it’s literally 5 seconds tops.

I’m actually typing this post from the iMac sitting on my kitchen counter. Again, aesthetics win. Having a decent sized monitor and pleasing to the eye machine right in the center of the home has allowed me to shift some work time away from the home office and into the home. That’s a good or bad thing, depending on who you ask 😉 – but we’ll leave that for another blog post.

I am getting to really love gestures on Mac’s oversized magic trackpad and after learning some keyboard shortcuts, I can navigate between apps pretty quickly. Still not like I can on the PC, but getting better. In fact, I’ll typically just remote to my Win 7 machine from the iMac or Macbook Air if I need to get some ‘real’ work done.

Honorable mention goes out to Linux (specifically Ubuntu) which I’ll throw on older and underpowered laptops occasionally. Linux has a really small resource footprint compared to Windows. If you’re looking to browse the web and check eMail, Linux is a great alternative. Oh and did I mention, IT’S FREE!