If you support an art department as part of your job, chances are the Adobe Creative Suite is all they really care about. The OS could go without updates, Office could go without security patches, and you could go on vacation without them noticing as long as Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat all worked properly. Which is why it’s so upsetting when a CS4 installation that’s worked for months suddenly gives this error instead:

Providing a consistent user experience across multiple machines is a common way for system administrators to minimize troubleshooting time and facilitate training. A new user begins work with a standardized environment, designed for their organization and familiar to those around them.

For a much-ballyhooed feature when Leopard premiered, iCal Server has had a checkered history, dangerously unstable for its first few minor updates and providing little more than database corruption, frustration, and an excuse to use the word “ballyhooed”. Now that things have calmed down, many companies are experimenting with the service to see if it’s ready for production.