You can't plug that thing in there, young man! Ooh fancy

BYOD nostalgia for the lonely WFH generation

Photo © 2024 Gavin Allanwood | https://unsplash.com/fr/@fp4

“My library doesn’t work.”

Yes, I know, I sympathise. It’s tragic how many are being closed down by cash-strapped local councils.

“No, the library. The thingy you’ve just shown us how to use. The software resource code add-on whatsit?”

Please mind your language. There are Gen Zedders present.

“Well, my library doesn't work. Is it because I’m running my apps in beta?”

Yes, I am afraid so. To enjoy the full feature set, you need the full program. Why are you running a beta? Even the trial version lets you use the libraries.

Emboldened by my reckless invitation to allow this software dev trainee to continue speaking, he recounts a long and convoluted tale of workplace woe. His employer had issued him with a superduper Apple M3 Max MacBook; then the liquid engineers on IT support had told him he’d have to run a Windows virtual machine in order to remain on the network; then he discovered that the Windows version of the app he was supposed to be learning won’t run on ARM chips; then someone told him to try a recent beta of the app because they’d heard it could be installed OK, etc etc blah blah on and on.

Do you really need to know all this? Too late. He told it to me and now I’ve told you.

Such a dysfunction between the IT people approving purchasing decisions and the IT people who have to support the kit is on the rise again. I am told it is the result of contradictory loggerheads between the now-waning WFH (Work From Home) culture and the reactionary Back To Work Place movement (BTWP – an acronym which I hear is suitably pronounced “butt-whip”.)

Me, I blame their parents. Both WFH and BTWP got screwed up in their infancy years ago by their chaotically irresponsible progenitor, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD, pronounced “bye-odd”).

Remember BYOD? Well, it’s BYODded off into the sunset. It was the Next Big Thing, just before the next Next Big Thing that came after that and it followed hot on the heels of the Previous Big Thing.

BYOD was big and it was a thing. But the party is over.