Tell them what they're going to achieve from a business perspective by using the system correctly. They really won't care about what happens behind the wall.

When you go to eat a burger, do you really care about the way the meat processing is performed? Or the way the tomatoes are picked? You trust them to do it the right way, but you don't really want to know the gory details. What you want is to have a good burger, and they have to deliver. Same with IT.

Senior Management wants the ERP system to do stuff. You enable them. Show them how that happens on their terms, not yours.

I was actually doing it the hard way, which works OK. http://danielj.se/2011/05/02/change-back-google-search-in-linux-mint/ But then after an update, it reverts back to its original behaviour. If your method works OK after Mint pushes its updates down, I won't mind switching back.

Not the browser's home page, the way it points you to Mint's version of Google search when you type a search term in the search bar. Two different things. If it were only that, then I would agree with you. But I downloaded Chrome and it also hijacks the search from the omnibar. Yes, you could just go to google.com and search. But then, what's the point of searching from the browser bar? What's the point of having it at all?

Just read it. So if they don't collect revenue from Google they'll block it? Or Bing? Again, I wouldn't have a problem with this if it was unobstrusive. But, have you used their Google search? It's hideous. If they change it, I won't mind using it if it looks closer to what 'Google Default' looks like. Else, I'll just stay in Oneiric.

One reason: Mint's heavy handed tendency to replace the default Google search with a 'Mint-ized' version of Google search to draw revenue. I mean, I get it: it needs money. But if you're going to substitute something that works great (Google) with your own version of search to take eyeball money, give me something as good as or better than what I'm used to. Granted, there are instructions out there to change this by running a couple of scripts and commands. But it would revert after updates were pushed down to the system. I had to do it at least once a month. Disclaimer: I donated directly to Mint through PayPal, precisely because I changed the search engine knowing full well this is a way the get money. I would not mind paying a bit more and a bit regularly if they would keep their hands of my search.

Just because you and your department want a certain feature/service doesn't mean that you should have free reign in implementing and installing non-approved services in the hospital's infrastructure. You have to ask yourself why IT can't (or won't) provide this service to the community as a whole. More often than not it is a matter of money, time, risk, knowledge, business need and/or a combination of these and other factors. The IT department is there to deliver a bunch of services that ensures that the hospital's mission and objectives are achieved. Often, these objectives conflict with what individual users, or user groups, want. God, I wish my company would allow us to connect our devices (Androids, iPhones) directly into the Exchange server, allow us to have some sort of internal social media, wikis, etc. But we don't. And we don't because the company has chosen not to. Myopic? Yes. Justified? Absolutely. It is the company's business and assets they're protecting. So the short answer is yes. They're allowing you to play in their network? You need to give them access. What you need to do is go up to both IT and Hospital management and convince them that what you want to do is not only good for your group, but for the company as a whole. Hey, maybe you'll end up changing the way the company delivers services to your user community.

This is scary shite.