Fiber to a workstation is generally overkill (not to mention EXTREMELY costly).

So here are the advantages and disadvantages of fiber over copper:

+speed (the fastest fiber is faster than the fastest copper)
+low signal interference (e.g. things like fluorescent lamps will not cause interference in fiber, nor can the fiber easily be eavesdropped)
+long maximum length

-very high cost (both of the fiber itself and of the interface cards)
-fiber is very delicate -- it cannot be bent tightly or it will crack, making it unsuitable for most workstations
-incompatibility: there are several types of fiber, each of which would require an appropriate card in the computer; copper ethernet is built into every Mac.
-very high cost (the labor cost of having fiber installed is much higher)


So basically, I agree with the common practice of, if necessary for speed or distance, using fiber for network backbones (a small network may not even have one), and then using copper ethernet to each workstation.

tooki