Crossover or Strait-Through? Back to back switches.

When I was studying for my CCNA, I remember learning that:

Switch to Switch = Crossover Cable
Switch to Router = Strait Thru

The company I work at now manufactures switches, but only strait thru works on switch to switch. I was speaking with a co-worker who said that "newer" switches only use straitthru when back to back.

This seems to defy the whole concept of crossover cables in the first place.. Could anyone shed some light on this for me?

Your CCNA understanding is correct, however to make life 'easier' for users many modern switches and NICs include an 'auto-crossover' feature so that if the wrong cable is inserted the port will automatically change mode so that the connection will work. This is great in theory, however I've found that not all devices impement it well, and in some cases will give degraded performance when in auto-crossover mode compared to when the 'correct' cable is used

Thanks for the response, I really appreciate it.

That really cleared things up