Xref: utzoo comp.arch:12645 comp.misc:7524 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!attctc!linimon From: linimon@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Mark Linimon) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.misc Subject: Re: Politics and Architectures Summary: further thoughts on system administration Message-ID: <10415@attctc.Dallas.TX.US> Date: 30 Nov 89 20:18:32 GMT References: <1128@m3.mfci.UUCP> <1989Nov22.175128.24910@ico.isc.com> <3893@scolex.sco.COM> <39361@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <17305@netnews.upenn.edu> <1989Nov25.000120.18261@world.std.com> <1989Nov27.144016.23181@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <18794@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Reply-To: linimon@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Mark Linimon) Followup-To: comp.misc Distribution: na Organization: The Unix(R) Connection BBS, Dallas, Tx Lines: 30 In article <18794@watdragon.waterloo.edu> tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu (Tim Bray) writes: >I think the big reason [that MIS groups get such a bad rap] >is that they suffer from the same timesharing problems >that the big machines do. There are never enough of them to go around, so >the users end up waiting and pissed off. Simply put, there are very few >groups in the world that have the organizational and technical skills to >keep a variety of complex OSes and network facilities running, while >simultaneously dealing politely with the ignorant, all while seriously >overworked. It can be done, but it's hard. And it's rare than organizations understand that these things Need To Be Done and Take Time. So they buy a number of *nix workstations, that clearly don't need any time spent on maintenance or system administration :-), and give them to end-users who don't always understand some of the issues involved. Training? What's that? We bought the whole manual set... Well, I didn't mean for this to come out as a flame, but I think it's a relatively common occurrence. There is administration cost incurred on any style of computing; you can pay for it centrally or distributed, and up-front or in lost time when you find out no one ever understood how to do backups... It's just a matter of educating everyone, management and technical folks alike, and I don't have any generic answer. Note; this has strayed sufficiently far from architecture that I have directed followups to comp.misc. Mark Linimon linimon@attctc Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com