Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Single user vs. shared (was Re: Killer Micros and vectorized code)
Message-ID: <1990Mar20.174931.2202@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <51771@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <100598@convex.convex.com> <52661@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <1990Mar18.023523.4034@ultra.com> <52817@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <2165@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 90 17:49:31 GMT

In article <2165@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes:
>  The problem with sharing a computer is that someone gets to be
>administrator. And that means making decisions about software and o/s
>versions which will impact users...

Yes, it's ever so much nicer to force every user to be a system administrator.
That way you get to see any particular mistake made over and over again,
instead of just once, which keeps life from getting dull.  It's particularly
exciting when networks are involved, which means that one person's mistake
can foul up everyone else, or when security is involved, which means
that one person's mistake can lose you a lot of money and work.

I really don't understand this persistent myth that several dozen amateur
system administrators are better than one professional.  If *only* the
user himself is affected, it doesn't make much difference, but that's
almost never the case in reality.

>... On of the nicest things about a system
>of your own, even is small, is that backups happen when you want,
>upgrades happen when you want (and more importantly don't happen when
>you don't want)...

No, sorry, these things don't happen when you want.  They happen when
you have time -- which is usually long after you really want -- or when
external constraints force you into it -- which is usually just when you
don't want to be bothered.  For example, few people run backups half as
often as a centrally-administered system run by professionals does.
A good many of them live to regret it.
-- 
MSDOS, abbrev:  Maybe SomeDay |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
an Operating System.          | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu