Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!stanford.edu!unix!ctnews!unix386!jms From: jms@unix386.Convergent.COM (John Sully) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Subject: Re: UNIX vs. the world (again) (was: Compilation listing from Sun ...) Message-ID: <7817@unix386.Convergent.COM> Date: 17 Jun 91 19:00:09 GMT References: <1991Jun15.143436.5574@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <25791@lanl.gov> Organization: Unisys/Convergent, San Jose, CA Lines: 37 jlg@cochiti.lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes: >As for expense: it is becoming clear (from my experience anyway) >that UNIX is one of the most expensive systems to install and maintain >of any that I've seen. This is true of both mainframes and smaller >machines like workstations. I'm not aware of any other system on micros >which requires full-time employees - one per few-dozen machines or so - >to be "system administrators" like UNIX does. (I don't know what these >people do, and I don't want to know. They always seem to be overworked >and the only time I see _any_ effect of their activities is when they >accidentally break something and bring my workstation down.) If you >"administer" your own machine, it takes a higher percentage of your >time than any other micro system I've seen (or, so I understand from >friends of mine that do so). How is this an advantage? I have to disagree here. I run UNIX on my workstation an maintain it myself. After setting up news, mail, networking and RFS, it really takes very little of my time to maintain; really no more time than it take to make backups. I a prior job I maintained a small network (~12) of UNIX machines and found that it really took no more time than that necessary to do backups in normal circumstances. The problem arises when you have hardware or cable problems in a network. Then trouble shooting can take quite some time, but this is not the fault of the OS you are using as it is just a fact of life that hardware is going to break. When a system administrator is responsible for large numbers of machines and peripherals, there is almost always something wrong with one machine or another, and that is why they are overworked. -- John M. Sully Unisys Corporation 2700 N. First St. San Jose, CA 95150 Phone : (408) 435-3129 E-Mail: jms@unix386.convergent.com