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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rochester!ur-tut!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave
From: dave@micropen (David F. Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Complexity in microcomputers
Message-ID: <165@micropen>
Date: Thu, 19-Mar-87 13:44:22 EST
Article-I.D.: micropen.165
Posted: Thu Mar 19 13:44:22 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Mar-87 04:59:15 EST
Organization: Micropen Direct Writing Systems, Pittsford, NY
Lines: 38
Keywords: system administration MSDOS microcomputers

I have been reading a lot about the *new* ADOS for IBM PCs
and I have several good questions.  My perspective is as
a system administrator on two UNIX systems that happen to
be IBM PC AT's (Microport).  Here's my beef.

It used to be that microcomputers were pretty toylike.  Back
in my CP/M days the biggest thing about system admin was making
sure that your lastest and greatest BDOS hacks were bootable
by the machine.  MS-DOS similarly is simple.  Maybe a backup
or two every few months.  Done with your machine--kill the power
and turn it off.  Simple.

My management of these two UNIX boxes, which have several developers
doing coding (including myself), is as difficult as the two VAX
750s I used to manage in my last job.  UUCP, Usenet, mod.sources,
cron and log file overseeing, file system preening, nasty motd's
for users to clean up their directories, etc, etc.  There are people
(who read the net a lot I'm told) that do system admin for a living.
This is a very much sideline for me--and it shows.  

My point is that the executive who now kills his PC when he's done
will have an entirely different beast when these 386/UNIX/XENIX/ADOS
boxes arrive.  Communication (24 hours a day) will be necessary--
commonplace.  Best download rates, etc.  But who is going to manage
this cacophony of machines?  I find it hard to believe that Mr.
corporate-America-middle-manager is going to learn the guts of uucp,
or how to apply a patch to netnews.  By the amount of trouble I've had
trying to get people to use their d&$m passwords here, I find it hard
to believe that computer discipline will be immediate.  

Any solutions or do you all think I've found a non-problem?


-- 
David F. Carlson, Micropen, Inc.
...!{seismo}!rochester!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave

"The faster I go, the behinder I get." --Lewis Carroll