[Sussex] What path does one take

[Ronan Chilvers]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 03:09:28PM +0100, Geoff Teale wrote:
> The windows server product range (and indeed their programming product
> range) is blighted by a series of big lies - they market their products
> (as do Apple) on the idea that the fundementals of computing are hard,
> but if you use their tools it's all easy.  In reality the opposite is
> true.  Nearly all of the complexity in computing is in the huge stack of
> software between the metal and the user.   They're obfusticating what's
> really happening (making the situation more, not less, confusing) and
> leading people to believe that the job is done when the wizard is
> finished.

Geoff - hope you don't mind if I join you:

<aaarrrghhhh!!!!>

Couldn't agree more!! Anyone who has administered windows servers will
know the frustrations of cryptic error logs which require phone calls to
MS to discover that error code CC5568GG778000-7772-2 means 'you haven't
plugged it in'.  One of the joys of Linux to me is not that it
never goes wrong - it does. But when it goes wrong it tells you what 
happened!!! There are swathes of logs in plain text waiting to help 
you pinpoint problems.

The secretive, your-computer-knows-best attitude is incredibly
frustrating in a workstation environment and untenable in a server
environment. I want to know exactly what my servers are doing all the
time and I don't want a piece of software doing what it thinks is best
without my knowledge and approval. Neither do I want a huge GUI
infrastructure eating up CPU cycles that could be better spent on the
services the machine is offering.

It seems to me that its all about locking users into thinking you're
doing something clever, when you're not really and consequently making
them believe they can't do without you. Put together a nice support
contract and licensing scheme on top of it and you're laughing!!!!  As
you say, Apple is just as bad, if not worse. Administering a small
OSX network has proven to be as frustrating in many ways as working with
windows servers. A spinning multi-coloured disc doesn't tell me what the
problem is, it just &*^^£^ me off!!!!!

</aaarrrghhhh!!!!>

Crikey... must have been a raw nerve!! Enough...

Cheers
-- 
Ronan
e: ronan at thelittledot.com
t: 01903 739 997

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