[KLUG Advocacy] Re: Microsoft, Best Buy and Wireless ...

[Mike Williams]

>Message: 1
>Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 14:44:13 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Rusty Yonkers <therustycook@yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: [KLUG Advocacy] Microsoft, Best Buy and Wireless ...
>To: advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org
>Reply-To: advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org
>
>I have said it before and I will say it again, most IT departments
>and network admin staff, and escpecially the Microsoft bigot types,
>have not a clue how to really manage a network!!!  Best Buy IT just
>shows once again the level of idiocy in our industry.  I am so glad
>that I initially learned on NetWare (2.12 days!!!) and also learned
>Unix early on from a Unix guru.  Oh, and a little bit of mainframe
>stuff.  That really helped shape my mindset to a more professional
>outlook.

I don't think this is an inherent problem with Microsoft, though.  Computer 
networks have become the "latest big thing" to do, both "for a living" and 
"for the company", but precious few really understand the amount of 
maintenance that a complicated system like a network requires.  I think the 
only reason this is more obvious in the MS world is that Windows was 
designed to be easy to use, and that applies to NT, 2000, and etc as well.  
A Netware, Linux, or mainframe network was difficult to setup and 
configure, so it required a pretty thorough understanding of what makes a 
network work.  By hiding much of the complexity of the network behind a GUI 
you make it much easier the installer to make bad decisions.  Making a car 
easy to drive does not remove the need to change the oil every 3000 miles.