On Tuesday, September 24, 2002, at 03:27 PM, Crispin Cowan wrote: > On the one hand, I agree that anecdotal evidence doesn't help make the > case for one vendor's support being better than anothers. In fact, > I've never heard of a vendor that you could not easily dredge up > horror stories about. > > On the other hand, I think there is something more here. The > point&click nature of Windows administration makes it much easier for > an incompenent person (no real understanding of what they are doing) > to *appear* competent. In contrast, UNIX (Linux, whatever) demands > that the admin know what they are doing to a fair degree before they > can get anywhere. I could give plenty of anecdotes about so-called Unix admins with cool sideburns and piercings who don't know how to do anything unless Webmin has a module for it (and even then they're dicey). Likewise I've worked with NT experts who know a LOT about what goes on under the hood and how to go beyond the point and click stuff. I first met Zot O'Connor when I hired him to secure and fix some NT servers at the company I worked for. He showed us some stuff we had never heard of and our MS certified NT admin dropped his jaw. One of my recent contracts was at a big Oracle shop. Some of the DBAs knew a lot less about Oracle and relational DBMSs than Microsoft's happy front-end to SQL Server knows; in that case I'll take the point-and-click over the clueless any day. Not to defend MS but some of their smiley-face interfaces at least protect the system from dopes. I know people with certifications who know their stuff. I know others who can't plug a mouse in. That tells me that certifications and credentials don't mean shit by themselves. Some really sharp people got certified simply because dumb big companies and government agencies REQUIRE such certifications, or they always give preference to people with certifications. Anyway I know we agree on this side point so I'll drop it. ;-) -- Greg Jorgensen PDXperts LLC, Portland, Oregon, USA
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