In a message dated: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 18:54:48 EST
"Ray Bowles" said:
>I'm really just frustrated that we all talk about helping people and
>selling Linux to managers but when it comes down to crunch time lot
>of people are snobs all of a sudden. I've had 3 Admin friends
>genuinely interested in Linux helped them install it at home and they
>liked it. I told them to join the UG and with in a week they left and
>said screw Linux. What does that tell you?
Ray,
I'm not sure what you're referring to here, but day in and day out I
see messages go by on this list containing both questions and answers.
I've found immeasurable help on this list over the years.
I won't dispute that occasionally there is are snide remarks and
condescending references to "RTFM". However, consider that many requests
for help:
A) are so incredibly vague, it's almost impossible for anyone
to provide concrete answers
B) reference hardware many people on this list don't have
or don't know anything about
C) have answers which have been answered countless times
and are contained in FAQs, man pages, or other on-line documents
Also consider that this list is as Derek pointed out, completely made
up of volunteers. We are not a technical support line, and therefore do not
guarantee answers of any kind, never mind corret ones. What constitutes
"crunch time" or a crisis for any given member on this list is nothing more
than another e-mail message in many people's inbox. We will help out where we
can, but we can't guarantee anything, and if this list does come through with
an answer, it's entirely probable that it's too late by the time it does.
I'm all for the furthering of Linux in the enterprise, and I'm all for
the education of others with respect to Linux. However, a linux
advocate makes a qualified sysadmin not. In other words, no matter how much
you love it, and no matter how much you wish to see it succeed, if you aren't
an experienced sysadmin, it's probably not in *your* best interests to be
promoting it at work where you very likely will have to support it.
However, that being said, this is precisely the type of scenario which
leads to the justification of Professional Development Training. Those
of us who are experienced sysadmins were all once inexperienced sysadmins.
We became experienced by getting our companies to provide training for us.
If you seriosly feel that you want to become a professional sysadmin and that
your current environment is not conducive to that, then I encourage you to
look around for an environment where you can learn and hone your skills.
Most of us have been using some variant of Unix for 10+ years, and most,
if not all, cut our teeth in large companies with large Unix shops.
There are plenty of them out there hiring right now (Sun, Compaq,
Nortel Networks, Fidelity, etc.), so if this is what
you feel you want to do, look around.
>>Ray, you sound frustrated
>Yes I am and I thank you for your invitation. I was very interested in the
>XML lecture and unfortunately missed it, after waiting so long. I've played
>in bands at Martha's at least 2 dozen times and I know my way around pretty
>well I seriously doubt I missed you. Perhaps everyone was enjoying food and
>drink and I was a bit impatient, but I personally have a family and other
>responsibilities so 7:00pm means 7:00 pm to me. What if I was coming down
>from Laconia? Do I want to be out till all hours of the night? probably not.
Well, actually, the e-mail that went out specifically said:
> Next *TUESDAY*, on January *23rd*, 2001, Mark Komarinski of VA
> Linux Systems will be presenting a talk on SGML/XML.
> The meeting will begin at precisely somewhere around the
> vicinity of 19:00, or whenever we get our act together.
[...snip...]
>I did walk into the restaurant at 7:15 and saw a group of about 15 at a
>table not recognizing them I went back to the lobby, then outside then
>upstairs then back to the little lobby, then gave up on waiting.
Many of us did in fact meet for dinner around 18:00. For future reference,
we always try to meet in the back corner near the large copper kettles.
The meetings are always on the second floor in the function room. Take the
elevator to the second floor and walk 5 feet straight ahead.
I hope to see you next time.
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