[rescue] Sun memo regarding Java

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Dave McGuire wrote:

>    I've been remotely managing UNIX systems for years, and so have you.
> I've never run SMC.  Kerberized telnet & rsh (or even SSH if your
> network is small enough) and a good text editor are your friends.  And
> for really big networks, rdist is your friend too.

Yes, -you- know that, and -I- know that.  But Sun's pushing for new
admins to use SMC instead of the command-line tools.  I've tried using
SMC all of -once- just so that I didn't have to learn a silly command
change when I was in a time crunch.

My point isn't that we're all being forced to use SMC, but that
newcomers are being told "that's the way to do it" in the same vein as
"smit is how you do xyz on AIX".  However, unlike smit, SMC blows dog.
This, combined with the horrid Solaris installer and the slow
application installers makes it look like Sun, the father of Java (both
the language and the movement) can't write good Java code to save their
lives.

It's really bad for their image.  Yes, true Unix admins will use text
editors and command-lines until time_t rolls over, but this sort of crap
really eats away at the shop with several PCs and one or two important
Unix boxes maintained by a consultant[0].  Ever tried walking a suit
through vi over the phone?  It's not fun.  You'd want them to use the
point-and-drool app when you can't be there (if, for no other reason
than to lessen the impact of their ignorance).  What's $suit's reaction
going to be to a $500k server that runs like an 8088 when you try to
load SMC?


[0] And unless central Texas is somehow anomalous, there are a -lot- of
    those sorts of shops.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke  *)  "It's not about who's right and who's wrong...
Thorndale, TX      (*   it's about who works for the government and who
                   *)   doesn't."                        --Dave McGuire