from the thread about *nix zealotry:

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 04:49:03PM -0500, Daniel Taylor wrote:
> I guess exchange combines these functions and is way cool and integrated
> so people like it who haven't had access to the functionality for 15
> years already.

this reminds me of something that occured to me at the TCLUG meeting, and I
think should be aired out. (even tho the flames may get a bit warm again).

at the meeting, the estimable Mr. Ulrich (who is a fine and generous fellow
and generally Has a Clue, even if I don't always agree with his conclusions)
made a comment to the effect that "if the end user belives they need
something, then they need it". To which I half-jokingly made the comment
that "as an administrator, my job is to make my job easier, end users be
damned".

I should like to qualify my comments, lest I be thought a lazy,
unprofessional weenie, and have all other Linux users dragged down with me. ;)

Us administrators do have an obligtion to make the end-users more
productive. This benefits us, since the usual way to make users more
productive, is to make their tools more reliable and usable; when tools are
reliable, users don't bug you as often because something is broken, and you
can go do more productive things. ;)

This is why I say "my job is to make my job easier". :)

the thought that "the end user is always right" is emblematic of a
salesperson mindset. the salesperson is always looking for ways to sell
something; so they try to appeal to the end user in the simplest and most
readily-understandable way possible.

the administrators who have to deal with the stuff that the salespersons sold
the end-users, know that end-users often *aren't right* because they don't
have enough experience to know what's good, what's bad, and what else is
available. (on the other hand, they know their job better than the
administrator does, so they have a better grasp of what problems they need
to solve).

There are also problems with the way geeks/admins (if I may lump the two
together for a moment) communicate, versus the way salespeople communicate.

Salesdroid says to the end-user "here is a solution for this specific
problem". -- salesperson is speaking the user's language (i.e. giving them a
simple solution to a percieved problem, and not requiring them to think
about it).

Geek/admin says to the end-user "here's some tools that you can put together
in lots of cool ways to solve lots of problems". -- geek is speaking geek's
language (i.e. giving them many solutions to many problems, but requiring
them to think about it and learn).

one could substitute "Windows admin" and "UNIX admin" for "Salesdroid" and
"Geek/admin" respectively,  and I think the analogy would generally hold
true.

at this point, I should probably state a solution; rather than just griping
about a problem. However, since I don't have one, maybe someone else out
there *will* have some good suggestions that we can listen to. :)

Carl Sodersrtom.
-- 
Systems Administrator
Real-Time Enterprises
www.real-time.com