Brilliant and very useful for FreeBSD, IMHO

[Terry Lambert]

Michael Josefsson wrote:
> On Tuesday, Apr 8, 2003, at 20:30 Europe/Stockholm, Daniela wrote:
> > Let the sysadmin tinker with the system, let the user use what the
> > sysadmin sets up, and everything in this world will be working.
> 
> Hear, hear! Well spoken. If we consider the system as a tool, then let
> someone set it up and let the users use it. Full stop. It's a militant
> mode but we do this everyday without complaining: The TV-set is
> premade, we seldom try to make it do anything else than receive picture
> and sound, the car has its four wheels because they are very good at
> doing their job while there etc.

Too militant.  This is like saying you should need a sysadmin
for your TV in order to set the SAP, Brightness, Contrast, and
other software settings on the TV.  It's not like people are
tinkering inside their computer hardware, either.  You need to
think in terms of a strict division of labor between hardware
and software, but software setting should be tinkerable.


> If any (idiot) can/will tinker with a system the result is often a
> mish-mash. Decide what the system shall do, make it do that and be done
> with it.

"Desktop Themes" result in a "mish-mash": it's impossible for
a support person on the other end of the phone to tell people
where/what to click by visual description, in order to help
them resolve problems.  You aren't addressing that "mish-mash",
and I don't see the moral difference between changing the
behaviour of the system with a "Theme", vs. doing it some other
way: both screw the ability to support the system.

BTW: The intent here is to get systems that do not require
expensive system administrators in order to initially function,
nor to maintain their function.


> > If every idiot can set up a server, what do sysadmins get paid for?

Something other than system administration.

I think this is the part that most people [sysadmins] object to...

-- Terry