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A sad, slightly unreal IT story

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Misc

Ihad to spend 9 hours in Miami, waiting for a connecting flight. 9 hours wasn’t quite long enough to go out and about, but was long enough to get bored to death.

So, I decided that I would pay $7.95 for a “day pass” for the Wifi connection. The WiFi connection at the Miami airport is managed by people who don’t seem to know enough about computers to manage a home gaming LAN, let alone use Microsoft Server software for a real-life application (and, surprise surprise, nothing works).

What happened while I was trying to get my connection is simply unreal. It’s a story that is just hard to believe.

Full Story.

A sad, basically biased rant

Did the guy get shafted after buying a WiFi Day Pass - Yes.

Should the Pay-For WiFi Management Team and Support team take the rap - Yes.

Should we turn the whole story into some Anti-Microsoft rant - No.

Why is it when any little thing goes wrong, and Microsoft is involved, all the Mac/Linux Fanboy's pull out their soapbox and microphone and go into their Microsoft is the big bad wolf rant.

First off, lets get real. The business world is Dog-Eat-Dog, if Microsoft had a fraction of the problems all these fanboy rants imagined they did, big business would drop them like a hot rock.

Second, as a system architect, I deal with every OS on the planet. Any OS (yes, lets say that again - ANY OS) can either suck wind or work flawlessly - it all depends on what equipment it's running on and who set it up and manages it. Poor admins can screw up any OS.

When a drunk driver wraps a BMW around a lamp pole do we blame BMW, the Lamp Pole, the Booze Manufacture, or does the blame lie on the Driver - the moron that doesn't understand drinking and driving don't mix?

So your Pay-For WiFi connection sucked - how you blame Microsoft for that problem is beyond all logic.

Fanboy?

Should the Pay-For WiFi Management Team and Support team take the rap - Yes.

If the management team used the wrong equipment in the first place, as well as using the wrong admin types, then most definitely yes.

Should we turn the whole story into some Anti-Microsoft rant - No.

Again, back to using the right equipment for the right job. MS products have a proven track record of not being good.

Which ties in with:

When a drunk driver wraps a BMW around a lamp pole do we blame BMW, the Lamp Pole, the Booze Manufacture, or does the blame lie on the Driver - the moron that doesn't understand drinking and driving don't mix?

Bad analogy. BMW's are quality cars. MS is not quality software. Although, the part about the moron not understanding drinking and driving would be a problem. This part would be the sysadmin.

As you point out, any OS can work flawlessly if properly admin'ed, but that assumes that you're working with quality in the first place.

I have stopped working with MS since Windows 95 due to their ever changing internals, does not like to play with anyone else (let alone play nicely), bad documentation, and having to continually maintain a system that should only require minimal maintenance once it's installed and setup.

MS products have not measured up in that respect for me for a long time.

Also:

First off, lets get real. The business world is Dog-Eat-Dog, if Microsoft had a fraction of the problems all these fanboy rants imagined they did, big business would drop them like a hot rock.

What part of "Illegal Monopoly" and "Illegal business practices" that MS has been found guilty of did you forget? Not to mention the $billions (yes, billions with a 'b') that businesses have had to pay due to problems with MS products.

Businesses take a long time to change infrastructure due to expenses. Since MS was seen as the only option for a long time due to these practices, you're projecting the same fanboy attitude about MS products that you accuse Linux fanboys project about Linux.

So, let's get real. Are you promoting MS with this rant just because it's perceived to be the latest and greatest since sliced bread due to marketing hype? Or, as you imply by being a systems architect, you always promote the best tool for the job?

----
Ken
Slackin' since 1993
Registered Linux user #296561

Nothing like an expert opinion

alisonken1 wrote:

I have stopped working with MS since Windows 95 due to their ever changing internals, does not like to play with anyone else (let alone play nicely), bad documentation, and having to continually maintain a system that should only require minimal maintenance once it's installed and setup.

So you form your opinions based on your vast Microsoft experience gathered 10+ years ago?

vonskippy obviously didn't read properly

vonskippy's comment below shows his lack of proper reading skills.

First off, the mention of 'Safari' for his webbrowser should have twigged him that the author was running Mac OSX, not Linux.

Second, the final recommendation from the author was for Unix (which he also noted concerned other flavors of Unix besides Linux).

Sounds like vonskippy appears to be an MS fanboy rather than a real Systems Architect (note I emphasize SYSTEMS).

----
Ken
Slackin' since 1993
Registered Linux user #296561

99% windows only experience

Well some of us use Macs and Linux and when we network with them or connect them to other devices, they just work without any technical know how. Linux can be harder to set up, but when set up it doesn't fall apart, unlike Windows. This comment is probably from an IT shop with years of experience with Windows and knows next to nothing about the UNIXes. If this is your experience than Windows will probably "work" provided you constantly maintain and fiddle with it. Well I tried networking Windows - a supported version with DSL - I followed all the directions exactly - and it didn't work. Same with my mom. Now enter the Mac and Linux. I plug it in reboot my computer and it works. The set up was only a couple minutes and it worked fine the first time. Another difference of course was this was cable Internet. 99% of the problems in software are caused by Microsoft. People that spend all their time learning how to use Windows are probably going to be able to get reasonable performance out of it. What they don't realize that if they knew only 1% of what they knew about Windows about a Mac and Linux they would be 10x as productive on UNIX based systems like OS X and Linux.

Mac, Linux experience

How much experience do You have with Mac OS X 10.4, Ubuntu 6.06, Fedora Core 5, and Suse 10.1? Most people that say they have as many problems with Macs and Linux as Windows are comparing an ancient version of the Mac or Linux to the latest version of Windows.

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