[2200] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Low end users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU)
Thu Jan 30 16:54:32 1992
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 16:51:49 EST
From: drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU
To: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9201301345.AA18202@kauai.MCL.Unisys.COM> "perry@mcl.unisys.com"
From: perry@mcl.unisys.com (Dennis Perry)
[W]ith distributed systems there is a system manager
for each machine, but he is not classfied as a systems manager and therefoe
we don't have one and are not paying for one. This is true of workstations
as well. Each workstation owner is his own system manager.
Although, some workstation systems hire system managers.
No matter how you account for it, the traditional centralized computer
facility provides a much higher level of support for users than
current distributed systems (especially in academia), even when you
account for the system managment performed by users.
For instance, central facilities usually provide:
Locally written how-to documentation
Copies of paper manuals
Introductory documents for totally naive users
Consultants to help users solve problems
Reliable backup and retrieval
Most of these are eliminated or significantly reduced in distributed
systems, even those which hire full-time system managers.
Not that this is a bad change. I suspect that various changes have
made it possible to run computer systems with far less user support:
Users are *much* more computer literate than they were 30
years ago
Documentation can now be stored online at reasonable cost
Interactive use shortens the try-it-to-see-if-it-works cycle,
allowing someone to use the system efficiently
even with little prior knowledge
Interactive communication systems (both local and global) make
it easier to shout "Does anybody know what's wrong
here?"
Summarizing all this blather, I think that a major reason that
workstation systems are proliferating is that they provide an
effective way to deliver *low-support* computer power (compared to
centralized computer facilities). Yes, some of the reduced support is
illusory (the users are on salary, aren't they?), but much of it is
real.
Dale Worley Dept. of Math., MIT drw@math.mit.edu
--
It's as if all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare. -- Saturday Night Live
