Unix horror stories

[Tom Buskey]

On 8/29/06, Randy Edwards <redwards at golgotha.net> wrote:
>
> > It's interesting that most of these horror stories are older.  I don't
> see
> > many that mention Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, (newer) Solaris,
> > etc. Are system less error prone? Are sysadmins and users making fewer
> > errors? Are people not sharing thier stories?
>
>    A great series of questions!  Here's a theory I'll float...
>
>    I think it's doubtful that admins are more trained (i.e. making fewer
> errors) than in years past.  Microsoft's dominance and the growth of *nix
> systems make that unlikely.


Answering my own question...

I bet admins are more likely to have been exposed to Unix today.

When those systems were out there (< '92ish) networks (and CD Roms) were
rare.  Most people grew up with DOS and didn't have multi user systems.
Multi user systems were expensive and propriatary: Novell, SCO, Vines, VMS,
Appleshare (well you could do appleshare mac to mac).

If you wanted Unix at home, you probably bought SCO Xenix, Interactive Unix
or a branded unix (Dell Unix.  Really) for $1000 or more.  A 486 system
would run you $3k.  Maybe you played with Minix or Coherent.  386BSD was
being descibed in Dr. Dobbs.  Linux was just starting and not used in the
workplace.  Your network was probably a 2400 baud modem.

Most offices had PCs were not networked and had a dot matrix printer at each
one.

"The internet" was something you used at college for email, FTP and maybe
telnet.

If you wanted information, you used the system manuals.  Maybe you had 'Unix
in a Nutshell' and "Unix Shell Programming".  You read Unix Review or PC
Magazine or InfoWorld.



>
>    Mix in a declining job market, admins being busier than ever -- and I'd
> argue not really appreciated the way they were in years past -- and there
> could definitely be a problem with this type of feedback.


Sysadmins have never been appreciated.  But now, every engineer can setup a
network at home with a web server with no load on it and "disk is cheap".
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