March 10, 2003
Raise foot, take aim...
It never ceases to amaze me the way some sysadmins will shoot at their own feet. The latest gem has one sysadmin wanting to find a way to detect use of Outlook on the network. This so it can be yanked it off their machines and replaced with with a unix text mail program. Yeah, that's going to be popular.
So instead of doing the sysadmin job and handling the various holes and risks via software updates and server configurations it's better to antagonize the users?
So let's see where this goes, the users can't send mail from their Windows applications. Using mail in Windows isn't just about firing up a mail program. (Wait until our bumbling sysadmin discovers the joys of MAPI). Those addressbooks can be used from all sorts of different places. From handy tools like Pocket PCs, Palm PDAs and even word processors for mail merges. Can't do that with a hideous little text program though... At least not without jumping through some needlessly complicated flaming hoops. Let's just forget about using desktop synchronization software! You laptop users? You can just go without mail unless you're using expensive and constantly connected links. No more composing mail offline in your hotel room, on the subway or on the go!
How long before the users gang up and start complaining to management about this arrogance? How long before management realizes who pays the bills? It's pretty likely the sysadmin will get fired long before the revenue generating personnel.
Here's a tip, do the diligence and configure the servers to help ward off the problems. Being a sysadmin is often a thankless job. It just doesn't make any sense to be arrogant about it. Users don't often appreciate their sysadmins for all the good work that's done. But they sure as hell will work against the sysadmins when myopic arrogance gets in the way of user work realities.
After all, the users have the real jobs, without them there'd be no need for sysadmins. Wake up and smell the hierarchy.
