[ale] my company and linux

[Robert E Karaffa]

I have to chime in here.  I work at Emory U. in Atlanta.  I'm NOT an IT
guy...at least not professionally.  However, my job REQUIRES that I
support my operation 100%.  In other words, if I can't fix what's wrong in
my labs, we call the manufacturer.  This doesn't include the computers
that control our lab equipment.  If we can't fix the computers when they
crash, we're supposed to call IT.  However, our computers are ALL Macs.
Our IT folks, when confronted with a Mac problem, get nervous and seem to
stutter alot.  I wanted to connect one of our Macs to the network, so I
asked for an IP address (I already had the DNS server info, etc.).  They
(rightfully) wanted to set up the computer for me, so I invited them to
come to my lab.  When they saw it was a Macintosh, they said (and I quote)
"That's not supposed to be on our network."  I threw the guy out of my
lab.  Now we come to setting up a Linux box to web/ftp/AppleShareIP serve.
I put that thing together for $100, with a little help from you guys on
this list.  When I went to connect it to the network, I didn't ask for any
help this time because the IT guys said (quote) "we can't have any Linux
boxes on our network because they're easy to hack and they get hacked all
the time."  I asked "how many Linux boxes have you connected?"  "One."  It
was a Toshiba laptop and was, from the sound of it, set up rather poorly.
The poor guys in IT had no idea how to install Linux, set it up, or
anything else for that matter.  But you know what the real problem is?
It's IT management.  They don't want expert professionals on the staff
(cause they become a threat), so they hire guys who are new to IT and have
to have their hands held all the time.  When they get somebody good, they
can't keep them because they won't pay industry-standard wages for IT.
There are a couple of guys in IT at Emory that I really like to hang with,
because they're bright, humble, and not afraid to dig in to this stuff and
LEARN it.  The rest have "deer-in-headlights" mentality.  'nuff said.

-Bob K.



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