New book -The Unix Guide to Defenestration
Jul 30th, 17:55 UTC
Available now from winface.com and
on ebay this book
represents something new and different in Unix advocacy and data center
management advice.
This book is probably the first serious attempt at answering the most fundamental question affecting
Unix/Linux users: why
do most people seem to prefer an expensive and largely disfunctional desktop, and even server, environment
to one that works cheaply and effectively?
The answer is that most organizations get poor systems support because the incentives given systems people
favor this type of continuous low level failure.
Most systems projects fail, and most day to day service delivery falls below expectations, because
promotions and new opportunities come from budget and control growth and you don't, as an IT manager, grow your
budget or span of control by delivering cheap, effective, services -doing that would actually decrease
your visibility, budget, and promotability in the company. Instead you adopt Windows throughout the
enterprise knowing that it provides a rich source of growth in staffing and budget without much risk
that your qualifications or ability will be questioned as a result of the frustrations this produces for
your users.
Unix itself is not the answer to this - but the mindset embedded in the technology is. So if you're
a systems manager, or work for one, who sees the pursuit of personal success through professional failure
as both parasitic and dishonest this book tells you what do about it.
The basic idea is to create a bottom up revolution that will eventually align corporate and personal goals
for the data center and those working in it - creating a symbiotic relationship with the user
community that reflects the data center's natural role as a profit center instead of a cost sink.
Most of the text deals with the "how" of this process. In so doing it provides
dozens of detailed cost comparisons, mini case studies, and related analyses all of which show
Unix at about one third the long term cost of Wintel and many of which illustrate important
insights into the nature and appropriate management of the data center.
If you are a Unix user, sysadmin, or DBA
then this book is your opportunity to understand the actions and motivations of the people whose positions
enable them to make and enforce bad systems decisions - and to influence the opinions and attitudes of
user management to get those decisions changed.
(Submitted by Rudy de haas of Winface Books)
| 
