On 18 Mar 00, at 7:46, Jerry L Kreps wrote:
Maybe it is not so much inertia as fear. Where I work the IT folks are afraid their NCE's and MSCE's will be useless if a switch is made to Linux, so they argue for MS everytime Linux is mentioned. They are wrong, of course. Their hardware skills will still be needed. Their knowledge of networking is not dependent on the OS, unless they could only change network parameters by clicking buttons on MS or Novell apps. Also, it appears that their MSCE certification will expire very soon now, anyway, as M$ is demanding that all MSCE's recertify in W2K before Jan 1st. If our dept doesn't move to W2K (can you call it an 'upgrade'?) their W2K certification is useless.
Luckily, I work in a university environment, where there is lots of *nix, and (ugh!) Open VMS. I've gotten rid of our NT web server and replaced it with Linux and am setting up several departmental Samba print servers. My boss was originally somewhat hesistant about this, being that all our workstations are Win 9x/NT (also, 2 Netware servers), and also due to the perceived lack of people to administer Linux. Some of the hesistancy is probably also due to the fact that even though I could happily retire there, I'm in Cisco school and I won't be there forever, strictly due to the money factor. But when I told her that if I left, I knew a bunch of folx that would jump at the chance to have a job doing Linux admin work, and explained to her that the high quality of theoretical knowledge that Linux folx tend to have makes them able to better administer any type of network, she started to listen. Perhaps this had to do some with the fact that the money my department has spent to outsource problems I couldn't fix has shrunk from $5K yearly to less than $100, and this is all for printer repairs. Yup, that theoretical knowledge gained through using Linux definitely has a concrete financial reward for everyone involved.... Cheers, Dennis "Custard pies are a sort of esperanto: a universal language." --Noel Godin -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/