What happens when he's on vacation or sick and a server dies? What happens when the website has an issue and then *anything* else goes wrong?

Oh, that's easy:

• He gets called in from being on vacation or sick;
• he gets to work uncompensated time to fix the problem;
• if he fails to either respond to the call OR fails to fix the problem, he gets fired;
• if he succeeds in fixing the problem, he gets threatened with termination should something else fail while he's "unavailable".

In fact, I'd lay odds that's how the vacancy occurred.

It is more subtle than that. The problem is that the "freedom" being exercised in the current ecosystem is that of the Software Engineer: they have the freedom to write bad applications (or write good applications badly, which is different). The end result is that the end user no longer cares if you, the Software Engineer has unfettered market access to their device. They are tired of dealing with the garbage that the unfettered market is providing. They don't want freedom -- they want to do the things that these devices are supposed to enable, instead of being hung up on the devices themselves. For example, the difference between operating a camera and taking a picture.

Your reply also confuses me, as you seem to take a position against mine, then go on to use your own poor experiences with your non-restricted Android platform as an argument -- which to my mind, just reinforces my argument. If someone had been curating your app experience with the Android, it might not have been so bad.

Apple's App Store is a logical result of the chaos that's been exhibited on general purpose computing platforms for the last 20 years.

When end users experience crashes, blue screens, data corruptions, poor user interfaces, hung devices, and insufficient functionality, they are not "feeling their freedom". They are feeling the results of you exercising yours. And when their "local nerd" is asking them questions which leadingly suggest that they shouldn't have been doing what they've been doing, they feel angry.

End users want computing like they want toast. Put in their bread/data, push a button, and get their toast/video. The fact that this is very hard, and in some cases virtually impossible, does nothing to limit the end users' expectations. For years they have been told these computers will make their lives better and enable them in so many ways -- which they have, but they sure don't like the hidden costs that these ecosystems have dumped on them.

You know all those arguments that have been made? If you don't like it, you don't have to use it! That's all the end user is doing.

Sturgeon's Law explains that 90% of anything is crap. If curation -- in the form of App Stores or whatever -- can change those odds, even just a little bit, end users are going to move towards them in droves.

Software engineers have squandered their freedom, and end users are increasingly acting like they don't want to have any part of it any more.

(I wrote up a much longer article on the same theme.)

[...] except now you have to pay that same netadmin outrageous consulting wages 'cuz he's not on the payroll.

You know, that's exactly the argument I use with my customers. When something breaks, yes, you pay me more per hour than you'd pay someone you have onhand full time. However, I know for a fact you don't have enough work for a full-time body, therefore every hour I'm not here you pay me less than you'd pay someone you have onhand full time. Since (for these customers) there are hugely more of the latter than the former, I'm a better deal than the full-timer -- up to a certain point, when I can help you transition to a full-timer instead of using me.

And even better, if things break so hard you need two or three or more sets of hands to put things right, I can "scale up" faster and cheaper than looking for more full-timers.

When people say that open source lets people do more with less, they lose sight of the fact that it is the businesses doing the more. The fact it is with less IT/ICT -- that's business. Its no different -- and should be mourned no more -- than all those photocopiers putting typing pools surplus to requirements.

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.

Not only did I think Self, that assertion about running Windows98 on a 286 sounds incorrect, I was sure that Windows95 and higher required the 386 protected mode instruction set, which in and of itself is painful, but I actually wasted time googling Windows98 system requirements, where I found this page at microsoft, which reads in part:

A personal computer with a 486DX 66 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor (Pentium central processing unit recommended).

Oh my god I hate you. Perhaps almost as much as I hate myself... but that's a different problem.

I use a Linux router running nfsen on the internal interface. From there I can set filters that count flows, bytes, and packets in and out of the router. (I can also go back in later and look at who was doing what if the resulting graphs look funny.)

I don't expect the numbers that I get to match what my provider's say; I just expect that if they claim I am over, I will be able to confirm that (within certain loose percentages) and then figure out why I am over.

That's because they're big, clueless dinosaurs, who don't understand that Debian is the more complete, better maintained solution [blah blah blah blah]

No, they run it because the tools they run on linux demand a platform which can reasonably be depended on to be universally the same everywhere, and available with support contracts so that if something is wrong you stand a chance of getting it fixed beyond the usual dude, you have the source, fix it yourself that free software so enjoys.

Seriously -- these tools can cost so much that even a "real" Red Hat support license for the platform is noise. Just pay the man and be done with it.

Some of us have work to do.

I am astounded both that a three-page article is described as "lengthy", and that the first (and only comment displayed to me currently) starts out:

I must admit that I haven't RTFA.

I guess if it is longer than a tweet, it's too long.

Do you know why IT folks hate personal devices? It is because it isn't IT's. We cannot make rules over what you can or cannot do with your equipment. We can't tell you not to download spyware. We can't tell you not to let your teenage daughter install cute cursor packs. We can't make you buy decent (or any!) anti-virus or security software or force you to stay up-to-date with patches.

And what plusses are brought by personal equipment? Well, we are now on the hook to support your own weird applications, like some graphics package that was downloaded off a Russian server and is entirely in Korean(*). We are now on the hook for keeping your eight-year old second hand clone (built by your son's super intelligent friend) running(*). We have to get the company VPN solution working with your weird combination of hardware and software(*). We are now encouraged to install "field evaluation copies" of corporate software(*) so you can do your job when your not-entirely-compatible open source package(*) causes hilarity.

And, when you ignore all this and corporate security is compromised and thousands of pieces of private data are "accidentally circulated more widely than initially intended", it is OUR ass on the line.(**) Frankly, if I'm the one getting canned when it doesn't work, it's MY F***ING network.

You bringing your equipment in may save you time, but it doesn't save the company any money.

(*) = actually happened to me.

(**) == happened to someone I know.

Irony is a user with a six-digit uid complaining that the site went to shit. Everyone knows that the site went to shit before uid 2000 was claimed.

Ranting until someone's ears fall off is the only real way to respond.

Yeah sure, like that doesn't take time to do properly either. "F--- off d00d U suck" is not a proper rant.

/me wonders if you got modded "insightful" due to your observation of the administrator's... uh... well.

Yeah, but if you can't focus your attention long enough to remember the capital of Nebraska is, what good are you going to be as an employee? The best indicator of future performance is past performance. It isn't fair, but it has been proven. Yes, people can and do change, but most of the time they don't. Every job involves some degree of doing stupid stuff that has no immediate point to you. If you can't play the game at school, it doesn't bode well for your employment history.

Seriously?

Cars today have more horsepower, more traction, better safety, and more braking power than cars 20-30 years ago.. Yet, our speed limits have decreased.. Why?

Because the monkey behind the wheel hasn't improved any, is now distracted by his cell phone, GPS, and on-board DVD players, and statistically is older than the monkey behind the wheel was 20-30 years ago.

Basically, the monkey is the critical part in the system, and it just isn't getting any better.

(Well except for you. You are a MAGNIFICENT driver, and we should all just stay the hell out of your way when you drive.)

I was hoping to see them install rack-mount computers. Sure, it isn't as fiddly, but when you have 40 of them to do all at once... you tend to get good at it.