What I am really missing is a decent deployment tool for Mozilla products. I have to take care of approx. 80 PCs (mixed OS versions of Windows and Linux) in our company, most with Firefox and Thunderbird installations.
It's a pain to keep them up-to-date and in sync with the latest available version. Most users are unable (or not allowed) to update software, so I have to do.
Help spread Mozilla products in companies by providing deployment aids for the sysadmin.
I've been a veteran user of RISC OS since its early days and I've seen it entering the downward spiral due to a lot of wrong decisions, marketing mistakes and false business politics. I hope this time the right decision will be made.
Though I do not use the OS regular anymore, I'm still an active (and paying) supporter of it just because I don't want to see it vanish. RISC OS is a great OS and has a lot of potential. But it needs so much renovation; I hardly believe that a small company like RISC OS Ltd. can do this on its own.
So, to answer the question: Yes, it definitely should be made open source!
I am employed as a system administrator and programmer in a mid-sized
wholesale company (non-technical, only two guys - including me - in the IT
department). Information Technology has always been seen a "necessary
evil" there and so has been the job of the guys who have to take care of IT.
The company's philosophy is that IT needs to be there to get the business done,
but it isn't something that actively makes money. It's just something that
costs the company money.
In my time there (over 6 years now) I have never really received what you
might call "respect". Ok, I receive a more or less warm "Thanks" every now and
then for solving problems, but there has never been something like real respect
or admiration for my technical skills.
Instead, I am used to be the one who gets blamed whenever something "IT"
(read: everything that has some kind of electronics inside) doesn't work. And,
yes, I can confirm that it got worse over time.
Everybody seems to think that nowadays to be a system administrator is the
easiest job in the whole company. Obviously people get this impression, the
more they self get used to PCs, Home-LANs, etc. They think just because it is
easy to set up a Windows PC at home it is as easy to run a whole IT
infrastructure in a business environment. Earlier, when computers were more
'mystical', the tech-guy/administrator was some kind of wizard, someone who was
believed to have extraordinary skills, someone who was admired for his
competence. But this has changed nowadays.
Furthermore the management of most companies sees Information Technology
more than ever as an expense factor. I guess that only the technical oriented
companies see IT as a productive tool that actively helps them making money.
For all the others it remains the "necessary evil".
This sounds frustrating, and, indeed, it IS frustrating from time to time.
Especially as we all know, that it needs much more than a few clicks to solve
problems and we have spent a lot of effort to educate ourselves to be able to
solve those problems. But we also KNOW that we are competent and skillful. We
prove ourselves as we solve the weirdest problems, and we pay respect to
ourselves as we get them solved. Maybe this can compensate the lack of respect
from coworkers/the management to some degree.
I don't charge anything for family members and (really) close friends.
Otherwise it depends on what needs to be done and who's requesting help.
Businesses will typically have to pay EUR 40-60, while persons will be charged
with EUR 20-30.
Sometimes, if the problem/task is clear and I can estimate the total amount of
time it will consume, I stipulate a price for the task regardless of the time
it takes.
Although I personally use VIM with a handful of macros to drive my own todo list, I found the following tools to be really great todo managers (cross platform, console based):
Slashdot Mirror
That's what I was looking for. Thanks for the hint :-)
It's a pain to keep them up-to-date and in sync with the latest available version. Most users are unable (or not allowed) to update software, so I have to do.
Help spread Mozilla products in companies by providing deployment aids for the sysadmin.
Though I do not use the OS regular anymore, I'm still an active (and paying) supporter of it just because I don't want to see it vanish. RISC OS is a great OS and has a lot of potential. But it needs so much renovation; I hardly believe that a small company like RISC OS Ltd. can do this on its own.
So, to answer the question: Yes, it definitely should be made open source!
I am employed as a system administrator and programmer in a mid-sized wholesale company (non-technical, only two guys - including me - in the IT department). Information Technology has always been seen a "necessary evil" there and so has been the job of the guys who have to take care of IT. The company's philosophy is that IT needs to be there to get the business done, but it isn't something that actively makes money. It's just something that costs the company money.
In my time there (over 6 years now) I have never really received what you might call "respect". Ok, I receive a more or less warm "Thanks" every now and then for solving problems, but there has never been something like real respect or admiration for my technical skills.
Instead, I am used to be the one who gets blamed whenever something "IT" (read: everything that has some kind of electronics inside) doesn't work. And, yes, I can confirm that it got worse over time.
Everybody seems to think that nowadays to be a system administrator is the easiest job in the whole company. Obviously people get this impression, the more they self get used to PCs, Home-LANs, etc. They think just because it is easy to set up a Windows PC at home it is as easy to run a whole IT infrastructure in a business environment. Earlier, when computers were more 'mystical', the tech-guy/administrator was some kind of wizard, someone who was believed to have extraordinary skills, someone who was admired for his competence. But this has changed nowadays.
Furthermore the management of most companies sees Information Technology more than ever as an expense factor. I guess that only the technical oriented companies see IT as a productive tool that actively helps them making money. For all the others it remains the "necessary evil".
This sounds frustrating, and, indeed, it IS frustrating from time to time. Especially as we all know, that it needs much more than a few clicks to solve problems and we have spent a lot of effort to educate ourselves to be able to solve those problems. But we also KNOW that we are competent and skillful. We prove ourselves as we solve the weirdest problems, and we pay respect to ourselves as we get them solved. Maybe this can compensate the lack of respect from coworkers/the management to some degree.
I don't charge anything for family members and (really) close friends.
Otherwise it depends on what needs to be done and who's requesting help. Businesses will typically have to pay EUR 40-60, while persons will be charged with EUR 20-30.
Sometimes, if the problem/task is clear and I can estimate the total amount of time it will consume, I stipulate a price for the task regardless of the time it takes.
Although I personally use VIM with a handful of macros to drive my own todo list, I found the following tools to be really great todo managers (cross platform, console based):
Developer ToDo - http://swapoff.org/DevTodo
ToDo List Manager - http://www.rrbcurnow.freeuk.com/tdl/
HNB (which is also great for many other purposes) - http://hnb.sourceforge.net/