From the dumbed-down SP2 interface, click on the "Advanced settings" link on the lower left part of the window, and it will show the old-style config panel.

Real IT types should be sick when seeing an OS like that, especially considering the flurry of stable predecessors it has....

When I first played with solaris (had never seen anything else than dos/windows and early macos) I could not believe the time people wasted with the instability of the desktop OSes of the time.

Now I run OSX and Linux.....

Once again, as something of a 'real IT type' (at least that's what the customers pay for) I haven't run up against giant problems with any of the OS's I support.

Each takes a certain amount of time to understand the underlying thought process that went into the design, and they're definitely different thought processes, but once you do that it's just not that painful.

The toughest problems I encounter happen when somebody tries to skimp on a piece of hardware or software and gets something completely inadequate for their needs. Things like wireless access points and backup systems are prime candidates for this, as are attempts to take off the shelf software like Access or FileMaker and try to produce a working business system without planning for the development effort involved.

That, plus a general unwillingness to recognize that software must always drive the hardware requirements, and never vice versa.

Well put. Junk hardware is the source of most problems I run into.

Of course, every once in while you read things like this, and wonder about what the underlying thought process was at the time. :eek:

49.7 days...

Ah, government. They could screw up any OS. Then you add in lowest-bidder government contractors...