The Ubuntu Experiment

[Chris Jones]

> 	None of that happens here at this large University. The users just beat 
> on their machines, day after day, no preventive maintenance on the part 
> of IT. And they keep going. And sometimes something stops. They call the 
> HelpDesk, we do a couple things, and about 90% of all calls to us get 
> fixed on first contact.
> 	Automatic reformats, at any schedule, would absolutely _not_ fly here 
> at all. There would be heads served up on plates for that. As another 
> data point, I have not heard of any place that has a regularly scheduled 
> reformat/reinstall scheme in place. IMHO, it sounds like a band-aid plan 
> to cover up a bigger issue no one has bothered to try & solve.
> 	As for your University reinstalling once a week? I find that hard to 
> believe. I'm going to have to through down a BS card on that. If you can 
> prove this to me by pointing me to the ITS policy stating this, please do.

I think it is more common than you think. It also happens here at this 
uni as well... Cannot direct you to anything that proves it, but I'm 
pretty sure it happens. And not just for windows - The machines dual 
boot to SUSE and they reimage that as well from time to time.

Chris