I answered, but nobody asked - Wau Holland
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Posted by Bark at the moon // Fri, Nov 11, 2005 5:36 AM
Reading antoher threat were someone couldn't resist citing 'developers (repeat 3 times)' I was thinking about how I felt about Microsoft from a system administrator point of view.
Let me put it this way: for a developer (I'm a sysadmin and budding developer, so to speak) there is a lot of content to be found at Microsoft. For an admin, less so (or I have a hard time finding it). Apparently, Microsoft is focusing on customers and developers. The invisible middle man, the sysadmin is either less interesting or harder to target.
Now, this I conclude from day-to-day experience. Bottom line, as a sysadmin I find Linux much more attractive, as a developer (beta 1 version  ) I gravitate towards Microsoft.
Does Microsoft need to do more for sysadmins the way it does for developers? For now I feel like it's 'developers, developers, developers and oh, let's net forget that sysadmin over there in the corner'.
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Yggdrasil
Get me out of this air-conditioned nightmare.
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Strange. As an IT enngineer and administrator for several years, I felt nothing but joy at the level of support and information I got for working with MS products - NT4, Win2k, Exchange 5.5, IIS 5 and Office 2k/XP were my primary duties. We had a TechNet subscription, support from Microsoft engineers, and lots of newsgroup information too.
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The support is fine, great even, no problem there. Maybe it's the semi-technical side, the icing on the cake, if you will. Take Channel9, with the videos and podcasts. Ever since I ran into it, I felt like programming and my opinion of Microsoft was upped times ten. It went from 'if I must' to 'bring it on'. Maybe it's time for Channel10 geared towards admins. The odd Technet Radio doesn't do it. I've listened to them at leat five times each, I need new content, I need videos 
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Yggdrasil
Get me out of this air-conditioned nightmare.
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Yes, well, I have to agree that the sysadmin role isn't as glamorous as that of the developer. Sysadmins don't have all that flying-around-the-world, super-secret gadgets, managers with single-letter names and all the beautiful, beautiful wome...
Uhh, what? Sorry. I drifted off there for a second. What was I saying? Oh, right. I switched from sysadmin to developer, and I've never been happier. 
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Me too, man, me too
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I have been making the case here for a Channel9 aimed at sysadmins ever
since this site opened and each time I mention it someone posts "Oh
course its aimed at only developers, that's why it has a .msdn.com in
its address." Or something silly like that....
The sysadmin that is in the trenches that has to deal with what the
"Developers Developers Developers" make and create should have some
place like this. Some place where we can share stories about
upgrades, ask questions of the a team that supports a product.
For example, I'm starting the process of upgrading my exchange boxes to
Service Pack 2 and up the storage limit from 15 Gig to 30 or so now
that the limit on standard version has changed. Would be nice
that i wouldn't have to hang out at 20 different windows
support/exchange mailing lists and have a forum here for stuff like
that.
Bring on channel10
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I recognize the 20 lists and forums.
Basically the content is there but it seems that Microsoft is focusing on developers and customers and has no idea how to spice it up for the middle man.
Because that is what it is about: not content, not resources (they are there) but spicing it up, making it sexy, make you feel loved by Microsoft, not merely appreciated.
OK, end rant 
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Beer28
I contend Channel9 is a covert research project
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You say you gravitate towards linux as a sysadmin. This is nothing out
of the ordinary. Plain text config files and plenty of rich admin
manuals in the box when you buy a linux system certainly tends to make
admins feel like they are the target of promotion.
I tried to admin a windows server after not having used windows server for a couple years for a
customer a few months ago, only to have destroyed it by accident with a mishap due to
3rd party software that wasn't configured correctly. I only found out a
week or 2 ago that the customer had kept paying for the server in the
unusable incapacitated condition I had left it in months prior.
Administration is 1rst class on linux and the line between development
and administration is very blurred. On windows they are very seperate.
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