System administrators are lazy.... upgrading computers... that's a lot of work.... yeah and it's what you are geting paid for
Yep, a conversation at my company.
Sorry to add to the general kicking your comments in this thread are getting, but my sysadmin spidey-sense was tingling...
Slapping a new version of an OS onto a machine isn't (usually...) hard work, especially on the Mac.
But installing a new OS, ensuring that users are at least as familiar and as productive with the new OS as the were the old,
and also having a plan in place for taking advantage of the new features of the upgrade is both hard and difficult work.
A bad sysadmin will install something new and shiny in the space of an hour or so, look smug and walk off saying "look, you've got version 10.9 now! You should be happy!".
A good sysadmin will have spent a month or two running a test system with the new OS. They should not assume they know everything about how a user works. They should be taking the time to understand what it is their users do and what effect system changes will have. They should be talking with their users to see what they'd like improving and also suggesting new ideas that might help. They should be performing compatibility testing, finding (indeed,
coding) work-arounds if necessary.
Sometimes during this process the conclusion that the change is not required may be reached. This is where the sysadmin needs to be brave. Personally, I won't
ever make a change unless I feel I've got an answer for everything the user might ask. So, for me, the best upgrades are ones the users never notice, but quietly make things better from a performance of admin-ease point of view. If I'm changing something the user's going to notice, I make sure they've been involved in the evaluation of the change and that they're going to be fully at home in the new system.
So, if I were suddenly to find myself in the role of
Blue Velvet's sysadmin, the first thing I'd have to do is learn how she does her job and what tools she uses. I'd need to spend a considerable amount of time finding out how those tools work (at the nuts 'n bolts level, not the creativeness bit!). And the last thing I'd do is welcome her to work next Monday congratulating myself on having install the latest version of OS X but need to explain away why I have no idea why her colours all suddenly look a bit 'off'.
... which, incidentally, is why so many professional Mac users tend to be their own administrators. If I knew enough about
Blue Velvet's job to be her sysadmin, the chances are I'd be doing something more akin to her job than being a sysadmin
