The last couple of days have been tense as two bitchy little developers have gone off and whined to my boss' boss that they need new hardware because they no longer have laptops.
Quick bit of history. About six months ago I asked for a Sunblade 100 with a PCI card. Instead, they gave me a Sunblade 1000! However, after the initial elation I realized that it was wasted on me and much too big (the damn thing has a spare parts tray *inside* of it). So, I gave it to my colleague who turned it into an Oracle server which is now in production. Shortly after that, I got a Sunblade 100 which I use every day. This was a somewhat ad hoc thing - our boss' boss ordered the hardware with leftover money and people on both our team and the development team got Sunblade 1000's. There were no requisition forms or anything - just come and get it. Just about every developer got one.
Back to story. For whatever reason, the previously mentioned pansies have decided that they want *our* hardware. What the? They *claim* that they need it to do their jobs. Let's see - you were using HP laptops with Windows before and suddenly you need a Solaris machine? Uh, yeah, whatever. Oh, and never mind that there were a few of these machines sitting on crates for about 3 months. Gee, I wonder who else got those.
Other questions remain. Why not just get order a PC and install Linux on it if you need a *nix environment? I heard another claim that they think our machines are faster. The 1000 yes, but the 100? Hell no. The PC's have 700 Mhz PIII's in them (I think), easily just as fast (and probably faster) than a Sparc II-e. The PCI card is a 500 MHz Celeron.
So, why would they want the 100? I have no idea. However, I would live if they took it away. I still have an unused SunRay thin client sitting on my desk I could use, or I could install Linux on the PC. The 1000 is another story. If they take away our database, we will throw an effing conniption fit. That will basically screw us until we can find a suitable replacement, as we'll have to rebuild the database, and on Linux instead of Solaris. We'll probably have to use something besides Oracle as well.
Strangely, our boss' boss is going along with this idea and we really have no idea why. It could be sour grapes over our complaints regarding one of her incompetent sys-admins whom she mysteriously defends. Fortunately, my boss has flat out said "no" to this whole ridiculous proposal, but she can be overruled. If that happens, I will be going to *her* boss, and let him know exactly what chicanery is going on.
At that point, our work environment will be utterly poisoned, at least for a while. I'd really like to head this off at the pass before it comes to that if I can. If I can't, I will show no mercy and there are two people I will recommend for immediate termination - not that my opinion matters. Nothing has even happened yet and we're totally worked up about it!
