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Microsoft Windows just lets you crash more than one application at a time--not exactly what I'd call progress. Server-based backups remain perhaps the most dangerous applications we run. Black-box installation programs may be essential, but too many display the same faults that have plagued installation programs since day one.

Microsoft's desktop-centric attitude is the bane of a net admin's existence. Each OS "improvement" has made centralized application installation, upgrades and distribution more difficult. Yes, we have tools that didn't exist 20 years ago (NDS was a major boon), but they are Band-Aids for fundamental design flaws. The mainframe remains my gold standard for reliability and maintainability. It is infinitely harder to install multiple copies of an application or distribute it to half a dozen users on a LAN than to do so for thousands of users attached to a mainframe via terminals.

Today, Web-based technical support is the norm, but it varies widely in quality, and telephone helplines that were once free now cost.

Yes, the PC is a technological disaster--it's too unmanageable for the admin and too complex for the user. I hope Internet and server appliances, along with network apps, will put freedom of choice back in the end users' hands and give the IT staff the manageability it craves. Then IT will be able to put its energy where it belongs: helping employees use technology productively and effectively.

Diane Danielle is a networking consultant in Berkeley, Calif. She was a LAN manager at a major financial institution and a founding columnist of Network Computing. Send your comments on this column to her at ddanielle@compuserve.com.