Currently, SEP researchers spend a considerable effort maintaining their computer environment. The SEP research group was shrinking, and even more importantly, not all of the students showed an interest in computers. SEP has only been partially successful in tapping outside help. Consequently, a few SEP students are burdened with maintaining the complex SEP computer environment. These system administrators often find the additional tasks detrimental to their research efforts.
We believe that SEP should drastically reduce the complexity of its computer system: we especially would decrease the number of supported platforms, since the amount of maintenance work increases sharply with the number of platforms.