LOL now he's denying patches are even useful. *nix admins always think they're so smart when it comes to security, when in reality they have little practical experience in dealing with actual threats. You need "development" if not "test" systems to check patch compatibility before applying it to your "production" systems. If you had any experience in facing actual threats you might know some of this, but instead you're obviously just counting on being hidden or an undesirable target, a very poor assumption to make in today's world.
That must be you. You didn't even know about a network mapping tool that, while useful to admins, is also a major tool used in attempted network intrusions. Any comprehensive up to date book on the subject mentions it. The DoD mentions it in its security training materials.
Basic fact: You know SQUAT about network security if you've never heard of it even after all the hints I gave you.
You lost all credibility on this subject long ago.
How useful is a sendmail patch on a windows exchange server? its about as useful as a kernel patch which addresses a kernel module or feature which is not on your system
You need "development" if not "test" systems to check patch compatibility before applying it to your "production" systems.
Funny I have not seen anything out of him that indicates he does not believe in a test and dev environment. But if you think stating the obvious (and putting it into quotes to boot) will impress anyone here your seriously deluded. If you want to act like you're anything but a PHB or an admin want to be you should have listed UAT, QA, Staging, and Integration, for mc applications with a healthy development life cycle.