So, I queued up a bunch of missions from Uplink Internal Services, and was working my way through them, when, during a 'Sabotage files' mission, I decided I could drop to the terminal and execute a cd usr; delete; cd sys; delete; cd log; delete; shutdown string of commands to easily perform the task (put me in front of a real computer in meatspace and I'm a true CLI junkie!)
One could see this as using a sledgehammer to swat a fly, however, and in truth, I later picked up a mission to copy some files from the same file server I totally eradicated, forcing me* to abandon the mission and drop down in Uplink ranking just one or two missions after I gained the level of 'Confident'. Nice blow to my flow, early on in the game!
The beauty of the way Introversion have designed the game means that you *CAN* solve missions in a number of different ways, and the systems react to the changing environment much like they would in real life (they remember that they were eradicated, and you can even store Gateway software backups on their free space!)
...but all in all, it's wise not to meddle, lest ye bear the consquences later.
Happy Hacking.
~
* Technically, I didn't have to actually click the !ABANDON! button, I could have left the mission sitting there in an uncompleted state of Schrödinger flux, but my OCD would get the better of me in the end.
