Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.unix.misc:10544 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:5155 comp.unix.bsd:13099 comp.windows.x.i386unix:5867 biz.sco.general:9405
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!its.csiro.au!dmssyd.syd.dms.CSIRO.AU!dmsperth.per.dms.CSIRO.AU!uniwa!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!speedway.net!not-for-mail
From: pats@speedway.net (Pat Spinler)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.bsd,comp.windows.x.i386unix,biz.sco.general
Subject: Re: SCO market share
Followup-To: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.bsd,comp.windows.x.i386unix,biz.sco.general
Date: 17 Dec 1993 08:20:01 -0700
Organization: Speedway Free Access -- Dial 10288-1-503-520-2222
Lines: 78
Message-ID: <2esin1$ega@access1.speedway.net>
References: <9312170856.aa01663@fags.stonewall.demon.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL9]
Nigel Whitfield (nigel@stonewall.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: In article <hastyCI38BF.1on@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes:
: >We no longer support that version; better yet we no longer support
: >that product. Or, how about 4 week turn around to just tell you
: >that they receive your problem statement and yes they have given it
: >a lot of thought and will in the future get back to you.
: I can achieve the level of support with which I am confident for the
: applications that we are using, and that support can be accessed by
: anyone in the office when they need it. They don't need to be
: programmers, or Unix gurus. They just need to do their job, with the
: computers helping out. That's a commercial reality. It doesn't allow
: me to risk thousands of pounds hoping that the goodwill (and I know
: it's considerable) of people on the net will come up with a fix.
(Many other comments about commercial vrs frewware support deleted)
During this discussion, no one seems to have mentioned the small but
growing availablity of support contracts from freeware OS's such as
Linux. I am aware of at least three organizations which offer to
provide this on a contract basis. I should note that I use Linux at
home, and have made several proposals to use it at work, with the
addition of such a support contract.
Furthermore, I must agree that many freeware products have fewer bugs
than many commerical products, and those which are there seem to be
fixed in a more timely fashion. As an example, look at any version of
sysVr4 vrs either of the main freeware OS's, Linux or Net/FreeBSD.
This being said, I fear that I must agree with Nigel that the
availablity of commerical support is most often a make or break
decision for a product. Most of the problems I have personally
encountered, or have helped people solve, were not the type that is
easily anemiable to solving by source perusal.
As an example, many problems I encounter are during the stages of
installing or performing esoteric configurations related to hardware.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I am most often not able to read
the source for someone's driver and discern how the hardware is
supposed to behave.
On the other hand, a commercial support organization is likely to have
people on staff intimately familiar with the code in question, or to
have enocountered the question before. Therefore, they are able to
produce the answer before me.
This is not to say that a post on the net will not garner the
attention of the code's authors, but I can't be certain of that. Nor
can I be certain that the author will have the time or resources to
address my questions.
This is perhaps the 'nub' of the issue. If I am paying someone to
support me, I have some assurance that my problem will be addressed,
however competently. If, on the other hand, no one has any obligation
to help me, I may be easily left with a unsoluble problem and no-where
to turn except the unemployment lines. This obligation counts for a
lot of 'cover your ass' in business. To be blunt, it means I have
someone else to blame.
Finally, it may be noted that for certain critical applications
(nuclear power, certain industrial, certain military, etc) it is
possible to obtain support contracts (for many $$$) that garuntee that
your problem will be solved in X period of time, with the provision of
massive damage payments if they are not. Such a contract simply is
not obtainable in the freeware world.
I hope that as the freeware support industry gains acceptance and
maturity, that this situation will change.
L8r,
-- Pat
--
"Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty"
--
Pat Spinler "Life ? Life is a crock.
pats@speedway.net,pspinler@mr.net You're born, you die, and you're
Work: 505/893-4655 Home: 505/294-5923 lonely a lot in between."