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From: bobp@syl.nj.nec.com (Bob Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld!
Date: 24 Jan 1995 20:26:32 GMT
Organization: NEC OSTC
Lines: 64
Message-ID: <3g3npo$ep8@newsserver.nj.nec.com>
References: <950116203411@lambada> <1995Jan18.214037.6088@cs.cornell.edu> <3fk4hi$iu8@solaris.cc.vt.edu> <3fm805$ae7@nkosi.well.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: syl.nj.nec.com
In article <3fm805$ae7@nkosi.well.com>, entropy@virek.mednet.net (Lawrence Foard) writes:
|> In article <3fk4hi$iu8@solaris.cc.vt.edu>,
|> matthew c. mead <mmead@goof.com> wrote:
|>
|> >If you'd ever been in industry, you would know the need for
|> >product support.
|>
|> I totally agree, I couldn't live without the superior product support
|> available for Linux. I can actually get coherent answers to questions
|> without going through 20 levels of voice mail and listening to "all
|> our operators are busy" for hours on end...
|>
|> >Can you call Linus and say, "My serial port isn't working
|> >right. What do I do?" No.
|>
|> But I can post on the newsgroup and get an answer.
Tale of support woe deleted to save space.
|> >Mission-critical applications need to have a supported OS. And for
|> >industry, on the net, donated help is not an option.
|>
|> I'd rather post than spending all day on the phone. Infact I'd rather
|> fix the problem my self (of course thats not an option with most
|> commercial software).
|> --
Sorry for wasting bandwidth, but I think Lawrence represents a sizable portion
of the postings that miss the excellent point that Matthew is making.
TRUE. One can post questions to the Internet. MAYBE, one receives an answer.
In fact, one often receives several answers, many of which are partially
or completely incorrect, and these answers converge to correctness within
several days (usually). :^) :^) :^) :^) :^)
TRUE. Some support sucks.
HOWEVER, if your business and livelihood depends on the damn computers working
all the time, every time, then you PAY for that level of support, and you PAY
DEARLY, and you are GRATEFUL to do it. If you really need the machine,
you cannot afford to wait three or four days for the Net to get its collective
act together to produce the correct answer to your question. If you really
are working in a business, you are probably spending your time ON THE BUSINESS.
UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE LINUX SUPPORT BUSINESS, YOU MAKE NO MONEY TWEAKING LINUX.
I love working on cars, for example, but when I'm working 12 hour days at work,
even I take the car to a garage to have it worked on -- my time and effort are
better expended on other things. And if I need that car FIXED NOW, the odds are
that I won't take a day off from work to do it, but that I'll drop it off at
the garage to have it done.
I love the OS, and I find it fun to dink around with the kernel or with some X
apps, but, then, I do it as a hobby. If I had my next paycheck
riding on Linux working correctly every time, all the time,
I think my views might change.
As for the tale of support woe, there are good support outfits ($$$$$) and there is
(typically) the vendor's hotline support. :^) :^) :^) At the risk of being
presumptuous, I think I know which one Lawrence used (not to pick on Lawrence).
--
Bob Phillips NEC Systems Laboratory VOX:(609)-734-6125
bobp@syl.nj.nec.com 4 Independence Way FAX:(609)-734-6002
Princeton, NJ 08540