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Linux Support Services Shoot-out and Analysis
securitas writes: "ZDNet has posted a huge article comparing and analyzing 12 Linux support services. It's 19 pages long plus tables! Happy reading!" Useful stuff, since a lot of companies want to make sure they've got someone to call if things go wrong.
The company I work for does a small amount of work with Linux. As such I am supposed to support it. The training a group of us got was basically - here is Linux, play with it - oh and if a customer has any problems get them to reinstall it. Thye probably know what thye are doing anyway so they won't call you.
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
I think third party support services for Linux will be hampered by the variation of the various distros out there. Even strong distribution providers like RedHat will have trouble supporting non-pure RH installs. For instance, I always recompile a kernel from source at kernel.org, so that way I have a clean source tree to patch against if I want to apply patches. At that point, I no longer have a pure RedHat system, and RH might balk at supporting a system that I didn't use their kernels, their XFree86 RPMS, their package manager for everything, etc.
Otherwise, it will turn into a mess of finger pointing and unanswerable questions.
User: So I downloaded the latest ISC DHCP tarball and compiled it, and when I try and start DHCP, it fails with something about Netlink.
Tech: Netlink is compiled into our install and update kernels, what is the exact error message?
User: Um, yeah, well, I wanted to try the new USB2.0 stuff, so I downloaded kernel 2.4.17-ac23 and compiled it from source.
Tech: Ah, please hold.(Goes away, gets a coffee, reads Slashdot)
10 minutes later
Tech: Sir, still there? The first thing to do is reinstall our kernel RPM package, rerun LILO, and reboot, and then call us back.
User: %^$#@#*!!!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Just looking over the the table of response times -- for some of these companies, they seem to be missing the big CLUE.
Yes, if something goes wrong at a company they will need support.. in fact that is the only way they would actually use linux as their workstation/network/etc -- but support should probably be replaced with "immediate support." If a network goes down at a Fortune 500 Company JoeBlowDrinksSoda Inc., they arnt going to take the chance of missing productivity for 2,3, even days (as some of the response times are.
For the companies that have immediate response to linux issues --> now these are what we need. Maybe they are more expensive, but if the figurative "bomb" hits your network and you have deadlines, missing a deadline is going to cost more in money and in respect for your company than having to shell out a few extra clams...
I work for a large multinational tech company, and there has been considerable resistance to Linux because of the support issue. If we install an RS/6000 with AIX, IBM will support the hardware and software issues. Same with Sun hardware and Solaris. But the management is not sure who we would go to if we built some Linux servers and we needed some critical patches. Worse still, if we uncovered a bug in the OS, who would fix it for us, and how long would it take.
This is a start. There are companies out there who will support Linux for corporate accounts. The fact that a fairly mainstream website is posting this sort of information is an aid in getting the PHBs to believe that Linux is supported and ready for the corporate environment.
All we need now, is a fork of Linux that is specifically designed to run on enterprise-class servers and scales to be able to handle the amount of memory and resources that these servers have.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
Useful stuff, since a lot of companies want to make sure they've got someone to call if things go wrong.
Useful stuff, since a lot of companies want to make sure they've got someone to sue if things go wrong.
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
Go read the license agreements for software you buy. They disclaim any and all responsibility if things go bad. When you buy a piece of commercial software, e.g. MS Office, you get no warranty that it will even work as advertised. It can delete all files on your hard drive, email they out to anyone, cease to function, whatever. You can't sue anybody.
Tough.
There is no documented case of anyone ever winning a lawsuit because commercial software sucked.
I have never run into something that Google, linuxdoc.org, or time on IRC wasn't able to fix. MS may have the "knowledge base." (A horrid tangled nest of pages loosly grouped by, as near as I can tell, md5 hashes), but Linux has a dedicated, knowledgable, sometimes prickly, and definately motley following of people who have it in their best interest to see this operating system thrive. This means that, by and large, they're more willing to help.
Andrew