IT Departments - How Are You Supporting Your OS Code?

ZMan asks: "A lot of IS groups are using Open Source tools (Linux, MySQL, PHP, etc...) to build cost effective and reliable IT infrastructures for their companies. Upper and executive management wants to know how these tools will be supported since their isn't one single commercial entity that does by default (ie. Microsoft). So, what does your IS group do? Do you hire staff with the expertise to do support in-house or out source all your support to a third party? Or something else?" You've got the source, why not find someone who can care for it, be it an employee, or contractor?

Comments

Too Many Choices to Waste Time 'Supporting'

[mchappee]

Our IT staff uses Linux-based solutions to handle everything from file servers to user workstations to huge Oracle database servers. Most of the solutions are "mundane", which is good, but others can be pretty tricky. Either way we very seldom have to spend time "supporting" them. The only thing they do is work. Work, work, work.

Another aspect of Open Source solutions is the number of choices. For example, look at Mail Transport Agents. If I'm having trouble with sendmail, I can use Postfix. If Postfix is not for me, I'll use exim. Whatever. Same thing with web servers. My point is that competition is alive and well in the OSS community. Competition means better docs, responsive authors, and a vibrant (if flammable) user community. That's where you'll find the best support, and it won't cost you $1.95 per minute.

In some instances a hack is necessary to get the job done. Case in point, I had to hack Gnumeric to make it print a sheet without bringing it into view. In essence, I made it a command-line utility for printing Gnumeric spreadsheets. Like a good little OSS supporter I submitted my changes to the list. They were very kind, helpful, and supportive. It didn't make it into the main tree, but that was my own fault. Even though they weren't interested in it themselves, they still took time to help. That was cool.

Damn, what a ramble.

Matthew

Microsoft `Support'

[Dunkirk]

Every time I hear somebody talking about getting `support' from Microsoft, I have to really wonder about how clueful they are. I'm a programmer / backup admin for a very large Fortune 500 company. I only recently moved into programming from doing the Unix and backup NT administration in the core data center group. I was good friends with all of the main NT support guys and all of the intranet developers (where we use all Windows-based stuff).

In all the years I've done development and administration, I've called them on a per-incident basis 4 times, and they've only been able to solve the problem twice. And I've NEVER heard people talking about getting support from Microsoft. In all the problems we have, with all the Microsoft products we use: Win2K, WinNT, Exchange, IIS, SQL Server, SMS, and all the attendent stuff, I've NEVER heard of anyone else even calling Microsoft.

Our attitude, in a company of over 30,000 employees is basically this: if it ain't workin', reinstall. And I think that's basically Microsoft's answer to most problems as well, based on the limited contact I've had with them.

Sure there's a guy that has an MSDN subscription, but he doesn't do front line work. The main dude is a young guy and he tries very hard, but he never called Microsoft while I was working in the core group, and he was VERY green around the gills. (And don't get me wrong. I know my way around; I was offered the team lead spot. And, I was offered the job he had before he came to work for us, though I never told him that.) We don't budget for it. Not only that, but I have had to almost beg my bosses for every call I've made to Microsoft.

What I'm trying to say is that this `big company' doesn't even have Microsoft support on the radar. What are people talking about when it comes to this? I know you can buy support packages, but we don't. We just allow ourselves to be extorted by Microsoft (yes, we took the bait on the latest `upgrade now or pay full price later' gimmick) and then take comfort in the fact they're a big company with `good support.' But after paying millions of dollars every year for licenses - despite being on the best Select schedule you can be on - we never take advantage of it.

I suspect most other companies, unless their *primary* business is software development or IT consulting - don't either, and IT workers who would like to see open source alternatives get a fair shake should try to do what they can to point out this discrepancy. Just because the CIO is reading this kind of nonsense in Information Week don't make it so.