Open Source Training/Teaching as Advocacy?

dsavitsk asks: "I am a part owner and I.T. manager of a small company. I spend most of my time writing in-house software in Python and VB, and administering the various systems we use. (Our current setup is a Win2k Server, a few win2k clients, a FreeBSD gateway, and a few other things.) I am also in law school, so my time is very short. In general, whenever I can, I will use an open source program over a closed one (hence, most of our software is now Python powered). One of the perks of my job is that I have an open budget and mandate to learn as much as I can about new technology we might use. (I've bought $1200.00 in O'Reilly books in the last year alone!) So, the question. I simply don't have time to learn everything I need to know, and to configure lots of open source projects that don't have a pile of books or decent documentation written about them. I found, in fact, that not knowing anything, it was much easier to set up a Windows domain than a Samba server. We also don't have the money to hire a full time sysadmin. What we would like is to hire a consultant for open source software who would not only come in to install and configure something, but who would also teach me the hows and whys so that I could then pickup where they left off. Clearly, we are not looking for free help, and would be happy to pay market rate for the work. In short, we are looking for people who would advocate for open source not just be producing it and consulting about it, but by administering it and teaching at the same time. So, where would I find such a someone?"

Comments

Give us some contact info for chrissake!

[Treeluvinhippy]

Your looking in the right place, give us some info about where and who to email the resumes. I'm sure your quest will be a short one.

Re:Give us some contact info for chrissake!

[dsavitsk]

Indeed. We are in Indianapolis, Indiana. I can be reached at dsavitsk[at]e-coli.net (not the company's domain) or dsavitsk[at]yahoo.com

You need to think about what you are doing

[duffbeer703]

You gave as an example setting up a Samba DC versus using Windows 2000 Server... that example should be telling launching redflags as you ask this question...

If you want to run a Windows domain -- use windows. While you *CAN* use samba, is it worth your time (which is in very limited supply if I read your post correctly) and your money to setup a custom, "free" solution to everything?

What do you do when Windows XP ServicePack 8 stops interacting with your Samba DC?? Do you stop studying for the bar, drop your management duties to figure out how to fix it? Do you have enough money lying around to pay an expert to fix it?

At work I try to stick with things that everyone is familiar with that also happen to work.

Use the best, simplest solution you can afford. If you want a Windows Domain, buy a server from Dell for $2000 with a W2k Server licence. You spend about 4 hours setting it up with resources available readiliy online.

If you go with a samba solution, you buy a server for $1200, and buy 16 hours of consulting time, while losing 8 hours of your time learning how to use it.

free doesn't always mean free.

Re:You need to think about what you are doing

[Blkdeath]

What do you do when Windows XP ServicePack 8 stops interacting with your Samba DC?? Do you stop studying for the bar, drop your management duties to figure out how to fix it? Do you have enough money lying around to pay an expert to fix it?

This is why IT managers manage the software/fixes installed on desktop machines. One should never apply a large OS update to their entire network without testing it in a controlled situation first. Thousands of people ran into problems with Win2k SP3, while many thousands of people prepared themselves for it by testing the SP in a test lab so they would know what the outcome would be.

Moreover, wouldn't these guys be apt to find a fix to the "XP Service Pack 8" breakage for you? Open source doesn't always mean "fix it yourself", you know.

Of particular interest (apologies for the redundancy);

"Because it doesn't have access to Microsoft's source code, the Samba team has been forced to develop a suite of testing and debugging tools that systematically interrogate Windows, looking for new features and checking that the old features haven't changed whenever Microsoft brings out a new version of Windows. It's likely that the Samba team now spends more time testing Microsoft's networking software than Microsoft itself."