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Winemaker Drinks To Linux

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the i'll-drink-to-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Australian winemaker De Bortoli is a firm believer in Linux. CIO Bill Robertson says he's 'bemused by any notion that Linux is poorly supported in the enterprise since he has never had any trouble finding support for De Bortoli's open-source systems', and says that those IT managers having trouble simply 'aren't looking hard enough.' There are also some other good case studies here -- telecommuncations provider TransACT, online hotel booking service Wotif, engineering contractor Coates and investment and funds management group Aviva."

6 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. "Looking hard enough" for support by ReformedExCon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't doubt the ability of Linux to be everything a company needs to run their software. After all, it is based on Unix, which was designed for ease of use, and has been standardized upon across many industries. Linux is absolutely a useful operating system, a great, working cog in the networks across the world.

    But support is one of those things that ought not be something that ought to be sought "hard". Support should be easily purchased from service companies dedicated to the task. Support should be available from any number of certified engineers who have made it a priority to understand the system. Support should not be intricately tied to Google (though it certainly has its place there), but rather it should be supported by professionals.

    And really, in all but the most remote locations, it is. Linux isn't difficult to put into place because support is difficult to find. On the contrary, it is easy to find companies willing to provide support. The drawback is that typically these services come at a price higher than similar service contracts with Microsoft support professionals.

    Then again, you get what you pay for.

    --
    Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
    1. Re:"Looking hard enough" for support by kevin_conaway · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Looking hard enough isn't an answer.

      Sometimes, people NEED to be able to have support if something is broken. Waiting for a reply on a mailing list or hoping you don't piss off an op on IRC just isn't good enough.

      This reason is why Redhat is so successful with their paid support.

    2. Re:"Looking hard enough" for support by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Their job is to purchase services from the first contractor that walks up to their desk with something to sell. You're suggesting that they should pick up a phone and call someone who offers services - like Red Hat or IBM. I mean, who the FUCK can find IBM? Their website is some three letter acronym that nobody can remember. And the website acronym is the same three letters as the company name, so forget about putting it into a bookmark. If you can remember the three letter acronym that stands for 'IBM' then you could have just typed the fucking thing.

      They don't do that. Windows service providers magically appear in front of their desk. And all an IT manager has to do that that point is buy something. What could be easier than that? Linux obviously can't compete with that kind of boot-licking service.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  2. Fluf by Flamesplash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a crappy case study amounting to little more information than "Company A uses Linux well for what they do." If this is a real case study it should go into details not just "hey it works."

    If this is supposedly marketing then show me a case study for a company using X and I can find one for a company using it's competition Y.

    --
    "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
  3. word! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "and says that those IT managers having trouble simply 'aren't looking hard enough.'"

    word!
    Yes, it's a pain in the ass to go on IRC or users groups or read, post and interact with people, learning sucks,.. and it's hard too.
    just someone, make it work for me.

  4. The support issue by dlefavor · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As long as there are people willing to pay for support, there will be people willing to do it for money.

    The thing about support of Open Source Software is that quality support demands above all else a stable product. No, not one that doesn't crash very often, one that doesn't change very often. Every change a programmer makes to a program introduces a risk of retraining for the support staff. The last thing a customer wants to hear from Technical Support is "your programmers changed the source and that's why it doesn't work any more.".

    That's why it's important for enterprises to keep programmers away from the programs unless the company is prepared to support itself. This is not a problem for proprietary software because the programmers don't have the source code. For open source, though, the temptation to "change that routine so it works better in our environment" is pretty overwhelming and absolutely toxic to the support scenario.