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Winemaker Drinks To Linux
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."
Cue the wine jokes...
Does his wine run linux? Imagine a beowulf cluster of linux wine bottles.
Does he offer wine packages for many distributions?
Will his wine run Internet Explorer in Linux?
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Of course, wine makers support linux! Oh wait. wrong wine.
There are lives at stake here!
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.
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
"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.
Homer: Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine-making course and I forgot how to drive?
Marge: Homer, you were drunk!
Homer: And how!
I'm a big tall mofo.
Click here or here.
I would argue that they're not looking at all. Not only are they not looking, they're not taking sales calls from companies that do support and customize OSS apps. They're making an effort not to know.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Well, considering the support we have had from IBM Tivoli, I'd rather rely on OSS. We have been unable to take reliable backups for 4 months, and had a "critsit" ticket for 3 months. IBM couldn't care less, and couldn't be providing worse service if they tried.
For the money, just as easy to go OSS.
-WS
An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
It wasn't even a direct quote.
From TFA:
"In the early days we bought a support contract from HP, and they've provided us with gold-plated support all along," Robertson says. "All in all, five external organisations have provided support to De Bortoli's open-source software -- we've had no trouble finding help, and no trouble implementing on-site training."
It sounds like he is saying those that are having trouble aren't looking at all.
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.