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Free Gentoo Technical Support
Anonymous Coward writes to tell us that GenUX is offering free technical support for anyone using Gentoo Linux. I spoke briefly with one of their support staff and he assured me that it would be completely free Gentoo tech support for approximately 2 weeks to help them 'work out the kinks' of their new support system. GenUX is offering this support through both web-based chat and the traditional phone call. I certainly hope this catches on.
What kind of Gentoo nerd would I be if I called tech support?
Their documentation is already pretty good; between that and the forums, I don't see how useful live support would be; Gentoo has always seemed like the hobbyists' distro to me (disclaimer: I run it, and know people who use it in production environments). It just seems to me that if support is important to a person/firm, they'll pony up the $50/$100/$whatever for a license that offers support as well.
May the threads progress competently.
"I apologize sir, our system is compiling. Thanks for holding."
/obligatory... and ha ha, really I'm a Gentoo user
The press release says you will be able to get support "from a Gentoo developer". Is this accurate? Will you actually get to talk to a developer? Most places have you talk to a tech support person not the actual developers.
Bradley Holt
The compilation takes two weeks on machine? By the time I finish it, the support is over. No good
Form the press release: "During the initial release of this program, GenUX will be in a testing phase, and will be offering free support during this time"
Support is free for few weeks, then you have to paid the traditionally high support costs
http://www.gen-ux.com/catalog
What OSS Piracy did GenUX commit? Talk to any Gentoo Dev that works with us and you will see all of our code except the closed source (gpl free) compile farm has been released one way or another back to the community. GenUX has even funded paying for Bugs in Gentoo for almost 8 months.
Unbelivable community unity.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Up to now I had to run down to Wendy's in-between shift changes to get to talk to a Linux developer!
...in a corp IT environment "answered within hours, sometimes minutes" doesn't cut it. If you wanted to deploy Gentoo in any serious company setting you need to know that there are people you can call 24-7 who know how to fix whatever's not working.
I've never used Gentoo before (fedora man myself) but for it to be taken seriously for hosting critical apps this type of service is required.
You and I both know any competent sysadmin worth their salt will know how to diagnose and fix problems but PHB's want to be able to phone a vendor and vent down the phone, it's like a comfort blanket to them.
I am NaN
That's not very nice!
I just tried it out, because I've got some burning gentoo questions that nobody on the forums can answer.
First off, their web chat interface was crazy broken. It just reloaded a thousand times a second.
Their phone support was actually really good. I was surprised that it wasn't slashdotted. I didn't have to wait at all. The sad part is that calling them was about the equivalent of calling myself on the phone. They did the same google search that I did and found the same stuff I did. This is really only good for people who don't have a geeky friend who knows as much as I do. For now it's free call them with everything you've got. But it wont be worth paying for because they are no better able to answer the burning ultra hard questions than you or I.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Wait... what?... Popular and stable???
Either they've confused Gentoo with Debian, or they're talking up their prospectus to sell shares...
(I choose Gentoo because of it's flexibility)
Anonymous Coward writes to tell us that GenUX with an e-mail address of hparker@gen-ux.com?
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
I'm slightly curious about the original poster's assertion that "I certainly hope this catches on." What does (s)he hope catches on; that distro companies offer free service while beta-ing their service? Seems an odd thing to wish for, since it's a one-time offer that's hardly going to set the world alight.
While one of the other responders to you is correct, and the email address from the submittor is a gen-ux.com email addr, I think the "I certainly hope this catches on," comment in the post comes from the editor. /. tends to quote a submittor, and then non quoted text is from the editor, in this case, ScuttleMonkey. The posting looks like a GenUX person submitted a story saying, "we got this thing," and from the rest of the post, it looks like ScuttleMonkey called them up, checked it out, and posted his feelings on the topic, with no real commentary by the submittor in the posting at all. Anyway, that's how it read to me...
If you really wanted an answer, I'd be tempted to give one. But then if you really wanted an answer, you could have just started at www.gentoo.org. So instead I'll assume this is an imitation-question, and give you an imitation-answer, as to who USEs it:
USE=" acpi -bonobo bootsplash -eds emul-linux-x86 -esd exif -gnome -gtkhtml -guile -ipv6 java -kde lm_sensors nptl ppds threads
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.