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.

Comments

No way!

[PopeOptimusPrime]

What kind of Gentoo nerd would I be if I called tech support?

Cool, but

[Coocha]

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.

"Sir, could you please hold?"

[theurge14]

"I apologize sir, our system is compiling. Thanks for holding."

/obligatory... and ha ha, really I'm a Gentoo user

Re:"Sir, could you please hold?"

[eclectro]

Or it would be - "Your call is important to us, please hold. Approximate compile time is 24 hours."

Two weeks free support?

[paulwallen]

The compilation takes two weeks on machine? By the time I finish it, the support is over. No good

No such thing as free beer

[timeToy]

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

Re:Developer

[genux_jcohen]

Yes one of GenUX's goals is to higher Gentoo Developers. Most (all but 1) of the Technical Support Staff is a registered Gentoo Dev.

Re:OSS piracy

[genux_jcohen]

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.

Very Cool

[Comatose51]

That's really cool but I've always found the Gentoo community to be extremely supportive. That's one of my reasons for using Gentoo. I've learned so much from using Gentoo and just getting help from the community. Before Gentoo, compiling the kernel scared me but the Gentoo Handbook was excellent. When I screwed up because I forgot to compile my NIC drivers, I was able to get help from the forums on how to to boot with the LiveCD and start from where I left off. I've had another user with a similar problem as me on how to use Kerberos with AD. After he found the solution, he messaged me to offer to lead me through it.

Unbelivable community unity.

Great!

[clrscr]

Up to now I had to run down to Wendy's in-between shift changes to get to talk to a Linux developer!

Re:OSS piracy

[delire]

GenUX has even funded paying for Bugs in Gentoo..

That's not very nice!

test

[Apreche]

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.

Interesting quote...

[temojen]

...one of the most popular Linux distributions... ...Historically, Gentoo Linux has been one of the most stable and popular Linux distributions for power Linux users...

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)

Re:Developer

[stevey]

I'd love to see you "higher" Gentoo developers. The world needs more tall people ...

Shameless Self Promotion?

[Xibby]

Anonymous Coward writes to tell us that GenUX with an e-mail address of hparker@gen-ux.com?

Re:Customer Support...Beta!

[s.d.]

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...

Re:Developer

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

So that's why the Portage system has so many winking smiley faces.. ;-)

Re:Gentoo Question

[dpilot]

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