I started my career in the tech field as an onsite tech for HP ( HP in the middle East, not US ). HP had business contracts with major companies and my morning shift was as the main tech at a large communication company taking care of all HP equipment (PCs, printers, Servers and the big HP-9000 machines). The Communication company also paid a lot of cash for the contract so if we could not fix a piece of hardware in 24 hours we replaced it and had it operation and live in that 24 hour period. Needless to say we never had a bad review from ANY of our corporate clients.
As for end users, we also gave them a 3 month onsite and 1 year offsite support plan. For all new HP PCs if the PC didnt work, we had a tech drop by to their house after 5pm and fix their problem. After 3 months they could bring the machine over to our support center and we would fix it for them by Monday provided we had parts available.
We were also given training in all new products, in fact a customer liked our support so much he negotiated a contract for us to fix the Apple machines, so we were all sent to Apple clases as well.
Now this was 1995-1996 when I worked there and since then from what I have heard, support quality has definitely dropped. Not just with HP but with almost every company. For example, when i started with @home as my ISP the techs were very knowledgeable, now they are complete script readers. I use Linux at home as well as Windows XP and when I had a problem with the cable modem ( hardware failed ) and I called up they wanted me to run winipcfg. I ran ipconfig to give the person the same info and he asked me are u using Winipcfg? I said I am using ipconfig but I can give u the same information from there. He said no you HAVE to run Winipcfg cause his scripts say Winipcfg. In the end I just asked for a level 2 tech who confirmed that my cable modem had a hardware problem and had one dropped off at my house the next day.
Who gives good support now?
I would have to say Dell, Apple and IBM. They dont assume that the end user is a complete computer illiterate and will ALWAYS forward you to a level 2 tech if they cannot solve the problem. All 3 have had my problem fixed in less than 24 hours and in these days where tech support is so pathetic, they are a welcome relief
Why are you calling him a moron ? Agreed, Older version have had problems but for over the past year I havent had ONE problem with an Nvidia card in my Linux machines and thats also because I buy quality hardware.
I know people who have bought the $99 GeForce2Mx special made by noname corp and that causes problems in Windows and Linux. My PNY GeForce3 and Hercules GeForce2Mx hasnt had a SINGLE problem, though my IOMagic TNT2 M64 before that locked up consistently..
If you really want to do a Linux from scratch type install, try Gentoo. You get a bootable ISO and you can build your entire system using their tools. Their portage system IMHO runs circles around apt-get and freebsd ports.
Gentoo is in freeze for 1.0 . Try it out. You wont be disappointed
The package system is amazing. I had apt-get like features, FreeBSD ports like features, its compiled for YOUR system. (there is a binary distro in the works) and most of all, the people in #gentoo arent the elitist bastards you find in #freebsd and #debian. You ask for help, you get help.
I also try to support the project in any way I can. I cant code. I dont have bandwidth to give. I donate the only way I can, which is to send money or if I have spare computer parts which can be used by the Gentoo team, I donate those as well. And I try to tell as many people as I can about Gentoo.
Talking about educational software from Microsoft have you seen the Office for students edition ?
From the license:
This is a personal learning license for qualified educational users only. (Example: In a household, only the students are eligible to use the software, however parents can use the software when assisting students.)
Wouldnt look good when the BSA drags out dad cause he used Word to write his report because his laptop battery drained out..
and that will be presented as evidence that the majority of Americans dont want Microsoft to be punished for any illegal activities that never took place..
Dont forget that when you get a computer with Windows nowadays, you dont even get a CD to install. Its either the OS+1000 unneeded applications or buy it seperately.
Lets say the machine dies and I want to use that Windows license that I have on another machine. Nope.. cant do it..
Running Linux at the very least saves you headaches of being in license compliance.
Just check/etc/services if you want to know what each port is for
I am switching to DSL as we speak. Still have my attbi up till end of the month and DSL is also active now so all a matter of couple days before I am completely switched over.
Either you didnt read the DRI docs or use a modern distro which supports OpenGL pretty well on more than a few cards or was just bad luck . i know had some headaches when I first started to setup dri (XF86 cvs)
OpenGL supported cards are:
Matrox G400,G450,G550
nVidia TNT and above
3dfx Voodoo3 and above (OpenGL w. Glide)
Radeon, Rage128
Except for the nVidia all the other cards are supported by XFree86 natively. nVidia has its own binary drivers (best supported by games).
A default install of Mandrake sets up DRI for you where you can play Quake3 w/o problem if you have a DRI supported card. I played Q3, Q2, Q1, Tribes2 (after the Matrox Multitexturing patch), Unreal Tournament on my G400 MAXX. NO problems
Instead of dragging our feet with RPM and all its drawbacks, why not just move distributions over to dpkg/apt/DEB management like Debian, or FreeBSD-style ports?
Have you checked out Gentoo lately ? Gentoo has freebsd style ports with dependency checking and fake installs etc;)
Why exactly is non-microsoft software so scary in a workplace? Cause it isnt Microsoft ? Jeezus are we back to the If you buy IBM you dont get fired days ?
What does an average person use at his/her workplace? Most of the companies I have worked at it was Office. And for most of the work required StarOffice, WordPerfect will work fine. At the past 4 companies I worked at there were maybe a total of 5 documents which used MS Office centric Macros. When you open an Excel document in StarOffice you do preserve the look'n'feel and all the formulae. With Word you keep the formatting and embedded pictures etc when you open it in WP or StarWriter. Agreed filters *could* improve more but its getting there.
The last company I worked at was a total Microsoft shop, with myself and a few ppl using Linux with Star Office 5.1. We were able to do all of our work w/o any incompatibilities. The whole myth that if you dont use Microsoft products can make your workplace miserable is total crap.
The reason Linux would be great for the schools is that more schools will get more benefits through money saved from licensing etc.
C'mon.. if they were never ever going to charge licensing fees again for these schools, and provide free software updates for ever, THEN I would believe they are trying to do something for the children.
I have a question for you: Lets say I make people on my street give me protection money r I threaten to beat the crap out of them, then donate 10% to a school, does that make me ok ?
Slashdot Mirror
rofl ..
.. but hadnt had my coffee yet
ya meant to type that
Obi Wan knew Leia was Luke's sister cause he said "Your insides serve you well" when Luke realised Leia was his sister.
dvNuLL
With Real I do not know since I dont use RealPlayer except on my Linux box. Come to think of it Quicktime is also run on my linux box.
Quicktime asks you to select the files you want quicktime to play when it is installed. Uncheck 2 boxes and Quicktime plays only Quicktime movies.
I started my career in the tech field as an onsite tech for HP ( HP in the middle East, not US ). HP had business contracts with major companies and my morning shift was as the main tech at a large communication company taking care of all HP equipment (PCs, printers, Servers and the big HP-9000 machines). The Communication company also paid a lot of cash for the contract so if we could not fix a piece of hardware in 24 hours we replaced it and had it operation and live in that 24 hour period. Needless to say we never had a bad review from ANY of our corporate clients.
As for end users, we also gave them a 3 month onsite and 1 year offsite support plan. For all new HP PCs if the PC didnt work, we had a tech drop by to their house after 5pm and fix their problem. After 3 months they could bring the machine over to our support center and we would fix it for them by Monday provided we had parts available.
We were also given training in all new products, in fact a customer liked our support so much he negotiated a contract for us to fix the Apple machines, so we were all sent to Apple clases as well.
Now this was 1995-1996 when I worked there and since then from what I have heard, support quality has definitely dropped. Not just with HP but with almost every company. For example, when i started with @home as my ISP the techs were very knowledgeable, now they are complete script readers. I use Linux at home as well as Windows XP and when I had a problem with the cable modem ( hardware failed ) and I called up they wanted me to run winipcfg. I ran ipconfig to give the person the same info and he asked me are u using Winipcfg? I said I am using ipconfig but I can give u the same information from there. He said no you HAVE to run Winipcfg cause his scripts say Winipcfg. In the end I just asked for a level 2 tech who confirmed that my cable modem had a hardware problem and had one dropped off at my house the next day.
Who gives good support now?
I would have to say Dell, Apple and IBM. They dont assume that the end user is a complete computer illiterate and will ALWAYS forward you to a level 2 tech if they cannot solve the problem. All 3 have had my problem fixed in less than 24 hours and in these days where tech support is so pathetic, they are a welcome relief
dvNuLL
Also dont forget that there is a lot of pleasure in teaching. IN R&D for a company you create products. In teaching you create an individual.
dvNuLL
Why are you calling him a moron ? Agreed, Older version have had problems but for over the past year I havent had ONE problem with an Nvidia card in my Linux machines and thats also because I buy quality hardware.
..
I know people who have bought the $99 GeForce2Mx special made by noname corp and that causes problems in Windows and Linux. My PNY GeForce3 and Hercules GeForce2Mx hasnt had a SINGLE problem, though my IOMagic TNT2 M64 before that locked up consistently
dvNuLL
I would like to see you do the make buildworld and make installworld in 5 minutes.
The installation described for Gentoo is ALL from source. This isnt binary packages. The Binary install for Gentoo is also about ~10 minutes or so.
dvNuLL
The next buzzword is thingamabob
dvNull
If you really want to do a Linux from scratch type install, try Gentoo. You get a bootable ISO and you can build your entire system using their tools. Their portage system IMHO runs circles around apt-get and freebsd ports.
Gentoo is in freeze for 1.0 . Try it out. You wont be disappointed
http://www.gentoo.org
dvNull
I am a Gentoo user since rc5
In simple terms : Gentoo rocks.
The package system is amazing. I had apt-get like features, FreeBSD ports like features, its compiled for YOUR system. (there is a binary distro in the works) and most of all, the people in #gentoo arent the elitist bastards you find in #freebsd and #debian. You ask for help, you get help.
I also try to support the project in any way I can. I cant code. I dont have bandwidth to give. I donate the only way I can, which is to send money or if I have spare computer parts which can be used by the Gentoo team, I donate those as well. And I try to tell as many people as I can about Gentoo.
dvNull
Talking about educational software from Microsoft have you seen the Office for students edition ?
..
From the license:
This is a personal learning license for qualified educational users only. (Example: In a household, only the students are eligible to use the software, however parents can use the software when assisting students.)
Wouldnt look good when the BSA drags out dad cause he used Word to write his report because his laptop battery drained out
and that will be presented as evidence that the majority of Americans dont want Microsoft to be punished for any illegal activities that never took place ..
dvNull
Good idea ... i have about 14-15 CD-Rs full of GPL'd software, my own data backups etc, backups of software CDs that I own legally.
Maybe we should organise a RIAA-royalty refund day for all the CD-Rs which DIDNT get used to record ANY music on it.
Also why should the RIAA get money when i record MY Music on it i.e stuff which I composed?
Dont forget that when you get a computer with Windows nowadays, you dont even get a CD to install. Its either the OS+1000 unneeded applications or buy it seperately.
.. cant do it..
Lets say the machine dies and I want to use that Windows license that I have on another machine. Nope
Running Linux at the very least saves you headaches of being in license compliance.
Uhmmm I manage 40 or so users on a mixed NT/*nix network by myself.
We bought 2 copies of Office X for the 2 Powerbooks we have at work and while reading the description on the back of the box I found something funny.
.. i never thought Microsoft would tout Unix as stable on ANY of their products.
Office X brings you the power of Office, with the simplicity of the Mac on the stability of Unix.
Funny
Actually .. yes and no ..
It was called Star Wars when it was released. In the opening credits it said: Chapter 4: A new Hope
dvNull
Mail is port 25
/etc/services if you want to know what each port is for
Just check
I am switching to DSL as we speak. Still have my attbi up till end of the month and DSL is also active now so all a matter of couple days before I am completely switched over.
Wow ... So the fact that I am using my Hercules Prophet card here in Linux is just a figament of my own imagination ....
better OpenGL support?
Either you didnt read the DRI docs or use a modern distro which supports OpenGL pretty well on more than a few cards or was just bad luck . i know had some headaches when I first started to setup dri (XF86 cvs)
OpenGL supported cards are:
Matrox G400,G450,G550
nVidia TNT and above
3dfx Voodoo3 and above (OpenGL w. Glide)
Radeon, Rage128
Except for the nVidia all the other cards are supported by XFree86 natively. nVidia has its own binary drivers (best supported by games).
A default install of Mandrake sets up DRI for you where you can play Quake3 w/o problem if you have a DRI supported card. I played Q3, Q2, Q1, Tribes2 (after the Matrox Multitexturing patch), Unreal Tournament on my G400 MAXX. NO problems
Instead of dragging our feet with RPM and all its drawbacks, why not just move distributions over to dpkg/apt/DEB management like Debian, or FreeBSD-style ports?
;)
Have you checked out Gentoo lately ? Gentoo has freebsd style ports with dependency checking and fake installs etc
It went down at 6:42:44 this morning. Thank god for timestamping on xchat ;)
dvNull
They arent incompetent, they just dont give a damn about you.
;)
Trick is to go to DMVs in smaller suburbs than the big huge one in the closest metropolis. In smaller towns customer service still exists
dvNull
Okay I'll bite ..
Why exactly is non-microsoft software so scary in a workplace? Cause it isnt Microsoft ? Jeezus are we back to the If you buy IBM you dont get fired days ?
What does an average person use at his/her workplace? Most of the companies I have worked at it was Office. And for most of the work required StarOffice, WordPerfect will work fine. At the past 4 companies I worked at there were maybe a total of 5 documents which used MS Office centric Macros. When you open an Excel document in StarOffice you do preserve the look'n'feel and all the formulae. With Word you keep the formatting and embedded pictures etc when you open it in WP or StarWriter. Agreed filters *could* improve more but its getting there.
The last company I worked at was a total Microsoft shop, with myself and a few ppl using Linux with Star Office 5.1. We were able to do all of our work w/o any incompatibilities. The whole myth that if you dont use Microsoft products can make your workplace miserable is total crap.
The reason Linux would be great for the schools is that more schools will get more benefits through money saved from licensing etc.
1.1 billion dollars worth of stuff ?
.. if they were never ever going to charge licensing fees again for these schools, and provide free software updates for ever, THEN I would believe they are trying to do something for the children.
C'mon
I have a question for you: Lets say I make people on my street give me protection money r I threaten to beat the crap out of them, then donate 10% to a school, does that make me ok ?