From owner-freebsd-chat Sat Jun 7 01:24:45 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id BAA05945 for chat-outgoing; Sat, 7 Jun 1997 01:24:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu (we-refuse-to-spy-on-our-users@ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu [128.52.46.64]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA05940 for ; Sat, 7 Jun 1997 01:24:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: by ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu (8.8.5/8.6.12GNU) id EAA06832; Sat, 7 Jun 1997 04:11:28 -0400 Date: Sat, 7 Jun 1997 04:11:28 -0400 Message-Id: <199706070811.EAA06832@ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu> From: "Joel N. Weber II" To: michaelv@MindBender.serv.net CC: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, stefan@exis.net, pgiffuni@fps.biblos.unal.edu.co, jdd@vbc.net, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <199706070723.AAA01292@MindBender.serv.net> (michaelv@MindBender.serv.net) Subject: Re: Exchange vs. Notes x-url: http://www.red-bean.com/~nemo x-attribution: nemo x-foobar: The attention span of a computer is only as long as its power cord. Sender: owner-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Date: Sat, 07 Jun 1997 00:23:19 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" On the other hand, the places where Exchange shines, are medium sized companies to mega corporations, where commercial support is not only preferred, but often required. Commercial support can exist for software in which the users have the freedom to modify and share the program. Cygnus Solutions (http://www.cyclic.com) and Cyclic Software (http://www.cyclic.com) are examples. Anyway, in my experience, you get better `support' when you deal with the people who are hackers because they love hacking than the support you get that you are promised when you buy a commerical product. Commerical support people usually aren't especially knowlegeable, and they usually just plain don't care. And don't believe MS is going to ignore the ISP market forever. On the other hand, what they develop will most likely be significantly cheaper than commercial Unix solutions, but will still not be free. I know some ISPs that think NT is a Good Thing. In fact, my school converted its webpages from a Unix system to Notes on NT, and broke access from lynx in the process. There's some percieved feature that was gained in the process, but I can't figure out what it is. The reality though is that most ISPs know what they're doing, and so they'll chose something sane: some version of Unix. Those big corporations are the ones where the clueless management makes the choices.