From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 25 04:50:01 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C158116A4A0 for ; Sun, 25 Jun 2006 04:50:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from chad@shire.net) Received: from hobbiton.shire.net (mail.shire.net [166.70.252.250]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 211AF43D62 for ; Sun, 25 Jun 2006 04:50:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from chad@shire.net) Received: from [67.171.127.191] (helo=[192.168.99.68]) by hobbiton.shire.net with esmtpsa (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) (Exim 4.51) id 1FuMZM-0008yV-ED for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sat, 24 Jun 2006 22:50:00 -0600 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v750) In-Reply-To: <20060625142143.d4af970a.nick@nickwithers.com> References: <20060624215742.N1114@ganymede.hub.org> <20060625142143.d4af970a.nick@nickwithers.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 22:49:59 -0600 To: FreeBSD-Questions Questions X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.750) X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: 67.171.127.191 X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: chad@shire.net X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on hobbiton.shire.net); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Subject: Re: Opinions Wanted: Dell PowerEdge Servers ... ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 04:50:02 -0000 On Jun 24, 2006, at 10:21 PM, Nick Withers wrote: > I tend to think of Dell as a low-end provider that will cobble > together systems based on whatever bits happen to be lying > around (don't think that one PE 2650 is the same as the next!), > which in turn are invariably the cheapest bits available for a > particular job. I've made this sound bad - somewhat > intentionally - but there's certainly a market for cheap over > quality. Just remember that Dell's business model is "lower costs" at all "costs." They have made it a science of driving costs down, mostly by buying subgrade parts and moving their (at least) consumer tech support to areas of the world that have lower costs , and people you cannot understand very well (I have heard better of their enterprise tech support). I personally would never buy a Dell (both personal friends and acquaintances who have had problems as well as the more than average reports you "hear" about them) now, though 8 years ago I had a friend who swore by them -- he was an IT Director for a small company. There is a reason that Apple's Market Cap is equal to or greater than Dells with a 1/4 of the revenue... Not a technical answer. Chad --- Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC Your Web App and Email hosting provider chad at shire.net