Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 11 Apr 1998 19:45:40 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>
To:        FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>, FreeBSD Hackers <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>, newbies@freebie.lemis.com
Subject:   Re: SPAM: Commercial support for FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.95.980411194143.4937B-100000@current1.whistle.com>
In-Reply-To: <19980411144425.64484@freebie.lemis.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I've been thinking of doing this myself for a couple of years.
But I've had too much 'real FreeBSD work' to push too hard on the idea.

julian (E)


On Sat, 11 Apr 1998, Greg Lehey wrote:

> Sorry for the spam.  This will be the only message I send to these
> lists--please respect the Reply-To: header and follow up either to
> chat@FreeBSD.org or supporters@nanyang-computer.com.
> 
> One of the points raised in the recent flurry of messages about more
> visibility for FreeBSD is the question of support.  We've discussed
> this at length before, but somehow the discussions gradually sickered
> away and we were no closer to a solution.
> 
> A company I do a lot of work for, Nan Yang Computer Services Ltd., is
> interested in providing commercial support for FreeBSD.  They're a
> *very* low-profile company in England, and they'll expect to be
> involved mainly in the billing.  This means that the people they're
> looking for have to do just about everything else themselves, more
> like consultants than employees.
> 
> With this background, I'd like to solicit discussion on the subject.
> I've set up a mailing list supporters@nanyang-computer.com.  Sign up
> in the traditional manner: send mail to majordomo@nanyang-computer.com
> with the text 'subscribe supporters' in the message body.
> 
> My intention at this stage is to discuss to following topics:
> 
> 1.  How to set up a world-wide commercial support organization for
>     FreeBSD.  One of the things that I expect to be of great advantage
>     is that the people involved will be accessible via the Internet,
>     so it should be possible to provide 24x7 coverage.  In keeping
>     with Nan Yang's low-key image, I don't envisage any commercial
>     premises for the support people: they will all be located wherever
>     it suits them.
> 
> 2.  What support to offer.  The obvious choices are:
> 
>     - first-level user support ("how do I attach an image to a mail
>       reply?")
> 
>     - defect support ("My machine just said "panic: not enough foos"
>       and rebooted.  What do I do?").
> 
>     - programming support ("I've just updated my Yoyodyne frobulator
>       to the new, improved YYD-64.  Can you write a driver for me,
>       please?")
> 
>     - Education.
> 
>     This is by no means an exhaustive list.
> 
> 3.  What to charge.
> 
> 4.  How to sell the concept to potential customers.
> 
> I've copied -questions and -newbies on this message.  I don't expect
> many of the people on those lists to want to join in, but you could be
> concerned that this might mean the end of free support on the
> -questions list.  I don't think you need to be worried.  I suspect it
> *will* change things on the list, but I don't see any reason to expect
> that it will make things worse.
> 
> I'd prefer that as much of the discussion as possible happens on
> supporters@nanyang-computer.com (it's a no-obligation signup :-).  If,
> for some reason, you don't want to do that, please follow up in
> FreeBSD-chat.
> 
> Greg
> 
> --
> See complete headers for address and phone numbers
> finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
> 


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.3.95.980411194143.4937B-100000>