From owner-freebsd-newbies Sun Jun 25 6:57:46 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from slkcpop4.slkc.uswest.net (mail.slkc.uswest.net [206.81.128.4]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BA88A37B6B4 for ; Sun, 25 Jun 2000 06:57:42 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jswarner@uswest.net) Received: (qmail 1291 invoked by alias); 25 Jun 2000 13:57:39 -0000 Delivered-To: fixup-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG@fixme Received: (qmail 1277 invoked by uid 0); 25 Jun 2000 13:57:37 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO uswest.net) (63.224.106.80) by mail.slkc.uswest.net with SMTP; 25 Jun 2000 13:57:37 -0000 Message-ID: <39560EF4.C3383FB3@uswest.net> Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 07:53:56 -0600 From: Joe Warner X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.73 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Giorgos Keramidas Cc: freebsd newbies Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs CISCO References: <3954BAF5.29652D7B@uswest.net> <20000624182238.A808@hades.hell.gr> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------5C1166BF0816A3C4F03E37EE" Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org --------------5C1166BF0816A3C4F03E37EE Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Giorgos Keramidas wrote: > On Sat, Jun 24, 2000 at 07:43:17AM -0600, Joe Warner wrote: > > If you can take an old 386 or 486, install FreeBSD on it and turn it > > into a cost effective,secure and highly configurable router, why then do > > company's continue to pay the big bucks for CISCO routers? > > FreeBSD is an open source solution to the problem. CISCO's routers are > supported by a commercial company. All the reasons that apply to the > question "Why do companies still use closed source solutions, when we > have {Free,Net,Open}BSD and Linux?" can be applied to this question too. > > Oh, and then there is support. I myself, being a FreeBSD user for > almost a year now, know that the support from the BSD lists and the web > sites dedicated to FreeBSD is excellent. What IT people want though is > a company, a brand, a name that they can write in their agendas beside a > phone number and rest in peace that when they have a problem, they will > call that phone and get support. I am not arguing for IT people here, I > strongly disagree with the way they take some decisions. But this is a > fact, and I can not pretend that it does not happen. > > Another good reason is that CISCO's routers are dedicated machines built > exactly with their role sas routers in mind. FreeBSD will be usually > installed on a general purpose PC, and someone ought to decide what > hardware to choose, etc. etc. All these decisions have been made for > their customers by CISCO, and the time and research this saves them is > what CISCO's customers pay the major bucks for. > > As an example consider this case. When you buy a CISCO 2500 router, you > don't have to worry if it's IDE controller supports the UDMA hard-disk > that you bought from your vendor. In fact, apart from some simple > checks, you don't have to worry about hardware incompatibilities, and > other suchs beasts, at all.- Yeah but isn't this what NetBSD is for? And > also, doesn't the fact that most IT managers believe that you get what you > pay for? In other words they might be thinking: "How can installing a free > OS on one of our old 386s or 486s be a good solution?" "Historically, > software that is free can't be that good." "We need to pay more for a brand > name solution and the support that comes with it, and since it's covered > under the support contract, if anything goes wrong, we only have to contact > one entity for help." In response to this kind of thinking, if a company's > main concern is support, what about the Technical Support Programs currently > being offered by BSDI? > http://www.BSDI.COM/services/support/freebsd-programs/ > > > Ciao. > > -- > Giorgos Keramidas, < keramida @ ceid . upatras . gr > > For my public key: finger keramida@ceid.upatras.gr --------------5C1166BF0816A3C4F03E37EE Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit  

Giorgos Keramidas wrote:

On Sat, Jun 24, 2000 at 07:43:17AM -0600, Joe Warner wrote:
> If you can take an old 386 or 486, install FreeBSD on it and turn it
> into a cost effective,secure and highly configurable router, why then do
> company's continue to pay the big bucks for CISCO routers?

FreeBSD is an open source solution to the problem.  CISCO's routers are
supported by a commercial company.  All the reasons that apply to the
question "Why do companies still use closed source solutions, when we
have {Free,Net,Open}BSD and Linux?" can be applied to this question too.

Oh, and then there is support.  I myself, being a FreeBSD user for
almost a year now, know that the support from the BSD lists and the web
sites dedicated to FreeBSD is excellent.  What IT people want though is
a company, a brand, a name that they can write in their agendas beside a
phone number and rest in peace that when they have a problem, they will
call that phone and get support.  I am not arguing for IT people here, I
strongly disagree with the way they take some decisions.  But this is a
fact, and I can not pretend that it does not happen.

Another good reason is that CISCO's routers are dedicated machines built
exactly with their role sas routers in mind.  FreeBSD will be usually
installed on a general purpose PC, and someone ought to decide what
hardware to choose, etc. etc.  All these decisions have been made for
their customers by CISCO, and the time and research this saves them is
what CISCO's customers pay the major bucks for.

As an example consider this case.  When you buy a CISCO 2500 router, you
don't have to worry if it's IDE controller supports the UDMA hard-disk
that you bought from your vendor.  In fact, apart from some simple
checks, you don't have to worry about hardware incompatibilities, and
other suchs beasts, at all.- Yeah but isn't this what NetBSD is for?  And also, doesn't the fact that most IT managers believe that you get what you pay for?  In other words they might be thinking: "How can installing a free OS on one of our old 386s or 486s be a good solution?"  "Historically, software that is free can't be that good."  "We need to pay more for a brand name solution and the support that comes with it, and since it's covered under the support contract, if anything goes wrong, we only have to contact one entity for help."  In response to this kind of thinking, if a company's main concern is support, what about the Technical Support Programs currently being offered by BSDI?  http://www.BSDI.COM/services/support/freebsd-programs/


 
 

Ciao.

--
Giorgos Keramidas, < keramida @ ceid . upatras . gr >
For my public key: finger keramida@ceid.upatras.gr

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