Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 23:29:19 -0500 From: Paul Mather <paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: Anthony Atkielski <atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr> Subject: Re: Instead of freebsd.com, why not... Message-ID: <1108182559.37129.44.camel@zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org> In-Reply-To: <20050212025509.93CAD16A4CF@hub.freebsd.org> References: <20050212025509.93CAD16A4CF@hub.freebsd.org>
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On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 03:54:27 +0100, Anthony Atkielski
<atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC writes:
>
> > This is also ridiculous. No CEO or CIO is going to give a RAT's
> ASS
> > about what is said in a mailing list about a particular product.
>
> Probably. But the problem is that there is nothing else with FreeBSD.
> If you want support, you post to a mailing list, and hope that someone
> answers you without abusing you or flying off the handle. You cannot
> call a toll number and have a cool-headed professional walk through your
> issue and solve the problem.
If you want that type of support, you might want to try one of the links
under the "Vendors" section of www.freebsd.org.
You can't expect to *rely* on timely support or solutions to your
FreeBSD problems from the FreeBSD mailing lists (or even the FreeBSD
developers), but you do have a reasonable expectation of receiving
effective tech support from a vendor from which you are buying a FreeBSD
solution (or contracting for FreeBSD support of same).
If you can't find a vendor that provides the level of support you assess
you need, then you'll have to look at another OS. That's just one of
those harsh realities. Although plenty of people do manage well with
just the mailing lists and *BSD Web sites for support, it's inaccurate
to suggest that's the *only* avenue of support.
> The Web site actually looks pretty amateurish compared to the
> competition. It screams "shareware hobbyist" rather than "enterprise
> solutions center."
The operating system is one thing; a certain level support is another.
That's Free/Open Source software for you. If the freely available help
and support does not meet the comfort zone of you or your company,
you'll have to pay someone to get it into that zone. That's where the
niche of the entries found under the "Vendors" section of the
www.freebsd.org Web site fits in. This applies pretty much across the
board in my experience, whether it's *BSD or the many Linux
distributions. Even OS vendors providing "enterprise solutions" will
require you to pay for support. You can't download the freebie and
expect 24-hour call-out support. :-)
> > But we are talking about a cross section of user's in unofficial
> > channels. That does not mean a thing to these people.
>
> It does when that's the only thing they can see.
Then they should learn to scroll down a bit and follow hyperlinks. ;-)
Cheers,
Paul.
--
e-mail: paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
--- Frank Vincent Zappa
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