[CentOS] link to "commercial support" page isn't really helpful

Clint Dilks clintd at scms.waikato.ac.nz
Mon Jun 22 00:24:52 UTC 2009


Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Jun 2009, Karanbir Singh wrote:
>
>   
>> On 06/22/2009 12:32 AM, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>>     
>>>    again, no, i'm *not* the right person.  i'm not a centos
>>> developer and, therefore, i have no idea what options the
>>> developers might be looking at in terms of support channels.
>>>       
>> lets assume for a minute, that there is no real 'endorsement' or
>> 'commercial support venue' that the CentOS developers are
>> considering - What would then be the reasons to choose CentOS ?
>>     
>
>   i may not have time to address this a lot more this evening as i'm
> hanging out at logan airport waiting to board my plane.  but don't
> conflate the two issues here.
>
>   the first issue is:  why choose centos?  and i can certainly address
> that.  it's easy to show that it's a good product and why.  i have no
> difficulty with that.
>
>   the second (separate) issue is: where does one get centos support?
> and i *don't* know how to answer that.  a previous poster listed a
> number of places: wiki, mailing lists, IRC.  which is all well and
> good, but will mean *nothing* to a large company whose only concern
> is:  "if something goes horribly, horribly wrong, who do i call to
> demand to fix it?"  that's all they care about -- someone to yell at.
> they're not going to accept that they should start joining mailing
> lists or hanging out on IRC chats.
>
>   i can say that *i* could try to handle it, but a suitably large
> company won't find that acceptable.  they'll probably want something
> more substantial in the way of support.
>
>   anyway, i'm starting to repeat myself so i'll give it more thought
> and see what else i can come up with.
>
> rday
> --
>
> ========================================================================
> Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
>
>         Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.
>
> Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
> Linked In:                             http://www.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
> Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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>   
Hello,

I think the point here is simple.

If you are building a Business case for Linux Systems then you have a 
few choices. 

1. Only present them with Commercial Linux Alternatives (of which there 
are now a number of choices)

2.  Explain the philosophy behind open source  and  the Free Software 
Movement (Clearly noting that the two are different things.  This should 
also cover how community support works.

3. Identify a company that provides commercial support for the Linux 
Distribution that you think best fits the business need and establish a 
relationship with them arranging support contracts and etc.


I have had different situations that have led me to use each one of 
these options, It really is up to the system implementer to work with a 
business and decide what level of risk versus cost is appropriate for 
the project or organization that you are involved with.

Have a nice day :)



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