On Thu, 2005-09-29 at 15:02, Mike McCarty wrote:
Problems happen all the time. Why is this one newsworthy? If someone made such a big deal out of every Windows BSOD there wouldn't be room to publish anything else? The problem could almost certainly have been fixed as well by replacing the problematic hardware (even if the problem is in the Linux driver it will be fixed by using something different). Would it still be a big news item: "PC crashes,owner buys replacement!"?
The point is fourfold:
(1) RHEL is PAID TO CARE
Some PC's crash. I'm sure everyone at RHEL feels bad about that. Others run for years running the same software.
(2) MS software ran, and RHEL did not, so
MS has some cozy arrangements with hardware vendors and may very well include code to work around specific bugs in specific hardware that is not disclosed to the public. In fact I'd pretty much bet on it. Is it the hardware vendor's fault or RHEL's that the same workarounds haven't been disclosed in open source drivers? Or is it the customer's fault for not picking more dependable hardware?
(3) the customer left for greener pastures, and (4) RHEL can expect more of the same...
Except from people whose hardware doesn't crash, which is most of them. The problem may very well be something in the linux device drivers but the point is that it isn't reproducible which is why it shouldn't be news. I've been through that myself with a box that would crash under load about every other week but nothing I tried would cause it to happen predictably. I moved the same software to a different box and went on with life. And they probably could have done the same.