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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.easystreet.com!not-for-mail From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com (Ted Mittelstaedt) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sco.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.sys.sgi.misc Subject: Re: What does the user community think? Date: 6 Mar 1997 04:49:36 GMT Organization: Cool Dudes Inc. Lines: 27 Message-ID: <5flid0$dpo$3@easystreet03> References: <331BB7DD.28EC@net5.net> <E6KF4C.pF@stade.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: sunnet.portsoft.com X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.92.6+ Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.sco.misc:36076 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:36613 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:6219 comp.sys.sgi.misc:28865 In article <E6KF4C.pF@stade.co.uk>, aw1@stade.co.uk (Adrian Wontroba) says: > >Basicly, you should evaluate[*], take your choice and pay your money (or >not). With a commercial UNIX, you at least have the get out that if >something goes bad you wave the "we paid for support - provide it" >stick. To be seen waving this could be career-preserving. This is >probably one of the main reasons why so many organisations ignore the >Free Software world - if it goes wrong, and you can't fix it or get it >fixed, there is nobody else to blame. > No, the main reason is so many people out there (like Oracle) supply their Unix software in either binary or object file format for a specific Unix. In any case, there's a number of consultants out there that I could pay that would provide support. Paying 10K for SCO plus 1K for a service contract is more expensive than paying 2K for support on an operating system that costs nothing. In any case, if it does go wrong you can simply say that there is a fix - go and buy SCO. In any case, troubleshooting on PC's often gets reduced to the old: "go and buy newer/different/better hardware, we don't support that platform" after you get beyond the RTFM problems. Most of the technical support I've run into when you give them a problem that is not answered in the manual is their fix is to throw more money at it.