Re: [ossig] Linux jobs in .my! a private reply

[Dinesh Nair <dinesh@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 30/10/2004 15:27 Colin Charles said the following:
> Agreed. I'm guessing this was a private reply, but oh well ;-)

no it wasn't. i wrote it /for/ public consumption. siapa makan cili et al. ;)

> I'd like to pick your brain a little further on that. Box pushers... Is
> a broad definition:
> 	a company that sells Linux "services", i.e. they integrate Red Hat
> Linux on a box from HP/IBM and probably install the company's network

"integrate" redhat ? that's still a box pusher. they've not done anything 
other than perhaps sticking in an install CD and hitting enter thru all the 
prompts. and yes, there're many box pushers for sun, ibm, hp et al. that's 
been the hallmark of the malaysian ICT industry for the past 10 years.

> Do we have any companies in Malaysia, that not only push out boxes of
> Red Hat, on IBM boxes, but also provide bug fixes (a new RPM, because
> everyone here knows Red Hat sucks at providing rpms :P), enhancements

that's a service ? heck, i'd bloody expect that as the default in so far as 
it relates to bug fixes and security vulnerabilities. but then too many of 
these "systems integration" companies don't even do this.

> (in a simple form, let's say with an OpenOffice.org macro), simple
> custom applications (say, in gtk+/python) or even custom web stuff (like
> an intranet PHP-based time scheduler)? I.e. a _true_ services company
> [1] ?

these are the minority, and my "gems" reference was to them. even so, it's 
still quite low down the value chain to be of any note from an 
international perspective.

> Let's not even get into training. The amount of firms that can "lie"
> their way thru about knowing open source program X is scary. I've seen
> faxes from companies with "an RHCE on board", who will train you. Give

while there are good RHCEs, there're many who may know what command to type 
but lack any understanding of the base system. things like tcp/ip, 
filesystems (inodes, fsck requirements, journalling et al) should be a 
prerequisite base. and yes, this will eventually lead back to a discussion 
about the education system, but that's been beaten to death.

-- 
Regards,                           /\_/\   "All dogs go to heaven."
dinesh@alphaque.com                (0 0)    http://www.alphaque.com/
+==========================----oOO--(_)--OOo----==========================+
| for a in past present future; do                                        |
|   for b in clients employers associates relatives neighbours pets; do   |
|   echo "The opinions here in no way reflect the opinions of my $a $b."  |
| done; done                                                              |
+=========================================================================+


---------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message