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

[Colin Charles <byte@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 2004-10-30 at 17:17 +0800, Dinesh Nair wrote:
> > 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. ;)

Oops, Charles' reply looked private ;-) 

And you used Malay! "Who eats chilli, and others" ?

> > 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.

Yes, yes, I just wanted to define box pushers more clearly :)
(for my ownself, so we are on the same wavelength)

Let's also hope these box pushers use kickstart :)

> > 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.

Let's say (and its purely hypothetical), that you have a Mandrake 8.0
server in production and client refuses to upgrade because well, the
server Just Works(tm). (I chose mandrake because it was recently on the
list, no singling out anyone here)

Now Mandrakesoft don't support the software any longer, and as a company
that offer "systems integration", you ought to provide the new RPM so
that packages on the box gets fixed

A more real world situation here would be folks with Red Hat Linux 8.0
or 9.0 in production, which is generally non-supported (even by Fedora
Legacy - save for 9 iirc)

> > (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.

Of course. From an international perspective, writing a macro will get
you no where. But its providing a service. I don't think the aim of many
is to start the next IBM, or Novell - its just to make a successful
business, expand nationwide, get contracts thru the way, and enjoy
life ;-)

For international recognition, we'd really need Purple Hat BSD :)

> > 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.

Agreed. And don't be so sure of the RHCE exams... I'll tell you an
interesting story the next time we catch up for some amber liquid
-- 
Colin Charles, byte@aeon.com.my
http://www.bytebot.net/
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, 
then you win." -- Mohandas Gandhi


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