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Re: [ossig] how true is this?



the way i read the article - it was more of a migration problem - 
jumping into something without looking ?? decisions made based on what 
was heard about ??

i know of some linux environments who have had problems with printers 
and updates - it is not going to go away too soon.

the other problem is expecting that a box will do everything. in 
whatever environment - this is a big problem. usually in my sales pitch 
i usually try to scale expectations into realiasable 'packages'

with respect to diy - he..he.. i and a number of my clients do it all 
the time... one of them even goes as far as doing 70% of the office 
renovation (except air-con and main electricals).



cdemarco@fastmail.fm wrote:

>On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 09:55:44PM -0800, Poh Yang Ming wrote:
>
>  
>
>>how true is this?
>>    
>>
>
>Perhaps  it's   100% true, perhaps  100% lies.    Certainly this  is a
>Microsoft advertisement which it paid  some marketing person to write,
>and is from the point-of-view of a dissatisfied  Linux user who is not
>likely to  give glowing accolades to Linux.   So while Thong  paints a
>sad  picture  of    his    experience,      we must    ignore      the
>Linux-bad-Windows-good message (what  else   do you expect from   a MS
>marketing piece?) and focus on the few objective facts we're given:
>
>
>  "The  company engaged a freelance  Linux service  provider to set up
>  the system."
>
>Since we don't know who this "freelance ...  provider" is, we can only
>speculate as to his   competency and/or honesty.    But as a rule   of
>thumb, a business   will not generally  hire a  freelance  lawyer or a
>freelance plumber,  the job will  go  to somebody with an  established
>business, somebody  who's staked his income on  his ability to provide
>quality work.   I can imagine  many other scenarios where somebody has
>hired a freelance consultant and gotten bitten by the quality of work.
>
>
>  "At a rate of RM250 per visit, that works out to RM6,000 a year. And
>  that figure  would have  been  higher if we had  engaged established
>  Linux services companies rather than freelancers," he adds.
>
>Switching control variables in our experiment, are  we?  You can fault
>your "freelancers" for bad work, or  your "service companies" for high
>prices,  but you can't  mix-n-match.  While it's technically true that
>"250/visit  = 6000/year; therefore   increasing $/visit would increase
>$/year",  it's  possible  that visits/year  will   *decrease*.  Hire a
>better  consultant next  time;  don't blame Sony  if  your teenage son
>can't fix the Playstation.
>
>
>  "Like most SMEs, Peng Hong Hardware is not big enough  to hire an IT
>  specialist. "...it is important  to have a user-friendly IT platform
>  which does not require extensive technical support," says Thong."
>
>1.  So  Thong is himself a "freelance"  IT specialist.  Let's  ask our
>small-business  owner  friends (Tze Meng?     Raja Iskandar?)  whether
>they'd try to, say, re-wire their office for extra  power outlets.  If
>you DIY some critical aspect of your business, about which you have no
>special or professional training, you're  asking for trouble.  Like it
>or not, if you  want quality work  (and if you're riding your business
>on something, you should care enough to  get quality), you have to pay
>for it.
>
>2.    RH9 is    *not* a   "user-friendly   IT  platform",   it   is  a
>general-purpose OS.  MS  WSMB is *not*  a general-purpose OS, it is an
>appliance  designed to provide very   specific functionality to a very
>specific market.  Comparing apples and durian.
>
>
>  "significant  Linux deployment or total switch  from Windows to Linux
>  would be three to four times more expensive and  take three times as
>  long to deploy  as an upgrade from  one version of  Windows to newer
>  Windows releases."
>
>Now we see who  this advertisement is targetting  -  the lazy and  the
>stupid.  Why do  I bother dissecting the  ad any further?  Of *COURSE*
>migration  costs to    Linux  are higher,  that's  why   it's called a
>"migration" and not an "upgrade".  <SIGH>
>
>
>  "[Linux vendors] have  begun charging  hefty premiums for  must-have
>  items such as technical service  and support, product warranties and
>  licensing indemnification."
>
>This  is just getting silly.   When was the last  time MS  (or Sun, or
>IBM, or fscking Proton Edar) gave you free tech support?
>
>
>  "Thong was also unaware that Red Hat 9  was an "end of life" product
>  which was no longer supported  in terms of security alerts, patches,
>  bug-fixes or enhancements.  "The  reseller did not  tell us  that we
>  were running a Linux OS which is not supported anymore.""
>
>Then sue the incompetent fool, or next time don't run your business on
>shit you buy   from some guy  standing  on a  street  corner holding a
>cardboard sign reading "Kompyoouter Speshalist".
>
>
>  
>
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