Re: [OS:N:] K12 and Red Hat

[Todd Warner <taw redhat com>]

Quick note.

I am sending the OS:N: comments on to appropriate people. There are a
number of issues surrounding minimum purchase orders and that
"magic" $2000.00. I am just a developer, so bear with us until I
get an adequate response.

Here's my take given my limited understanding...

There *is* overhead cost associated with the $2000.00 minimum. Apparently,
processing POs is expensive. BUT! We've run into this before and we are
trying to address it.

Also, to be frank, Red Hat's focus for a long time has been the
Enterprise. Therefore, our processes are not as tuned for smaller
enterprises and entities such as schools. We are working to fix that.
Correction, the folks "upstairs" are working feverously to fix this
problem.

As for not getting a response. Argh! We, as is any business, sometimes
drop the ball and "miss a call". Trust me... we all go ape when we see a
comment that says something like "I sent 5 emails to no response". It
happens. And when it happens once, it is too often.

Anyway... again a disclaimer. I don't speak for the company, but I
forwarded your comments, and these issues are being addressed.

On 6 Mar 2003, Ryan Senior wrote:

> I know exactly how you feel.  However the educational institution that I
> am at is making the switch from Debian to Redhat, for exactly the reason
> of support.  We wanted to purchase a few RHN accounts and ran into
> similar problems that you did with the $2000 minimum purchase for POs
> and we are not able to purchase with anything other than a PO.  I never
> really got a reason as to why this is the case.  The only thing I could
> think of is that maybe it costs Redhat a significant amount of overhead
> to take POs and that they want to make sure that it is for a substantial
> amount so they don't lose money when it goes to the paper pushers.
> 
> However the sales rep that I talked to said that they were trying to
> change this policy, so let's hope that they do!
> 
> By the way, you mentioned APT for Debian, have you looked at
> http://www.freshrpms.net ?  It's APT for Redhat.
> 
> 
> Ryan
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 2003-03-05 at 19:24, David Tisdell wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > I don't know if this is an appropriate place to post
> > this rant but I want to make sure Red Hat hears it as
> > I am incredibly frustrated with them and they sponsor
> > this list.
> > As a company, what are peoples' experiences dealing
> > with Red Hat?  I am seriously considering moving away
> > from Red Hat because I find them so difficult to deal
> > with. As a distribution I really like it and know it
> > better than any of the others.I think the features of
> > Res Hat network are very nice but when you try to
> > purchase anything from Red Hat as an educational
> > institution, they are incredibly unfriendly. In order
> > to use a PO you must be buying at least $2000.00 worth
> > of stuff. I deal with a lot of vendors and virtually
> > all of them take school PO's without a problem no
> > matter what the amount is. I run a few Linux servers;
> > all but one on Red Hat and want to purchase Red Hat
> > Network for them. They are making me jump through many
> > hoops to get it since I am not buying $2000.00 worth.
> > I am considering moving my servers to another
> > distribution such as Debian. The updates you get
> > through Apt-get are free and I don't have to fool
> > around with a company that doesn't want to give me the
> > time of day because I am not an 800 pound gorilla that
> > is going to spend big bucks in one fell swoop. Red Hat
> > has an opportunity to make real inroads into
> > government and education and to take the posture they
> > have seems quite ridiculous. It is a deterrent to
> > schools and small municipalities. I am one of the only
> > K12 open source advocates in my small state but there
> > is a lot of interest in open source. I get queried by
> > colleagues frequently on how to transition to Linux
> > and open source apps. I find Red Hat pays a lot of lip
> > service to doing things for education but their basic
> > purchasing policy is anything but friendly. As my
> > colleagues ask me for recommendations, I think I am
> > going to start talking up other distros despite the
> > fact that Red hat has one of the best organized
> > support systems in the Linux world as they are so
> > unfriendly to the little guys. What are other folks
> > thoughts/experinces?
> > Dave
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
> > http://taxes.yahoo.com/
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Subscription and Archive: https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/open-source-now-list/
> > -
> > For K12OS technical help join K12OSN:
> > <https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn>
> 

-- 
____________
 /odd Warner                                    <taw {redhat,pobox}.com>
          Bit Twiddler - Operation Cheetah Flip - Red Hat Inc.
---------------------gpg info in the message headers--------------------
"It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you've got"
    -Sheryl Crow