[OS:N:] Re: k12 and red hat

[David Tisdell <penguintiz yahoo com>]

Colin, 
My main cause of concern is that Red Hat doesn't want
to sell to schools using a PO unless they are spending
big bucks. I seldom need the support option but I like
to know that it is there if disaster strikes and I
can't solve it on my own. I agree Linux is stable and
usually just runs. 
Prior to my getting very frustrated with Red Hat, I
felt like I wanted to do the right thing and
financially support a product I really liked but they
don't want my institutions money and they are not
going to get any of me personal funds either until
they become more school friendly. Even though you can
download the iso's for free, I don't object to people
trying to make a living and my experience with RHN has
been very good but folks have sent me other options
for keeping my systems up to date and I probably will
use one of them rather than beating my head against a
wall with a company that doesn't want to talk to me. I
really liked the security advisories that RHN provided
and the fact that RHN usually solved package
dependencies for you. I have been through the chains
of dependency hell when trying to update some packages
manually. It is time consuming and not a whole lot of
fun when you have impatient users knocking on your
door.
Dave
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 19:34:30 -0800
> From: Colin Mattoon <cjm2 lewiston com>
> To: open-source-now-list redhat com
> Subject: Re: [OS:N:] K12 and Red Hat
> Reply-To: open-source-now-list redhat com
> 
> On Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:24:40 -0800 (PST)
> David Tisdell <penguintiz yahoo com> wrote:<various
> concerns about
> RedHat support for schools -- which I clipped for
> brevity>
> 
> I'd ask myself this...If I'm running a handful of
> Linux servers, do
> they take so much administrative effort that I
> really need RedHat's
> assistance?
> 
> With, or without, RedHat's help, you still have to
> be the sysadmin. 
> My own experience with Linux (private sector, not a
> school) is that
> there really isn't much for an outside support
> provider to help with.
> 
> And, as an IT guy working for a school in the "Year
> of Our Trashed
> Economy, 2003," you don't have a whole lot of money
> to play with
> anyway.
> 
> So, pick a distribution you like on the basis of
> it's technical
> features and get it for free by downloading it, or
> for a few dollars
> by buying a cheap book with an unofficial download
> version on a CD in
> the back cover.  Go crazy with what you get for free
> and don't worry
> about supporting the company, because you're working
> for an
> educational institution in a country that isn't
> funding your work
> properly in the first place.
> 
> One of the reasons the support model hasn't made a
> bunch of Linux
> companies rich, is that people discover they don't
> need much support
> with an OS as stable as Linux, and once they learn
> enough about Linux
> to deploy it, they can provide their own support.
> 
> Just my thoughts, but I take care of a number of
> Linux servers myself,
> and outside support was one of the things I was
> looking to avoid when
> I chose Linux over the proprietary alternatives.
> 
> Later,
> Colin Mattoon     
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --__--__--
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 08:03:42 -0500
> From: Kevin Cole <kjcole gri gallaudet edu>
> To: open-source-now-list redhat com
> Subject: Re: [OS:N:] K12 and Red Hat
> Organization: Gallaudet Research Institute
> Reply-To: open-source-now-list redhat com
> 
> 
> --GZVR6ND4mMseVXL/
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> 
> On Wed, Mar 05, 2003 at 07:34:30PM -0800, Colin
> Mattoon wrote:
> 
> > One of the reasons the support model hasn't made a
> bunch 
=== message truncated ===


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