Thank you!

[Paul Schmehl]

--On Friday, January 14, 2005 10:32:08 PM +0100 Anthony Atkielski 
<atkielski.anthony at wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>
> This is, IMO, the single greatest obstacles to using FreeBSD in
> corporate and mission-critical environments, and it's the main reason
> why I'd be extremely hesitant about recommending FreeBSD in such
> environments, unless the organization in question has highly qualified
> in-house technicians to support the OS.  You need someone to fix the OS
> urgently if a serious problem develops, and developers who get all pouty
> and stop answering the phone if you don't constantly say good things
> about their work are dangerously unreliable for support.
>
Not to pick a nit...well, ok...to pick a nit...developers do not support 
systems.  Support organizations do.  If you're going to be using FreeBSD in 
a corporate environment then you need to find a good *support* company that 
can backstop your local admins.  *Then*, if a problem arises, the support 
company can deal with the developers.

Linux is a good example.  Entire companies have arisen merely for the 
purpose of supporting the code that's written by Torvald's et. al. 
Torvalds doesn't support "Linux".  He works with the kernel developers.

Another example - I doubt a single developer who's ever written a line of 
code for MS has handled a support call.  I wouldn't expect them to. 
They're developers.  MS has an entire support team for that (they can 
afford it, of course.)

So, complaining that the developers don't have the right attitude is a bit 
off the mark.  Find a local company that is *committed* to supporting 
FreeBSD, and you will find the same level of support you get from RH, MS, 
or anyone else in the business.  The only difference is, support is 
"disconnected" from development in the FreeBSD model whereas it's one and 
the same company with MS.
>
> Of course, this is true for several flavors of UNIX, not just FreeBSD.
> It tends to militate against open-source software generally. Proprietary
> solutions cost a fortune, but their publishers won't stomp off in a huff
> just when you need them most.
>
Nor would any *decent* support company.

Paul Schmehl (pauls at utdallas.edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu